pavel wlosok quartet

Pavel Wlosok brings his quartet to the corner for an evening of contemporary jazz played by musicians who have all, in their own ways, arrived in Asheville by circuitous routes. Pavel himself came from Ostrava via Texas, a Czech pianist who landed at the University of North Texas in 1995 with one backpack and has spent the decades since building one of the more quietly remarkable careers in American jazz. He is joined by Jacob Rodriguez, a San Antonio-bred saxophonist whose credits run from Michael Bublé's Grammy stages to Ambrose Akinmusire's Brooklyn sessions, and drummer Ryan Ptasnik, whose road has wound from Wyoming high school band rooms to a stage built of two pickup trucks at the base of Pik Lenin in Kyrgyzstan. Expect originals alongside deep-catalog interpretations, the lyricism of Pavel's writing anchoring music that moves with the unhurried authority of players who trust one another and the form. These are serious musicians in a room that encourages seriousness to loosen up, the creature watching from its corner, the weird art doing its weird art thing on the walls. Part of Little Jumbo's curated jazz series. Free to attend.