It has been an odd few weeks at the Smithsonian Jazz Café. In spite of a succession of fine performances and packed houses, the management has suddenly decided that the venue is not profitable and announced that it may have to close, possibly as soon as September. It is a puzzling development. The Café opened six years ago, somewhat incongruously perhaps, in the American Museum of Natural History. With the Café already situated in the building next to the Imax Theater whi

Last year, in a concert review on this site, I wrote "Jazz lovers would do well to check out Imani Winds." Their recent concert performances continue to reinforce this idea. I caught them again recently at the University of Baltimore's Student Center. Again, I should emphasize that this is not a jazz ensemble. It is a classic woodwind quintet performing written music. But their approach, their choice of material, their overall mode of presentation, is going a long way to build bridges bet

As another event to compensate for the postponement of this year's East Coast Jazz Festival, the Fish Middleton Jazz Scholarship Fund (FMJS) organized a President's Day open house in co-operation with the Music Center at Strathmore (www.strathmore.org). A fine arts complex and concert facility located one-half mile outside the Capital Beltway in North Bethesda, Maryland, Strathmore "provides affordable, accessible, multi-disciplinary arts programming in the Mansion at

Dr. Sais Kamalidiin, Assistant Professor of Flute at Howard University and director of the Flutes of Howard University continues to present his ensemble, with a guest artist, in his annual Flute Fete. Since 2001, the event has featured: Yusef Lateef, Sherry Winston, Frank Wess, David "Fathead" Newman, Dave Valentin, and Harold Jones. This year's Fête was rather special, as the guest artist was celebrating a return to performance after a lengthy lay-off. James Newton remains slig

Having already presented McCoy Tyner's sextet and the Maria Schneider Orchestra, the 2006/7 jazz concert series at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Performance Center has focused on a balance between composition and instrumental performance. The Stefon Harris ensemble which appeared February 11th exemplified that balance as well as anyone could. Harris presented sections from recent commissions and his most recent CD, African Tarantella: Dances With Duke. Working with his