KATE GENTILE’S FIND LETTER X AND THE CHRIS DINGMAN TRIO at the Owl Music Parlor (Aug. 10, 8 p.m.). Gentile, a drummer, composes music that is terse and precise, but a flash of excitement arrives when it starts to come undone — when she and her band mates decide to ditch tempo and tonality and let each note they play go loose from the piece’s structure. At the Owl, she will pry at the limits of a few recent compositions with her quartet, featuring the saxophonist and clarinetist Jeremy Viner, the pianist Matt Mitchell and the bassist Kim Cass. Dingman, a vibraphonist, is also on the bill; he will explore his own book of harmonically adventurous tunes in a trio, featuring Chris Tordini on bass and Allan Mednard on drums.

718-774-0042, theowl.nyc

LOUIS HAYES QUINTET at Dizzy’s Club (Aug. 13-14, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). Hayes’s history at the center of jazz begins in the mid-1950s, when the pianist Horace Silver invited the drummer to join his band in New York. Hayes paid tribute to Silver, who died in 2014, on “Serenade for Horace,” a 2017 album that finds Hayes swinging briskly as he revisits many of the tunes he played in the early years of his career, when he helped define the classic hard-bop sound. He appears here with the vibraphonist Steve Nelson, the tenor saxophonist Abraham Burton, the pianist Anthony Wonsey and the bassist John Webber.

212-258-9595, jazz.org/dizzys

BILLY MARTIN’S WORLDBEATS RESIDENCY at the Sultan Room (Aug. 14, 9 p.m.). One-third of the psych-funk supergroup Medeski Martin and Wood, Martin, a drummer and percussionist, rarely misses an opportunity to try out his omnivorous musical approach in a fresh context. This summer and fall, he is playing every second Wednesday of the month at the Sultan Room, each time with a different group of experimental musicians, always under the Worldbeats Residency name. This month his guests are the pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, the bassist Shahzad Ismaily and the bassist and oud player Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz.

thesultanroom.com



MUSIC FOR HUMAN RIGHTS at ShapeShifter Lab (Aug. 11, 5 p.m.). Four noted contemporary jazz bandleaders are on the bill at this show, which aims to raise awareness on behalf of migrants detained at the United States’ southern border; proceeds from ticket sales will go to the American Civil Liberties Union. The drummer Antonio Sanchez will lead a quintet, the tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens and the pianist Shai Maestro will each bring a trio, and the pianist Aaron Parks will perform a solo set. Judy Rabinovitz, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, will deliver remarks.

shapeshifterlab.com



ERIC REED at Smoke (Aug. 9-10, 7, 9 and 10:30 p.m.). A skillful straight-ahead pianist with a laid-back attack, Reed is a perennial presence at Smoke, and this spring he released “Everybody Gets the Blues,” his second album for the club’s affiliated label, Smoke Sessions. The record includes covers of jazz standards by John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard and others, as well as a few Reed tunes in a similar vein, inspired by jazz luminaries. Joined here by the tenor saxophonist Jon Beshay, the bassist Clovis Nicolas and the drummer Aaron Seeber, Reed will celebrate the 60th anniversary of 1959, widely considered to be jazz’s most watershed year, by playing classic pieces that were released back then.

212-864-6662, smokejazz.com

MICHAEL THOMAS QUARTET at the Jazz Gallery (Aug. 14-15, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). Young and unassuming, Thomas, an alto saxophonist, is gaining recognition on the New York scene simply by virtue of his talents. He writes energetic, tuneful music for both combos and large ensembles (he is a leader of the Terraza Big Band), but he hasn’t put forth a new album under his own name since 2011. That may soon change: These shows will be recorded by Giant Step Arts, a nonprofit organization devoted to presenting new jazz works in concert and capturing those performances on record. Thomas’s band here includes Jason Palmer on trumpet, Hans Glawischnig on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums.

646-494-3625, jazzgallery.nyc

GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO