We got the jazz

There's an ocean of jazz planned for the Lowcountry this fall. Riding the crest of the wave is the resumption of the Charleston Jazz Orchestra's 2010 season, an abundance of contemporary jazz and a small, but significant concert at the Gibbes.

Restaurants and lounges, like the venerable Charleston Grill, look to be abuzz with all the styles of jazz, offering something for all tastes.

CDs are slated to drop before the end of the year as well.

The jazz gods will begin their autumnal shower today at 6:30 p.m. with a tiny event full of historical impact. Charleston Stage commissioned a fanfare composed by trumpeter Charlton Singleton, the face of jazz in the area this past year, for the debut of a Grand Show Curtain designed by Jonathan Green at the Dock Street Theatre. Tickets are $100. Call 856-5316 or visit www.charlestonstage.com.

It's a traditional-style piece laden with Gullah rhythms and hints of the famous rag by James P. Johnson, "Charleston."

The Lowcountry Jazz Festival mounts its second year, starting Friday and cresting the next day with a fusion/smooth jazz concert headlined by Spyro Gyra, a mainstay band with roots in the 1970s. Opening up will be Charlton Singleton, Paul Shilts and Euge Groove, stalwarts all in the contemporary idiom.

Sunday, Cobblestone Jazz, featuring area favorites, saxophonist George Kenny and guitarist David Archer, perform at the Lowcountry Beer and Wine Festival at Freshfields Village.

Singleton will take the stage again, this time with a baton, on Sept. 25 to lead the CJO in its back-by-popular-demand Latin Night, a show that peeled the paint at the Charleston Music Hall last September.

Remember the band Havanason? Well, it's morphed into Tumbao, a Latin jazz knockout at McCrady's last spring and Voodoo Lounge last month, developed by pianist/composer Fernando Rivas and flutist/percussionist David Heywood. Those players, including conga sensation Gino Castillo, have been woven into CJO for the gig.

On tap for CJO's Oct. 23 Pops concert is the music of bands such as Earth Wind and Fire and Tower of Power. Singleton, also artistic director, is planning a slate of vocalists for this show.

CJO closes its season with Duke Ellington's "The Nutcracker Suite" and a reprise of favorites from the other five concerts.

Another major event takes place Sept. 25 when the MOJA Arts Festival, which has been programming jazz for more than 25 years, puts world renowned guitarist Jonathan Butler on the stage at Porter-Gaud School Stadium.

Local jazz giant Lonnie Hamilton will lead his band to open up for Butler. The concert carries on the cabaret tradition the festival has established with many such events at the College of Charleston Cistern.

MOJA will also offer a jazz cruise on Sept. 29 with music by the MKM Band. Mack Guice II, LeRoy Smalls and St. Julian Doyle play straight ahead contemporary. Recent runs at Alluette's Jazz Cafe, for instance, have made the ensemble a popular entertainment force.

The next day, MOJA takes its jazz journey to Huger's, a popular restaurant/lounge on Upper King Street, for spoken word and jazz.

Charlotte resident Tammy Green of Jazz Diva Entertainment is bringing in legendary jazz/funk/soul artist George Duke for an Oct. 15 show at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center. Duke has been rolling for decades, making his mark in all sorts of ways. He broke Dianne Reeves, a top jazz singer, into the music business.

Duke is known to deliver a swinging, hard-driving kind of sound, accessible to all who would listen. He has worked with just about everyone of note in the jazz world.

Basking in the limelight of jazz in the 1980s with Duke was guitarist Earl Klugh, another master player and vocalist. Klugh will bring his Weekend of Jazz package from the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo. to the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Nov. 11-13.

Along with his own band, he showcases other greats Fourplay, Boney James, Kyle Eastwood, Jessy J and Joe Grandsen. Fourplay is led by keyboardist Bob James, an innovator since the advent of fusion.

A strong candidate for the most interesting jazz event of the fall is a concert by Ann Caldwell put on by the Charleston Jazz Initiative and the Gibbes Museum of Art.

The venerable museum has installed an exhibit by North Carolina artist Stacy Lynn Waddell, "Evidence of Things Unseen." On the afternoon of Oct. 17, Caldwell will sing a program of jazz inspired by Waddell's artistic take on American history and culture and its legacy.

