The Best Jazz Shows in New York City This Week – 10/15/2012

A good alternative to the CMJ Music Marathon, which colonizes New York this week, here’s a list of jazz shows happening in the city we think you’ll enjoy.

The Heavens Atheist Gospel Trombone Choir
The trombonist Jacob Garchik recorded his beautiful new CD, The Heavens: The Atheist Gospel Trombone Album, by overdubbing individual horn lines alone in his Brooklyn studio. For live shows, however, Garchik has assembled a band, which he’ll bring to Joe’s Pub on Tuesday night. The group includes the trombonists Josh Roseman, Curtis Hasselbring, Jason Jackson and Curtis Fowlkes; Brian Drye on baritone horn; Joe Daley on sousaphone; and Kenny Wollesen on drums.

Tia Fuller
A member of Beyoncé’s all-female touring band, the saxophonist Tia Fuller is also a serious jazz musician, as you can hear on her bright and kinetic fourth album, Angelic Warrior, including her sister, Shamie Royston, on piano; her brother-in-law, Rudy Royston, on drums; and Mimi Jones on bass. They’ll join Fuller on Tuesday night at Jazz Standard, as she heralds her new album’s release. The bassist James Genus and the drummer Terri Lyne Carrington will make guest appearances.

Nicholas Payton XXX
Nicholas Payton is, first and foremost, a trumpeter of formidable talent. But with his XXX band, he also plays Fender Rhodes and piano, making music that draws from straight-ahead jazz, R&B and the ethereal qualities of Miles Davis’s early electric recordings. Payton plays Tuesday through Oct. 20, at Birdland, with the bassist Vincente Archer, the drummer Henry Cole and the percussionist Daniel Sadownick.

Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars
Dizzy Gillespie would have turned 95 this week had he not died in 1993. (He was eleven days older than his musical contemporary Thelonious Monk, who died in 1982.) In honor of the bebop trumpeter, the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars perform a string of shows at Blue Note, Tuesday through Oct. 21. Throughout the week, different musicians–including the trumpeter Terrell Stafford and the reed player Paquito D’Rivera–will augment a core quintet featuring Cyrus Chestnut on piano and Lewis Nash on drums.

Libby York
The soft-toned songstress Libby York has a tender voice that recalls Anita O’Day and Rosemary Clooney. And she’s no stranger to the Metropolitan Room, where she’ll perform, on Friday night, with a quartet featuring John DiMartino on piano, James Cammack on bass, Greg Serge on drums and Warren Vaché on cornet.

Jaleel Shaw Quartet
Every Sunday, jazz vesper services are held at Saint Peter’s Church in Midtown. The alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, who has a beautiful, grainy tone, takes the helm this week with his quartet, including Luis Perdomo on piano, Ben Williams on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums. Admission is free, and as the church’s website says, “everyone is welcome.”