Lots of great local jazz happening tonight…
NEW ORLEANS: The Legend Band w/Clarence Acox
TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Michael Emswiler/John Hansen
EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE:
6pm – Damon Buxton,
8pm – Vocal Jam with Carrie Wicks
VICTORY LOUNGE: Joe Doria Trio
THAIKU: Ron Weinstein Trio
TUTTA BELLA: Tarantellas, 6:30pm
WHISKEY BAR: Eric Verlinde & Friends, 10pm
JAZZ ALLEY: 
Sara Gazarek
The Pacific Jazz Institute at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley welcomes the return of Seattle-native, vocalist Sara Gazarek. Band members include new band members Zach Harmon (drums) and Sam Minaie (bass) as well as Josh Nelson (piano). Set time on Wednesday is 7:30pm. Doors open at 5:30pm Wednesday.
Born and raised in Seattle, she was exposed to a variety of art forms at a very early age. Gazarek attended Roosevelt High School where she fell in love with its award-winning jazz program instantly. Under the influence of jazz educator and trombonist Scott Brown, Gazarek traveled as a soloist with the school’s jazz orchestra to NYC to compete in the nationally acclaimed Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival in 2000. Presented at the Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, Gazarek was awarded the first ever Ella Fitzgerald Outstanding Vocalist Award.
Championed by some of music’s most celebrated figures, Sara Gazarek has emerged as a strikingly original artist with limitless potential. In follow up to Yours, her widely hailed 2005 debut focusing on American Songbook standards, the 25-year old Gazarek delivers sensational follow-up on her sophomore album Return To You (6/06), seamlessly combining the intimacy of singer/songwriter stylings with the musical and improvisational elements of jazz. Blessed with a gorgeous, translucent voice, excellent pitch and supple sense of time, Gazarek is steeped in the jazz tradition, but is not afraid to embrace the music that moves her generation.