On Reptet/Kevin Valentine

The six-piece troupe from Seattle posts plenty of video at reptet.com — a good move for a band this much into masks, funny hats and so on. It’s a jokey, visual experience but the music has a core seriousness. Drummer John Ewing, trumpeter Samantha Boshnack, bassist Tim Carey, woodwinders Izaak Mills and Christopher Credit and trombone/tuba player Nelson Bell have clear ability as soloists, and their latest disc Chicken or Beef? reveals a flair for catchy, involved jazz compositions that refuse to sit still in one category. The band has a thing for spilling off the stage and just might turn Chris’s into a parade ground. — David R. Adler

Kevin Valentine
Thu., Apr. 30, 8pm. $3. Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus, 847 N. 3rd St. 215.922.1035 www.ortliebsjazzhaus.com

Jazz vocalist Kevin Valentine, a native New Yorker, came to Philadelphia to attend law school and wound up becoming the city’s quintessential working-stiff musician. He grew up with the old-school sounds of Johnny Hartman but developed a love for classic R&B, and these influences inform his guileless, buttery crooning. Like many jazzers, he believes in modern pop as an element of the American Songbook and insists on the validity of not just old standards but also new. Valentine can often be found in the company of seasoned Philly instrumentalists like bassist Mike Boone, who maintains Ortlieb’s as a bastion of straightahead jazz and inspires cats to be at their best. — David R. Adler