Helen Sung

  Like fellow pianists Jason Moran and Robert Glasper, Helen Sung, who appears at Dazzle on Friday night, went to Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. But during her Houston years, Sung’s focus was on classical music. In fact, it wasn’t until she went off to the University of Texas in Austin that she discovered her jazz muse with a vengeance. 

  After college, the pianist became one of seven young players selected, in 1995, for the inaugural class at the Thelonious Monk Institute’s new, two-year student program. Following that, the pianist settled in New York where she worked with a number of groups, including the Mingus Big Band.  In 2003, Sung released her first CD; and four years later, she won the Mary Lou Williams piano competition. 

  This past year, the pianist’s NuGeneration group toured southern Africa under the auspices of the U.S. State Department and this year she traveled with drummer Teri Lyne Carrington’s band. At Dazzle, 930 Lincoln, the pianist, whose current CD on the Sunnyside label is titled Sungbird (after Albeniz), performs with her (re)Conception trio that has Dezron Douglas on bass and Donald Edwards on drums at 7 and 9 p.m. ($15, 303-839-5100). Both the Connecticut-born Douglas and Louisiana-born Edwards are impressive players. Douglas, for example, is on the recent Cyrus Chestnut-Eric Reed piano-duo disc, while Edwards has worked in a variety of contexts, including the Mingus Big Band and the Mingus Dynasty group. 

Also on Friday evening, the Fort Collins Jazz Experience features the Falconaires on the Old Town Square stage downtown starting at 7 p.m. The Falconaires, housed at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, is one of the Air Force’s premiere big bands. The free, Fort Collins event also runs all day on Saturday from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. The bands on the Old Town Square stage are: Mango fan Django, pianist Mark Sloniker with Mandy Harvey, the Max Wagner Quartet, the Greg Harris Vibe Quartet, Wil Swindler’s Elevenet, the Ken Walker Sextet, Conjunto Colores and the Darren Kramer Organization. On the Oak Street Plaza stage, the music from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. is from the Big Swing Trio and the Colorado Swing Big Band among others (downtownfortcollins.com)

  Along with pianist Sung and the sounds in Fort Collins, the musical week also offers the fine guitarist Jerry Hahn with a quartet at Dazzle on Wednesday at 7 p.m. In 1964, Hahn joined saxophonist John Handy’s explosive quintet; and by 1968, he was part of vibraphonist Gary Burton’s quartet. As the 1970s unfolded, the Nebraska-born, Wichita-raised guitarist, who would move to Denver for a spell in the early 1990s, started his own group, the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood. It’s always good to have Hahn return to town. 

  Additionally at Dazzle, bassist Matt Skellenger explores the world music side of jazz with an out-of-the-ordinary group on Saturday at 7 and 9 p.m. That group includes Andy Skellenger, Dave Miller and Glenn Taylor ($10). The band released its first CD, Parentheticals, earlier this year on the Synergy label. On Monday at 7 p.m., Dazzle also serves up Prism: A Composer’s Collective that provides varied music from six composers. The project grew out of a workshop sponsored by the Gift of Jazz and is performed by a ten-piece band ($10). 

  On a final note: Keeping in mind that pianist Sung was a member of the first student class at the Thelonious Monk Institute, it’s worth noting that drummer Colin Stranahan, a graduate of the Denver School of  the Arts, became a member of the Monk Institute’s seventh class in 2007 and now lives in Brooklyn.

 NormanProvizer@aol.com