There’s plenty of free jazz this weekend at two Tacoma churches. Jazz Live at Marine View features 23-year-old crooner Danny Quintero, while the Immanuel Presbyterian Blues Vespers this months features blues artist Bill Sims Jr.

Danny Quintero is becoming known for a vocal talent that gets him compared to Frank Sinatra. Says John Hanford of the Fabulous Wailers: “That Danny possesses a great set of pipes is obvious; what strikes one on first hearing is the sheer quality of the voice mature and burnished sonority that belies his age. There is also the confident sense of swing, and …

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If you’re into 1960s rock, save the date: Bob Holden from Don and the Goodtimes, Jim Valley from Don and the Goodtimes and Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Steve Lalor of the Daily Flash are coming on May 19 to Harbor History Museum in Gig Harbor to take part in a panel discussion on 1960s rock photographer Jini Dellaccio, whose large-format photography is now on exhibit in the museum in “With a Loving Eye: The Photographs of Jini Dellaccio.”

The rockers were each part of a group that was photographed by Dellaccio, who took iconic album covers …

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Tacoma ensemble Brass Unlimited hosts it’s 5^th annual free Pops Concert this Sunday at Tacoma Community College.  Trombonist Gary Shutes is the soloist for a program that includes two Henry Mancini numbers, Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” musical salutes to Copland and Sinatra, music from Riverdance and a medley of music by Earth, Wind and Fire.

Playing alongside Brass Unlimited will be a 16-member brass and rhythm section directed by TCC music chair John Falskow.

3 p.m. April 29. Free. Tacoma Community College building 2,  6501 S. 19th St., Tacoma. 253-759-9511, brassunlimited.org, tacomacc.edu

It’s pure Olympia onstage: a grungy, bass-heavy indie rock band with mournful female vocals next to a group of muscly dancers performing on an assortment of aerial hoops, ropes and bars. The collaboration this Saturday night of the Tallhouse Arts Consortium trapeze ensemble with live band Romanteek isn’t just a loud, starkly lit trapeze show: It’s an example of Olympia artists doing highly original things in cool venues.

It’s also the first full-length narrative show from Tallhouse, a group of Olympians who got together a few years ago after taking aerial classes in Seattle circus schools and began practicing in a refurbished barn. You may have seen them doing their high-bar stuff at the Brotherhood Lounge or the Illuminated Ball. Now they’re branching out into an evening show.

In the words of the press release: “Set in the shadows of a dense wood, a dark heart, a deep sea, the show winds through an otherworldy soundscape. Tallhouse and Romanteek entangle in the human experience of struggle and synchronicity, among a crowd, between two people, within a single self…it is music.” Read more »

Torsen Necessary, a senior at Curtis High School in University Place, has won the Tacoma Concert Band’s 2012 Student Soloist Competition. The prize includes $500 and a performance as soloist with the band at Tacoma’s Pantages Theater on Feb. 25.

Held since 1990, the competition honors the late Wayne Timmerman, former principal trumpet with the band, and encourages both young regional performers and their school band programs.

“The Student Soloist Competition is the Tacoma Concert Band’s way of contributing to the development of fine young musicians,” said TCB founding director Robert Musser in a press release. “Even the …

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This Sunday’s Blues Vespers at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Tacoma, features local blues legend Little Bill and the Blue Notes. Usually a trio, the band will expand to include Brian Kent and Scotty Harris on saxophone, Tony Grasso on trumpet and Buck England on B-3 organ to do big band arrangements of Christmas carols.

Blues Vespers combines music, a brief talk and prayer. This Sunday audience members are also encouraged to bring a new unwrapped toy for charity.

5 p.m. Dec. 11. Free, donation suggested. Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 909 N. J St., Tacoma. 253-627-8371, www.ipctacoma.org

It’s quite something to have played in a community concert band for 20 years. Carolyn Freudenstein, who has played clarinet with the Tacoma Concert Band for just that long, is saying goodbye to the all-volunteer band this weekend in a concert at the Pantages Theater.

The concert combines the TCB with the Puget Sound Youth Wind Ensemble, playing music of Sousa, Mussorgsky, Copland, Stephen Foster and more. Founded eight years ago and first conducted by the TCB’s director Robert Musser, the PSYWE is a wind band for young players now led by Gerard Morris, director of bands at the University of Puget Sound.

“After all of Carolyn’s dedication and leadership with TCB over the years, it’s really special to have her close this chapter…” says Nancy Musser.

The Tacoma Concert Band plays “Tacoma Concert Band and Friends,” featuring guest ensemble the Puget Sound Youth Wind Ensemble, at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19. $16-$34. Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-591-5894, www.broadwaycenter.org, www.tacomaconcertband.org, www.eskimo.com/~psywe Read more »

Rich Wetzel’s inspired to pack out the Harmon pub in Tacoma with jazz fans on Saturdays. After a successful debut there in July, the trumpeter’s Groovin’ Higher Orchestra will play a cover-free gig there this Saturday night.

“We want to prove that a big band jazz-rock and Latin orchestra can pack the place again, that July was not a fluke,” says Wetzel. “We know and believe that if more club owners get a chance to hear and see that booking jazz on a prime night works, it helps the whole community.”

Wetzel has also created a new community …

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