If your taste in music runs toward traditional-jazz, then the place to be this weekend is at the three-day Evergreen Jazz Festival. If, on the other hand, your interest in the music flows in a more crossover-jazz direction, then the two-day Winter Park Jazz Festival is where you want to be. And, if you are not in the mood for festivals, then you can just hang out at Dazzle to catch trumpeter Ron Miles with a quartet that features guitarist Charlie Hunter tonight and Friday, followed by singer Peter Eldridge, who is part of New York Voices, on Saturday. 

           The Evergreen affair begins on Friday at noon and wraps up at 6 p.m. on Sunday. During its multiple sets, a dozen bands perform in five venues. Among the groups from outside Colorado’s borders, there’s the Festival Feetwarmers with Anita Thomas, the International Sextet, the John Royen Trio, the Carl Sonny Leyland Trio, Marty Eggers’ Ragtime Quartet and Gremoli. Queen City Jazz Band with Wende Harston, Gypsy Swing Revue, Hot Tomatoes Dance Orchestra, Joni Janak with Centerpiece Jazz and Rich Chiaraluce, After Midnight Jazz Band and the Celebration Jazz Band are the Colorado groups on hand.

            A festival badge for all 70 hours of music is $145, individual tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday are also available ($60-$105, 303-697-5467). Student tickets are $45/$15 for individual sessions. Along with the regular sets of music, you can also find free dance lessons, student workshops and a 9:15 a.m. gospel service on Sunday at the Evergreen Christian Church with Queen City.

            Over at Winter Park the festivities begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday and then pick up again at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Saturday starts off with Mango Chutney and continues with Dotsero (which is also the final act in Denver’s free Confluence Park series tonight at 6:30 p.m.), saxophonist Warren Hill and War before Fourplay (the all-star group with Bob James, Larry Carlton, Harvey Mason and Nathan East that released its first disc in 1991) closes things down.  On Sunday, it’s Mango Chutney, Hazel Miller, the Rippingtons (lead by founder Russ Freeman with Jeff Kashiwa on saxophone) and Sax for Stax (featuring saxophonists Gerald Albright and Kirk Whalum). Saxophonist Boney James wraps up the festival with a set that ends at 6 p.m. Tickets for each day are $35-$45 ($40-$50 day of show, 800-745-3000). The music in downtown Winter Park is at Hideaway Park.

            Back in Denver tonight, Miles has the mighty guitarist Hunter on stage at Dazzle, 930 Lincoln, as part of the trumpeter’s quartet that also features Erik Deutsch on keyboards and Matt Houston on drums. Deutsch has been recording and performing with Hunter since he moved to New York from Colorado; and Miles sometimes tours with the guitarist. So, this isn’t at all a meeting of strangers.

            While Hunter is known for his eight-string guitar, Miles, a professor at Metro State, also has his own unique instrument – a trumpet in the key of D developed especially for him by famed horn designer Dave Monette. Miles and friends play at 7 and 9 p.m. tonight and Friday ($25, 303-839-5100). 

            On Saturday, singer Eldridge, the co-founder of New York Voices returns to Dazzle at 7 and 9 p.m. ($15). Along with his work with Voices and his efforts on his own, Eldridge is also a part of the vocal group MOSS (with Luciana Souza, Kate McGary, Theo Bleckmann and Lauren Kinhan) and performed with the vocal Four Brothers in the company of Jon Hendricks, Kurt Elling and Mark Murphy.

            The 9^th + Lincoln Orchestra brings the weekend to a close at Dazzle on Sunday at 7 p.m. ($10/$7 students). Then, on Monday, the club on Lincoln has the House Band du Jour starting at 7 p.m. ($10). The quartet features pianist Harold O’Neal who was born in Tanzania and raised in Kansas City. O’Neal was still in his teens when he traveled with saxophonist Bobby Watson and later worked with saxophonist Greg Osby. Since the mid-2000s, the pianist has led his own groups. And speaking of Kansas City, a quintet called the Kansas City-Denver Connection takes the stage at Dazzle on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ($6).

Also, on Friday, bassist Lelah Simon of the bass-playing Simon family has a CD release party at the Bug Theater, 3654 Navajo. Simon and company hit the Bug at 7:30 p.m. ($15 which includes a copy of the CD, 303-995-8945).

            On a final note: You can let your inner child out at the Buell Theatre in the Denver Performing Arts Complex tonight through Sunday when the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (based on an Ian Fleming tale without James Bond) flies into town. If you want to know the value of doing that, just ask jazz vocalist Stacy Kent who recorded “Hushabye Mountain” from the show on her 2001 CD on the Candid label, Dreamsville ($20-$85, 303-893-4100). Normanprovizer@aol.com