Tom Spiker’s Mobile Pleasure Lounge
Wed., June 16, 9:30pm. $5. With Rafiq Bhatia Collective, Test Kitchen. Tritone, 1508 South St. 215.545.0475 www.tritonebar.com
Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Tom Spiker is a Wilmington native and Philly resident since 2000, a close associate of experimental groove-jazz stalwarts (and Ornette Coleman alums) Jamaaladeen Tacuma and G. Calvin Weston. His Mobile Pleasure Lounge, an adventure in “live improvised film scoring,” rummages through such delights as Blacula and the odd elderly exercise video (“more fartsy, less artsy, if you will,” Spiker notes). He’ll share this Avant Ascension bill with Rafiq Bhatia, born in North Carolina to East African immigrants of Indian descent, an impressive twentysomething guitarist who is fundraising for a debut album that features the likes of star pianist Vijay Iyer and drum legend Billy Hart. — David R. Adler
FinDelMundo
Fri., June 18, 8pm. Free. With Nu Directions Chamber Brass, The Renamers. The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. 215.573.3234 www.bowerbird.org
Cellist Claudio Peña, clarinetist Gustavo Hunt and drummer Gabriel Spiller are FinDelMundo from Buenos Aires, and what an array of sounds they get from their seemingly straightforward acoustic instruments. This is a group that sees no problem veering from romantic melody and driving tango-derived rhythm to abstract soundscaping in a single piece. They share this Bowerbird bill with Nu Directions Chamber Brass, which mixes graceful semi-classical tones with rock-and-soul snarl, and The Renamers, a first-time free improv summit featuring Dave Champion on harmonized trombone, Helena Espvall on cello, Tara Burke on organ, Wilbo Wright on bass and Mia Bosna on hand percussion. — David R. Adler
Stanley Clarke & Hiromi
Mon., June 21, 8pm. $38.50. Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside 215.572.7650 www.keswicktheatre.com
Along with the late Jaco Pastorius, Philly native Stanley Clarke did much to revolutionize the electric bass, first as a member of the ’70s fusion-god ensemble Return to Forever. He came to the Keswick in 2008 with S.M.V., a co-led unit with fellow bass guitar honchos Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. This time he’s touring on the strength of his new Stanley Clarke Band CD, featuring drummer Ronald Bruner, Jr. and two young keyboardists: Ruslan Sirota and Hiromi Uehara. The virtuosic Hiromi, who recorded with Clarke and Return to Forever drummer Lenny White in 2009 (Jazz in the Garden), is sufficiently hot to share name billing. — David R. Adler
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