The Jazz Scene: Diana Krall, the Arkestra on Halloween, and more

From one perspective, Don Menza, the musical centerpiece of the upcoming Ocean First Bank Jazz @ The Point jazz festival, is an 80-year-old titan of the tenor saxophone that few have heard of, outside of Europe or the West Coast. If he is known to American audiences at all, it’s through his tenure in drummer Buddy Rich’s big band of 1968, where Menza became known for his astounding cadenza on the oft-requested Channel One Suite, or by way of his stint in the house band of The Tonight Show.

Lack of stateside recognition notwithstanding, Menza graces the jazz festival running in Somers Point, NJ, October 11 through 14. He appears at 9:30pm on Thursday, October 11, at Josie Kelly’s Public House on Somers Point’s Shore Road, still weaving incredibly complex but always swinging tenor saxophone lines, while never losing the thread of the theme or his organic sense of swing. The thoughtful booking of someone like Menza — who, according to the man himself, last visited the area when he appeared with Maynard Ferguson at Pep’s Musical Bar on Broad Street in 1961 — in Somers Point indicates that this is one hip festival.

Other names appearing in various locales throughout the fest include regional sax masters Michael Pedicin Jr. and Larry McKenna as well as the latest incarnation of the refreshing Four Freshmen. For the complete lineup, visit online.

Sellersville stars

Closer to these parts, and one of the many jazz-oriented singing groups influenced by the Freshmen, are veteran swingsters The Manhattan Transfer, who check into the Sellersville Theater on Saturday, October 6, for 5pm and 8pm performances.

At Sellersville on Sunday at 7pm is the popular Madeleine Peyroux. Peyroux has been making quite a splash of late on records and in live performance, but the fact is, she’s quite the veteran and has been selling a load of recordings since her 1996 debut on Atlantic Records. Though she’s been stretching her stylistic wings for the past several years, her singing — tonally and otherwise — still sounds like a modern-day incarnation of Billie Holiday.

Caesars to MontCo

As fine an artist as Peyroux may be, she hasn’t yet broken through to general audiences and isn’t filling casino-sized showrooms. One of the few bona fide jazz artists who can is pianist/singer Diana Krall, who is getting even more press these days in line with the release of her duet album with Tony Bennett. Krall, in all probability, will sell out the showroom of Caesars in Atlantic City on Saturday, October 13, at 9pm as a part of her Turn Up the Quiet tour.

The superb guitarist and vocalist, and easygoing entertainer John Pizzarelli doesn’t concern himself with filling casino showrooms or stadiums. He goes where the audiences — large, small or otherwise — are, whether it’s an intimate jazz room like Center City’s Chris’ Jazz Café or the Science Center Theatre on the Blue Bell campus of Montgomery County Community College, where he’ll perform, with guest vocalist Catherine Russell, on Saturday, October 13, at 8pm.

Arkestra at Johnny Brenda’s

Though the enigmatic and innovative showman named Sun Ra departed the earthly scene in 1993, presumably for intergalactic parts unknown, his one-of-a-kind Arkestra continues playing and touring, with great success, under the energetic and inventive multi-reedman Marshall Allen, now 94 years old. Sure, the space-themed costumes and other showman-like trappings make the Arkestra the perfect attraction for Halloween evening — Wednesday, October 31 at 8pm — at Johnny Brenda’s, but this band continues to invent, reinvent, break new musical ground, and — when the mood hits — swing like the devil.