When a well-known musician shows up at a big rock gig, they’re just a face in the crowd, at best fodder for the next day’s gossip column. But when the same thing happens at a jazz club, it creates an electrifying tension—everyone’s wondering, Will they sit it? The latter scenario played out last night at Zebulon, as veteran saxist Joe McPhee (second from left above)—a veritable great white in the small pond of free jazz—strolled in toting his horn case right before the Scandinavian group The Thing, his frequent collaborators, began playing.

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During a break early in his Friday duo set at Monkey Town with saxist Håkon Kornstad, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, left, explained that the pair’s repertoire was drawn from Christian hymns his grandmother Elise used to sing. The Williamsburg venue’s state-of-the-art back room, which combines a four-wall video projection system with fine-dining service and communal couches, didn’t initially seem like the most appropriate setting for a concert of religious music. But the musicians—dressed much like the effortlessly chic hipsters sprawled around the room—had no trouble adapting, and they held the audience rapt during a tight 40-minute set. Read more »