Caldwell, a folklorist and singer of spirituals, is perfectly suited for such an interpretation as jazz interacts with visual art through her seasoned eyes and ears.

Caldwell is also taking her Jazz Factory project, a vocal and instrumental showcase, to Gullah Cuisine in Mount Pleasant. She will perform the first Wednesday of the month there.

Charleston Grill at the Orient Express Charleston Place Hotel remains at the vanguard of jazz in lounges. No venue has offered jazz as long as it has, and the face lift brought a few years ago by GM Mickey Bakst has the place humming with sound.

Mercato on North Market Street swings with the best of them, too. It has steadily refined its weekly schedule and has a nice thing going every night.

Thursday nights at Gennaro's on Dorchester Road features a house big band that just gets better and better as the years go by. Many of the area's best players go through there.

Charleston standout regulars such as pianist Bill Aycock keep things going at High Cotton on East Bay Street.

To find out restaurant and lounge schedules, visit the calendar at www.jazzartistsofcharleston.org, a service provided by the nonprofit Jazz Artists of Charleston.

New recordings are coming down the pike this fall. A host of South Carolina luminaries will be featured on a CD by the Charleston Legends Festival Orchestra scheduled to be released next month. The record is taken from performances at CJI's festival during Piccolo Spoleto of the big band's tribute to South Carolina jazz. International stars such as saxophonists Jimmy Heath and Houston Person also appear on the record.

Rene Marie, Charleston's best jazz singer from Denver, recorded a CD here last month that could be released before the end of the year.

Jazz and Latin singer Leah Suarez has a disc in the works, too.

Highlights from the coming fall jazz season:

Lowcountry Wine and Beer Festival

Sunday, 4-7:30 p.m. at Freshfields Village, 266-9800, $30 advance, $35 door.

CJO

Latin Night, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. at Charleston Music Hall, Etix.com, 800-514-3849, jazzartistsofcharleston.org, 641-0011; adult advance $30, senior advance $25, student advance $20, adult day of $40 ,senior day of $35, student day of $30.

Pops, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. at Charleston Music Hall.

Holiday Swing, Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. at Charleston Music Hall.

Dock Street

Grand Show Curtain unveiling tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Dock Street Theatre. The evening is open to members of Charleston Stage's Director's Circle Society, and a limited number of individual tickets are on sale for $100 each. 856-5316. www.charlestonstage.com.

Spyro Gyra

The 2nd Annual Lowcountry Jazz Festival, featuring Spyro Gyra, Euge Groove, Shilts and Charlton Singleton, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center, $45 and $55, ticketmaster.com/venue/115168.

Jazz Factory

Ann Caldwell and LooseFitt, first Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) at Gullah Cuisine, 1717 U.S. Highway 17, $15 cover including complimentary hors d'oeuvres and cash bar, 577-4634, 881-9076.

MOJA Arts Festival

An Evening of Jazz Under the Stars with Jonathan Butler, opening act Lonnie Hamilton and Friends, Sept. 25 at 8 p.m., Porter-Gaud School Stadium, 300 Albermarle Road, West Ashley, $26, box office at 180 Meeting St. 724-7295 mojafestival.com.

Jazz Cruise, MKM Band (Mack Guice II, LeRoy Smalls and St. Julian Doyle) leaving Fountain Walk 360 Concord St. (next to S.C. Aquarium) aboard the Spirit of Charleston, Sept. 29 from 8-10 p.m. boarding 7:30, $16.

Spoken Word and Jazz, Sept. 30 at Huger's, 587 King St., at 9 p.m. $10.

George Duke

Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. North Charleston Performing Arts Center, 800-745-3000, Publix Stores, $47.65 and $43.60, ticketmaster.com/venue/115168.

CJI/Gibbes

Charleston Jazz Initiative/College of Charleston Presents Ann Caldwell, Oct. 17 at 3 p.m. at Gibbes Museum of Art, 135 Meeting St., members $10, nonmembers $20, 722-7206 www.gibbesmuseum.org/events.

Weekend of Jazz

Earl Klugh, Fourplay, Boney James, Kyle Eastwood, Jessy J and Joe Grandsen, Nov. 11-13 at The Sanctuary, ticket package information at 800-654-2924, www.kiawahresort.com.