Tonight

I'm going to a reunion party with the group I went to Italy with a couple of months ago. It's a fun group of people and it should be another Italian feeding frenzy. The hostess wants us to leave at 8 so that she can wind down and get ready for the week. That's great because they kept mentioning they want me to take them to jazz. Hopefully, they meant it and I'm trying to organize my thoughts now, just in case.

I see Anat Cohen & Friends are at Louis 649, ah but it ends at 9. That's probably when we could get there from UES. But, Ari Hoenig is later and that should be good.

http://www.louis649.com/live/

I see lots of good experimental options, but I think it would be best to try to stick to more mainstream stuff that would appeal to a lot of people.

Another option is my friend Val is belly dancing at Le Cafe Figaro on Bleeker. She said that it's a great live band, and I know I would love to do that. I love that music and I've seen her before and she is quite good.

Peter Mazza Duo at Bar Next Door might be a good option, and we can continue the Italian theme. That's only $8 cover.

http://lalanternacaffe.com/

Small's is almost always good, so that's a good option when in doubt. I see it's Spike Wilner Ensemble, which I never heard of but I bet is good.

http://www.smallsjazzclub.com/index.cfm?itemCategory=28799&siteid=159&priorId=0

I'd like to look in Williamsburg and Park Slope, but I bet that's too hard.

There's the Fat Cat Big Band, which might help us continue our Scopa game. We learned to play the card game Scopa in Italy and got addicted.

http://www.fatcatmusic.org/music.html

Then there's Brazilian Samba Jazz at The Zinc Bar

http://www.zincbar.com/

Looks like a few good dowtown options to choose from. I was going to also suggest Smith's Bar, in Midtown, I think the West Side. In case they don't want to shlep quite so far. But, I see this is the one night they don't have live music. I haven't been there, but I've had it on the list ever since I read about it in All About Jazz.

http://www.smithsbar.com/