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Your June Jazz Calendar

Ten top-tier jazz shows to catch this month.


Bassist MonoNeon, of Ghost-Note.   

María Grand
Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola; 6/5 - 6/9; 33 W. 60th St., nr. Broadway, fifth fl.; 212-258-9595

This young Swiss-Argentinian tours frequently with Steve Coleman, stepping up to the mic with a complex tone and a singing quality to her solos. Look to Grand’s four-song suite from last year, TetraWind, for a primer in her tempestuous runs.

Wynton Marsalis
The Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center; 6/7 - 6/9; 33 W. 60th St., nr. Broadway, fifth fl.; 212-258-9829

Bop and controversial statements are Wynton Marsalis’s thing, and he’s provided both in recent weeks. In May, the jazz statesman said that rap is “more damaging than a statue of Robert E. Lee,” despite Kendrick Lamar joining him in the ranks of Pulitzer Prize–winning musicians. At the Rose Theater, Marsalis will premiere his new work The Ever Fonky Lowdown, a big-band composition that explores race in America, almost 25 years after his Pulitzer-winning Blood on the Fields debuted at Lincoln Center.

Makaya McCraven
National Sawdust; 6/8 at 8 p.m.; 80 N. 6th St., nr. Wythe Ave., Williamsburg; 646-779-8455

McCraven’s 2017 Highly Rare found the drummer chopping up his band’s improvisations on a four-track Tascam, merging hip-hop rhythms with the billows of free jazz. This Northside Festival highlight also showcases the Philly-D.C. collective Irreversible Entanglements (featuring Moor Mother) and guitarist Jeff Parker.

Symphonic: Ensemble Performs Blackstar
Rumsey Playfield; 6/9 at 7 p.m.; 69th St. at Fifth Ave.; 212-360-2756

Summerstage and (Le) Poisson Rouge bring David Bowie’s death blues to Central Park, with Bang on a Can founder Evan Ziporyn leading an orchestra through Blackstar. The Donny McCaslin Group will chip in the ethereal funk that they laid down on Bowie’s final record.

Ghost-Note
Highline Ballroom; 6/15 at 7 p.m.431 W. 16th St., nr. Ninth Ave.; 212-414-5994

On their new album Swagism, the founders of Ghost-Note Robert Sput Searight and Nate Werth stretch their ensemble into all possible contortions, from CTI’s disco to D’Angelo’s funk. It’s the omnivorous diet of J Dilla come to life in big-band form.

David Murray
Village Vanguard; 6/19 - 6/24; 178 Seventh Ave. S., nr. W. 11th St.; 212-255-4037

Saxophonist David Murray continues in the socially empowered tradition of ’70s jazz, with his new effort with Saul Williams, Blues for Memo, celebrating Amiri Baraka and the Turkish master Mehmet Uluğ. His band Class Struggle performing at the Village Vanguard features his son Mingus Murray on guitar.

R+R=Now
Prospect Park Bandshell; 6/22 at 7:30 p.m.; Prospect Park W. at 9th St.; 718-965-8951

“R+R stands for Reflect and Respond,” said pianist Robert Glasper, when announcing this new supergroup inspired by Nina Simone. At the Prospect Park Bandshell, a week after the release of their debut Collagically Speaking, the all-stars—including Glasper, Terrace Martin, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, and Taylor McFerrin—jam for free on the second day of summer, courtesy of BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!

Nicholas Payton, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington
Murmrr Theatre; 6/25 at 8 p.m.; 17 Eastern Pkwy., nr. Underhill Ave., Prospect Heights; 516-510-1477

Carrington and Esperanza Spalding lost a powerful collaborator last year with the passing of pianist Geri Allen. They march on in a new trio with Nicholas Payton—three prolific improvisers in a rich lineup of trumpet, bass, and drums.

Grant Green: Evolution of Funk
Jazz Standard; 6/28 - 7/1; 116 E. 27th St., nr. Park Ave. S.; 212-576-2232

For Record Store Day in April, Resonance Records dropped two previously unreleased live albums from the boogaloo icon: Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes from 1969 and 1970, and Slick! Live at Oil Can Harry’s from 1975. The label recruited a quintet led by Grant’s son Greg and saxophonist Donald Harrison to celebrate the recordings and the legacy of the father of acid jazz.

Justin Brown’s NYEUSI
Nublu; 6/29 at 8 p.m.; 62 Ave. C., nr. 5th St.

At 34, Justin Brown is one of the most in-demand drummers in jazz, and with NYEUSI, he’s ready for a sure-footed debut as a bandleader. At the release for his new record on Fabian Almazan’s Biophilia Records, expect a party of psychedelic funk and the tastiest drum fills around.