MONTY ALEXANDER at the Blue Note (through Sept. 8, 8 and 10:30 p.m.). The new album from this Jamaican-born piano eminence is “Wareika Hill: Rastamonk Vibrations,” a collection of classic Thelonious Monk tunes, all recast through a series of rhythmic and dynamic alterations rooted in dub and reggae. Alexander celebrates the record’s release through Sunday with members of the band featured on the album: Wayne Escoffery on tenor saxophone, Andy Bassford on guitar, J. J. Shakur on acoustic bass, Leon Duncan on electric bass, Jason Brown on drums and Karl Wright on drums and percussion.

212-475-8592, bluenote.net

ETIENNE CHARLES BIG BAND at Dizzy’s Club (Sept. 7-8, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). Charles was reared in the musical traditions of his native Trinidad, where he internalized the rhythms, melodies and performance practices of calypso before he was a teenager. Moving to the United States for college, he learned the fundamentals of jazz, then set about combining the languages in a way that felt unforced and organic. He has recently made big strides in this regard, particularly on “Carnival: The Sound of a People, Vol. 1,” an impressive album released this year. Charles — who is also a member of the prestigious SFJazz Collective — has also been working recently with a big band, applying his hybrid musical identity to a classic jazz format. These shows mark that ensemble’s debut on Dizzy’s stage.

212-258-9595, jazz.org/dizzys

JIMMY COBB QUARTET at Smoke (Sept. 5-8, 7 and 9 p.m.). In the newly released documentary “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool,” Cobb remembers the simple directions that Davis gave him when they recorded the classic album “Kind of Blue”: “Just swing,” Davis said. It was the right advice; Cobb’s firmly anchored swing feel gave the spare melodies and wandering improvisations of Davis’s sextet a sense of power and assurance, helping make “Kind of Blue” the most popular album in jazz history. Cobb is 90 now, but he retains his effortlessly persuasive touch, as shown on his new record, “This I Dig of You,” out last month on Smoke Sessions. He celebrates its release this weekend at the club affiliated with the label, alongside the personnel from the recording: Peter Bernstein on guitar, Harold Mabern on piano and John Webber on bass.

212-864-6662, smokejazz.com

BILLY LESTER at Jazz Standard (Sept. 6, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). For over 40 years, this quietly distinctive pianist has lived and taught in Yonkers, N.Y., while hardly ever venturing into the city to perform. In that time, Lester (who studied in the 1960s with Sal Mosca, an acolyte of the influential improviser and composer Lennie Tristano) has refined a melody-driven style that he uses to disassemble and reinvent tunes from jazz’s standard repertoire. The boutique label Newvelle Records recently released a disarming new album, “From Scratch,” meant as a belated public introduction to Lester’s talents. Newvelle’s artists — most of them far better known than Lester — have been performing all week at Jazz Standard; the big show to catch is this one, Lester’s first in Manhattan in a dozen years, featuring the heavyweight rhythm section from the album: the bassist Rufus Reid and the drummer Matt Wilson.

212-576-2232, jazzstandard.com

‘THE MUSIC OF SONNY ROLLINS’ at the 75 Club (Sept. 6-7, 8 and 10 p.m.). In the 1950s and ’60s, Rollins’s lyrical, buoyant playing established him as one of the most respected tenor saxophonists in jazz history. By now he has retired from performing, but this weekend a number of his acolytes will convene to celebrate his work at the 75 Club, a speakeasy-style room in an elegant Tribeca townhouse. A septet will play each night; on Sunday the tenor saxophonist and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master George Coleman will appear as a special guest.

the75clubnyc.com



RAJNA SWAMINATHAN at Roulette (Sept. 12, 8 p.m.). A young virtuoso on the mridangam — a two-headed drum used in South Indian classical music — Swaminathan writes and performs works that subtly expand on the Carnatic tradition. Her band Rajas is full of young contemporary-jazz musicians, but their sound is unlike any other on the scene today. The group released a well-received debut, “Of Agency and Abstraction,” this year, and at Roulette a five-person iteration (with María Grand on tenor saxophone, Miles Okazaki on guitar, Stephan Crump on bass and Utsav Lal on piano) will play music from the album, as well as some of Swaminathan’s newer compositions.

917-267-0368, roulette.org

GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO