Fall Stars: Jazz
Big halls: Jazz is more commonly identified with clubs than concert halls, but a handful of big names besides Clarke, Ponty, and Fleck will try filling the latter this season. Madeleine Peyroux comes to the Berklee Performance Center Sept. 27. The Bad Plus will be at the Somerville Theatre Oct. 1, with the Boston-based experimental trio Color and Talea opening. Wynton Marsalis will bring a small ensemble to Sanders Theatre Oct. 30. And Jane Monheit will plug a new Christmas-themed CD, ''Jane Monheit Celebrates the Season," at the Berklee Performance Center Dec. 11.
Real Deal Jazz Club & Cafe: Jim Hall and Dave Holland will reprise their magnificent duet sets of last winter for three nights (Nov. 18-20), a blockbuster booking to top off the upstart Real Deal Jazz Club & Cafe's return following a summerlong hiatus. Other Real Deal highlights: The Marta Gomez Group (Oct. 7), Sergio Brandão and Manga Rosa (Dec. 2), Lyambiko (Dec. 3), and ''Christmas With Rebecca Parris" (Dec. 4).
Regattabar: After dabbling heavily in other genres for the past year, the Regattabar seems to be returning to its jazz roots. The R-bar piano should get a good workout this fall, considering the plethora of pianists scheduled: the Wayne Shorter-inspired freedom of Danilo Perez and his trio with Adam Cruz and Ben Street (Sept. 21-22); a record release party for Third Stream legend Ran Blake (Sept. 28); the brilliant standards interpreter Bill Charlap and his standout trio with Peter Washington and Kenny Washington (Nov. 5-6); the locally based Pierre Hurel Trio (Nov. 9); Patricia Barber doubling on vocals and piano with her quartet (Nov. 17-18); and the great Kenny Barron's longstanding trio with fellow vets Ray Drummond and Ben Riley (Nov. 25-26).
Scullers: When it came to jazz instrumentalists, Scullers outshone the local club competition in the first half of 2005. For the fall, the club shifts its focus to singers. Some exceptions: trumpeters Terence Blanchard (Sept. 15-16) and Maynard Ferguson (Nov. 10); the Marsalis brothers' piano-playing patriarch, Ellis Marsalis, in a rare Boston appearance (Oct. 6-7); and Latin jazz great Eddie Palmieri (Oct. 28-30). The many vocalists include Ron Gill (Sept. 21), Tierney Sutton (Sept. 23), Jacqui Naylor (Sept. 27), Cheryl Bentyne (Oct. 4), and Dee Dee Bridgewater (Oct. 14-15), host of National Public Radio's ''Jazz Set With Dee Dee Bridgewater."
