From NYTimes.com:
Claudia Quintet (Thursday) This precisely calibrated but willfully spontaneous chamber-jazz group led by John Hollenbeck, a drummer and composer, makes the layering of timbre a suspenseful event. The ensemble — with Chris Speed on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Matt Moran on vibraphone, Red Wierenga on accordion and Drew Gress on bass — will be playing music from a forthcoming album. At 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, 212-989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; $8 includes one drink. (Chinen)
Kris Davis Trio (Saturday) The pianist Kris Davis shares an aesthetic of unsettled calm and unhurried revelation with her partners in this trio, the tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and the guitarist Mary Halvorson. They have worked often in a slightly larger group led by Ms. Laubrock, but this will be their debut as a trio. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, 212-989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; $10 cover, $10 minimum. (Chinen)
Jonathan Finlayson and Sicilian Defense (Friday) Jonathan Finlayson is an incisive and often surprising trumpeter, as he has demonstrated in groups led by the daring alto saxophonist Steve Coleman. The band he calls Sicilian Defense features the pianist David Virelles, the guitarist Miles Okazaki, the bassist Keith Witty and the drummer Tyshawn Sorey. At 9 and 11 p.m., the Jazz Gallery at Salt Space, 1160 Broadway, fifth floor, at West 27th Street, 646-494-3625, jazzgallery.org; $22, $10 for members. (Chinen)
Jagged Spheres/Matt Mitchell Quartet (Friday) Jagged Spheres is an improvising chamber trio whose members — the flutist and saxophonist Anna Webber, the pianist Elias Stemeseder (or as circumstances may have it, Teddy Klausner) and the drummer Devin Gray — each do their part to fulfill the prickly fluency suggested by the group’s name. After its 8:15 p.m. performance, a separate set, at 9:30 p.m., will feature Matt Mitchell, a probing and highly proficient pianist, with a quartet featuring the tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Speed, the bassist Chris Tordini and the drummer Dan Weiss. At 8:15 and 9:30 p.m., ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, shapeshifterlab.com; $10. (Chinen)
Tyshawn Sorey Trio (Saturday) Tyshawn Sorey can play the drums not only with gale-force physicality, but also a sense of scale and equipoise. He has lately been focused on composition, so it’s a rare treat to hear him in combo mode, digging in with colleagues like Cory Smythe, on piano, and Chris Tordini, on bass. At 9 and 11 p.m., Jazz Gallery at Salt Space, 1160 Broadway, fifth floor, at West 27th Street, 212-242-1063, jazzgallery.org; $22, $10 for members. (Chinen)
Tri-Centric Music Festival (Thursday through April 19) The Tri-Centric Foundation, organized around the music of the irrepressible avant-garde composer and multireedist Anthony Braxton, is about to unfurl its banner over two four-day stretches of premieres, beginning next Thursday. At the Eyebeam gallery in Chelsea, from Thursday through April 12 from noon to 6 p.m., the saxophonist André Vida will present “Moving Scores,” a three-day installation of animated scores interpreted by a small ensemble. The opening-night program, at 8 p.m. at Roulette in Brooklyn, will include “Hysteresis,” a piece by James Fei for reeds, trombones, bass and analog electronics, and Mr. Braxton’s “Composition No. 46,” in which he’ll preside over a 13-piece ensemble, the Trillium Chamber Players, stocked with perceptive improvisers like the flutist Nicole Mitchell and the saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. A schedule is at tricentricfoundation.org. Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, near Third Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn; Eyebeam, 540 West 21st Street, Chelsea. (Chinen)
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