Jazz time-out of the year?

Paquito seem to just want to play; he was set to perform "Wapango" with the Turtle Island String Quartet, for whom he wrote it, at the DEJF's kick-off invitational gala in Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank last night. He's also doing a master class at George Washington University, performing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in an NEA Jazz Masters Concert at the Lincoln Theatre, probably makin' the salsa-meets-jazz jam a bit later the same night at Bohemian Caverns and presenting a free "Vivas Las Americas" concert in honor of the Voice of America with Pan-American born jazz all-stars as the final event, Tuesday Oct. 7. But he's not the whole show, by a longshot. Other jazz heavyweights and contenders on hand include Sonny Fortune, Monty Alexander, Dana Leong, Winard Harper, Buck Hill, Anat Cohen, Michael Bowie -- musicians of style for every taste. Take an evening off, go out, enjoy.

That's what I'll do in NYC on Thursday night, missing the real-time broadcast of the tv sideshow starring Ms. Palin and Mr. Biden (I'll catch it later) in order to hear live new music by pianist Myra Melford with reedist Matana Roberts, guitarist Mary Halvorson and percussionist Harris Eisenstadt  on a double bill at Roulette with reedist-composer Henry Threadgill's band Zooid and Talujon Percussion, a quartet. In another instance of too much rare good stuff happening than I can probably get to in one week, Austin-based singer-improviser Tina Marsh and saxophonist-composer Alex Coke with the Creative Opportunity Orchestra are at Roulette Oct. 4. Rather than simply diverting attention from the news-of-the-moment, the music by these three ensembles is sure to be complicated, previously unheard, and insistent on focusing listeners on what's going down. Our' satisfactions will come from our participation, our working to make sense of what we hear, and is sweeter for our understanding being earned. This kind of listening mirrors the sort of interaction that's typically necessary for new and promising beginnings.