The best jazz shows this month in NYC

Expect plenty of inside-outside postbop intrigue here, as the subtly commanding sax star distills the innovative spirit from his jazz-royalty legacy into a distinctly modern style with a killer quartet.

The venerable crossover guitarist, famous for his luminous folk-jazz fusions, settles into a week-long residency at the Blue Note. Expect magic as he plays in a variety of duo to quartet formats.

Saxophonist, bandleader and Kendrick Lamar collaborator Washington has reinvigorated contemporary jazz and garnered heaps of mainstream critical acclaim the past few years with ambitious releases like his three-hour 2015 debut, The Epic, and 2018 follow-up, Heaven and Earth.

Rising jazz vocal star Cécile McLorin Salvant sings with a grace and wit that evoke the greats of the idiom. It's easy to hear why she won the prestigious 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition at just 21 years of age.

This alt-jazz phenomenon made its name—and earned itself a few haters—interpreting favorites by Blondie, Nirvana and other rock icons, but has since aimed the spotlight on its striking, inventive postbop-gone-pop originals, tunes that handily demonstrate the group's uncommonly broad pool of influences. Experience the next chapter in the band's history here, with Orrin Evans taking over the piano bench in the recent absence of the idiosyncratic Ethan Iverson.

Known as one of the modern greats of his instrument, bassist Miller first broke into widespread jazz fame spearheading the pop-funky 1986 Miles Davis album Tutu. He's since participated in a number of projects—the flashiest of which may have been the shortlived bass supergroup "SMV" with Stanley Clarke and Victor Wooten—so expect a diverse showing at this two-week residency. Expect sophisticated grooves and plenty of four-string slappin’.