Young alto saxophonist/composer Pete Robbins has been garnering accolades in the Big Apple and beyond with his sophomore release, Waits and Measures (Playscape). At the Cornelia Street Café on Friday night, January 5^th, Robbins kicks off his Centric ensemble’s Manhattan “tour,” a prelude to a spring tour of Spain. Centric features Sam Sadigursky on tenor and soprano sax, Eliot Cardinaux on Nord Electro keyboard, Thomas Morgan on bass, and Dan Weiss on drums. All but Carindaux also appear on Waits and Measures, which includes keyboardist Eliot Krimsky (Nord and Fender Rhodes) .

A Boston native, Pete Robbins studied at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music before moving to New York in 2002. In addition to his own ensembles, he has collaborated with such innovative musicians as Mark Dresser, Randy Peterson, Daniel Levin and Mary Halvorson. In addition to appearances at New York clubs such as the 55 Bar, Tonic, Cornelia Street Café and Bowery Poetry Club, Robbins regular appears in other east coast cities and in European venues and festivals. In 2004, he curated a jazz series at Cornelia Street that earned him recognition from the Village Voice as the season’s featured jazz artist. Robbins released his first recording, Centric, in 2003 and recently was awarded a 2006 Chamber Music America composition grant. He plans to return to the recording studio this spring.

Lou Donaldson © Amdrea Canter

• 1/01 Bill Saxton and the Uptown All-Stars Jam Session Minton’s Playhouse Uptown, 208 W. 118^th St., Harlem, NY 212-864-8346
• 1/01 Cecil’s Big Band Cecil’s Jazz Club, 364 Valley Rd. West Orange, New Jersey, 07052 973-736-4800 www.cecilsjazzclub.com
• 1/01 Deborah Davis & A Few Men – Leukemia & Lymphoma Benefit Blue Note, 131 W Third St. (betw. 6^th & MacDougal) 212-475-8592 www.bluenote.net
• 1/01 Howard Williams Jazz Orchestra; Candace DeBartolo 4 Garage, 99 Seventh Ave S (at Grove St.) 212-645-0600 www.garagerest.com
• 1/01 Jam Session Cleopatra’s Needle, 2485 Broadway (betw. 92^nd & 93^rd St.) 212-769-6969 www.cleopatrasneedleny.com
• 1/01 John Farnsworth 5 Smoke, 2751 Broadway (at 105^th St.) 212-864-6662 www.smokejazz.com
• 1/01 Vanguard Jazz Orchestra Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Ave S (Below W 11^th St.) 212-255-4037 www.villagevanguard.net
• 1/01 11:00 PM Sal Mosca Trio at Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, (212) 581-3080. Tuesday
• 1/01 7:00 PM Kazzrie Jaxon Trio at Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, (212) 581-3080. Monday

“When you play with Elvin, you know it will be swinging!” –Delfeayo Marsalis

Elvin Jones knew the joys and challenges of growing up surrounded by musicians. The youngest of ten, the great drummer couldn’t help but absorb the language of jazz, particularly from older brothers Hank and Thad. Perhaps it was this background that fueled a connection with young Delfeayo Marsalis in the early 1990s. Son of Ellis Marsalis and sandwiched between older brothers Wynton and Branford, and younger brother Jason, Delfeayo, too, was infused with a love of music seemingly from birth, and his sense of swing and tradition was a perfect fit to the music of the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. Over a decade, Marsalis largely stayed in the background, playing sideman to Jones and others, and concentrating on an impressive career as a record producer. Jones passed away in 2004, but not before taking the sideman chair in Marsalis’ quintet to record Minions Dominion (Troubadour Jass), finally released this fall in tribute to Jones. And with a new band and more time to concentrate on his performance career, Delfeayo Marsalis will launch a new tour in honor of the new release and his mentor, starting with a five-day run at the Blue Note in New York, January 2-7. His Midwest tour will begin January 9-10 in Minneapolis, moving on to Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis.