From NYTimes.com:
Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra (Thursday) Mr. Berger, the composer, conductor and former guiding spirit of the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, N.Y., has set up a new residency for this loosely defined large ensemble, which features astute improvisers like the trumpeter Herb Robertson and the multireedist Peter Apfelbaum. The group, which also features Mr. Berger’s wife and longtime collaborator, the poet and vocalist Ingrid Sertso, will play an open rehearsal at 7:30 p.m., followed by a performance at 9 p.m. At El Taller, 2710 Broadway at 104th Street, third floor, Manhattan, (212) 665-9460, creativemusicfoundation.org, tallerlatino.org; $25, $10 for students; reservations are recommended. (Chinen)
Amir ElSaffar: Maqam, Resonance Quintet (Tuesday) Mr. ElSaffar plays the trumpet, the santoor and a hammered dulcimer and sings in the Iraqi maqam tradition. He leads a hybrid of both of his bands — Safaafir, a maqam ensemble, and the Resonance Quintet, a modern-jazz unit working with nontempered pitch — in this one-nighter, his last performance in New York before a yearlong sabbatical in Egypt. At 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; $10 cover, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen)
Avram Fefer Trio (Thursday) Avram Fefer is an adventurous saxophonist with a taste for bluesy colors. He draws from two recent releases, “Ritual” (Clean Feed) and “Eliyahu” (NotTwo), in this set by his trio, which features Michael Bisio on bass and Chad Taylor on drums. At 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; $10 cover. (Chinen)
The Heavens Atheist Gospel Trombone Choir (Tuesday) Jacob Garchik, a resourceful trombonist with acres of brass-band experience, has a smartly bumptious new album, “The Heavens: The Atheist Gospel Trombone Album” (Yestereve), that celebrates both his deep attraction to gospel music and his sworn allegiance to rationalism. The album features Mr. Garchik exclusively, ingeniously overdubbed — but here, as on an album-release show in Brooklyn a few months ago, he enlists the trombonists Josh Roseman, Curtis Fowlkes and Curtis Hasselbring, along with Brian Drye on baritone horn, Joe Daley on sousaphone and Kenny Wolleson on drums. At 9:30 p.m., Joe’s Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555, joespub.com; $15 cover, with a two-drink minimum. (Chinen)
Oliver Lake 70th Birthday Celebration (Friday and Saturday) Oliver Lake, a multireedist and composer with acres of experience in the self-sustaining avant-garde — he was a founder of both the Black Artists Group in the 1960s and the World Saxophone Quartet in the ‘70s — turned 70 last month, and celebrates with this engagement. On Friday he plays a series of improvised duets with partners including the saxophonists Alex Harding and Jason Marshall, the pianist Orrin Evans and the drummers Pheeroan Ak Laff and Nasheet Waits. On Saturday he leads his big band, stocked with sure-footed players like Mr. Marshall, the saxophonist Darius Jones and the trumpeter Duane Eubanks. At 8 p.m., Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, (917) 267-0363, roulette.org; $15, $10 for students, members and 65+. (Chinen)
Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth (Thursday) With “Deluxe” (Clean Feed), released in 2010, the bassist Chris Lightcap delivered a righteous dispatch from the New York jazz grid, full of streamlined rhythm and stark, suggestive harmony. He explores the same concept with the tenor saxophonists Chris Cheek and Tony Malaby, the pianist Matt Mitchell and the drummer Ches Smith. At 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; $10 cover, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen)
avantmusicnews.com 