This past Sunday, Roberta Gambarini didn’t quite snag the Grammy for best jazz-vocal album. But there’s no question that it’s only a matter of time before the highly talented, Italian-born singer moves from the Grammy-nominated to the Grammy-winning category. It took Kurt Elling nine nominations before finally getting the jazz-vocal Grammy this year. I’m fairly certain that it won’t take Gambarini, who opens a three-night stand at Dazzle with Convergence tonight, nearly that long.

Gambarini left Italy for the America to attend the New England Conservatory of Music in 1998. Two weeks after her arrival in this country she received well-deserved attention when she placed third in the Thelonious Monk vocal competition. That set the bar pretty high right at the start and she quickly proved that it was anything but a fluke. By 2008, she had been named the outstanding female jazz singer by the Jazz Journalists Association, as well as the rising star among women jazz vocalists in Down Beat magazine’s annual poll of critics.

Gambarini is a mainstream, jazz vocalist in the sense that she draws on familiar material. Yet, what she does with that material is truly something else. Her music is simply “easy to love.”  At Dazzle, 930 Lincoln, tonight, Friday and Saturday, Gambarini is joined by the Convergence sextet with Greg Gisbert on trumpet, John Gunther on saxophone, Mark Patterson on trombone, Mark Simon on bass, Paul Romaine on drums and Eric Gunnison (who has toured and recorded with Gambarini) on piano. The sets all three nights are at 7 and 9 p.m. ($25/$15 students for tonight’s 9 p.m. show, 303-839-5100).

Then on Tuesday, trumpeter Tom Harrell brings his quintet to Dazzle for an even longer four-night stay. After receiving his degree from Stanford in 1969, Harrell toured with the big bands led by Stan Kenton and Woody Herman. Four years later, he joined Horace Silver’s quintet and moved to New York where he was very much in demand, working in a wide range of contexts. In 1983, he became part of the Phil Woods Quintet and performed with Woods throughout that decade.

Following his time with Woods, the trumpeter started his own quintet – and that’s the group that appears with him at Dazzle on Tuesday, Wednesday and on February 11 and 12. For the past four years, the quintet has featured Wayne Escoffery (who, by the way, has a new CD out titled Uptown) on saxophone, Danny Grissett on piano, Ugonna Okegwo on bass and Jonathan Blake on drums. With the exception of Donald Edwards replacing Blake on drums, that’s the band on stage at Dazzle for sets at 7 and 9 p.m. ($30).

There are times when you hear a player live for the first time and the impression made is never forgotten. That’s what happened when I first caught Harrell at a small club outside of Boston. Though diagnosed with a form of schizophrenia, Harrell is a masterful improviser whose phrasing is filled with lyrical beauty. His quintet has a number of discs on the Half-Note label and it’s a potent aggregation. The group’s newest release New Roman Nights is scheduled for release next month.   

In addition to the multi-night visits from Gambarini and Harrell, the musical week also offers guitarist Mundell Lowe with bassist Jim Ferguson tonight at the Panorama Lounge in the University Center on the University of Northern Colorado campus in Greeley and singer Rene Marie with the a capella group Sound Circle at the Broomfield Auditorium, 3 Community Park Rd. in Broomfield, on Friday.

Guitarist Lowe has done it all, from working with Benny Goodman to playing with “Fats” Navarro and Charlie Parker, along with his studio work and writing for television shows. He has also played with pianist Andre Previn (who, like trumpeter Clark Terry, was one of the seven recipients of this year’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the Grammy Awards). And, if you like coincidence, one of the albums he recorded with Previn in 1990 is titled, like saxophonist Escoffery’s new CD, Uptown. Lowe appears tonight with bassist Ferguson at 7 p.m. as part of UNC’s “Sunset Jazz Series” ($10/$7 seniors/free for members of the UNC community).

As for superb vocalist Marie, this is her first a capella outing and the concert with Sound Circle is at 7 p.m. on Friday ($10/$7 students and seniors, 303-464-5835). Also, on the coincidence front, after his stay at Dazzle, trumpeter Harrell goes to New York where he will perform at the Jazz Standard, among other spots. On Feb. 11, Denver-based Marie also hits the Jazz Standard for four nights.

Lastly, on the crossover-jazz front, keyboardist Lao Tizer (who has his own Colorado connection) joins Special EFX leader Chieli Minucci and violinist Karen Briggs at the Soiled Dove Underground, 7401 E. 1^st Ave., for a show at 8 p.m on FRIDAY.. ($30-$40, 303-366-0007). 

Normanprovizer@aol.com