Looking Ahead: Southwest Florida jazz preview (updated)

The 2016-17 jazz concert season soon will heat up - and continue through May, bolstered by the gradual arrival of the snowbirds. Here is a rundown of noteworthy jazz events, principally in the Sarasota to Naples territory, from now through November.

• Friday, September 9 – Heat Latin Jazz Band, the Sidney & Berne Davis Arts Center, Fort Myers. 8 p.m.

  

  Herb Bruce

• Monday, October 10 – Trombonist Herb Bruce’s Herbicide Jazz Band and the St. Petersburg-based O Som Do Jazz open the Charlotte County Jazz Society‘s 2016-2017 Artists Series with a double concert featuring mainstream/Dixieland and Latin jazz. Cultural Center of Charlotte County, Port Charlotte. 7 p.m.
• Saturday, October 15 – Trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis's Quartet in concert. Center for the Performing Arts, Bonita Springs, 8 p.m.
•  Wednesday, November 2 – Trumpeter Wallace Roney joins the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra for the sextet’s  season-opening All That Jazz concert. Daniels Pavilion, 6 and 8:30 p.m.
• Thursday, November 3 – Watch the 2015 Oscar-winning Best Picture “Birdman” with Grammy-winning drummer Antonio Sanchez performing his score live, Straz Center, Tampa, 8 p.m.

  

  Valerie Gillespie

• Saturday, November 12 – Saxophonist-singer Valerie Gillespie & trumpeter John DePaola perform the Music of Jazz Legends - Nat & Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Glenridge Performing Arts Center, Sarasota. 7:30 p.m.
• Monday, November 14 – Pianist Jim Roberts’ Saxtet. Charlotte County Jazz Society‘s Artists Series. Cultural Center of Charlotte County, Port Charlotte. 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, November 16 – Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon guests with the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra for an All That Jazz concert. Daniels Pavilion, 6 and 8:30 p.m.
• Thursday, November  17 – An Evening of Gypsy Jazz with Alfonso Ponticelli and Swing Gitan. Side Door at the Palladium, St. Petersburg, 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, November 27 – The Dave Koz “smooth jazz” Christmas tour, with Jonathan Butler, Kenny Lattimore and singer Valerie Simpson. Hayes Hall, 7 p.m.

Several local restaurants (including J.D.’s in Port Charlotte, Fandango in Sarasota, The Roadhouse and The Barrel Room at Twisted Vine Bistro in Ft. Myers and, starting this month, The Side Door Jazz Club at Slate’s in Cape Coral, offer jazz steadily). A variety of  Friday matinee concerts sponsored all season by the Jazz Club of Sarasota and the South County Jazz Club also keep things swinging for jazz lovers.