Season highlights: Jazz
Jazz at its most intimate takes place in club settings. So here are a couple of notable fall shows from four of the Hub's leading jazz rooms, plus a roundup of what's in store this fall at the larger concert venues.
Cambridge's newest jazz venue, the Real Deal Jazz Club & Cafe, scored a coup when it booked guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Dave Holland for a three-night duet engagement (Dec. 2-4). The two have recorded together before, and performed a few times in Manhattan and overseas, but this is a first for this town. Later that month, piano legend McCoy Tyner will bring in a new group featuring the woefully underrated alto saxophonist Gary Bartz as his special guest (Dec. 16-19).
There is little in jazz these days that's as satisfyingly elegant as Ron Carter's "Golden Striker" trio with pianist Mulgrew Miller and guitarist Russell Malone, which returns to the Regattabar for two nights later this month (Sept. 29-30). The drumless group's performance at Newport this summer included an especially graceful Miller solo on "TK," but their entire set was among the high points of the festival. Guitar gods will also get a good airing this season under the Regattabar's new management, with Mike Stern coming next month (Oct. 12-13), and Bill Frisell the month after (Nov. 18-20).
The sudden passing of James Williams in July at age 53 was some of the saddest news of the summer. Just this past March he and his group ICU had ushered in Ryles's renewed focus on jazz with a joyously energetic performance. Next month the club will host a two-night tribute to the late pianist, with local standouts Bill Pierce and John Lockwood and Williams's fellow Memphis State University alumnus Mulgrew Miller among those paying homage (Oct. 8-9). Proceeds will go toward establishing a Berklee scholarship in his name. Also worth noting for next month: a sure-to-be-sizzling set from acid-jazz guitar godfather Melvin Sparks (Oct. 2).
The city's closest approximation of a cabaret, Scullers, has a pair of standout vocalists coming in within days of each other later this month, with the sui generis Abbey Lincoln doing a Thursday-Saturday run (Sept. 23-25) followed by a Tuesday one-nighter by Ann Hampton Calloway (Sept. 28). A onetime Tony nominee, Calloway's most familiar original tune -- to TV watchers, anyway -- is the theme song from the popular sitcom "The Nanny." But life's not just a cabaret at Scullers, as pianist Brad Mehldau and violinist Regina Carter will demonstrate in high-profile instrumental sets next month (Mehldau, Oct. 6; Carter, Oct. 14-15).
Big names often require big venues, and no name is bigger in jazz nowadays than Marsalis. Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, with special guest vocalist Dianne Reeves, will open the 
