This Sunday’s upcoming DC Jazz Loft is about the state of things in D.C. jazz. Each of our three headliners is bringing the music forward in some way—often subtly, with small changes or shifts of shape, sometimes in ways that are impossible to ignore. Some of you know these names well, others—we hope—will come and be introduced to them for the first time. Trumpeter Donvonte McCoy, bassist Eliot Seppa and drummer Allen Jones will each bring an exciting band.

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As usual, the loft is at our home at Union Arts, at 411 New York Ave. NE. We suggest a $15 donation, all of which goes to the musicians. Here’s info on each of the artists performing this week.

Donvonte McCoy

This month, trumpet master Donvonte McCoy headlines. His punchy, 21st-century Clifford Brown-meets-Donald Byrd sound has earned respect as perhaps the city’s best among trumpeters. For a decade he’s held down a weekly residency at Eighteenth Street Lounge, playing for dancers in the dark on the top floor. His excellent debut record is called Third Floor (one of CapitalBop’s favorite records of 2011). We’re thrilled to welcome McCoy’s quartet to the third floor of Union Arts for this month’s DC Jazz Loft.

Eliot Seppa

Young bassist Eliot Seppa leads from the foundation. With a granite-smooth sound, he’s been making every effort of late to pick up the city’s bass mantel—a major task, considering the footsteps of Butch Warren, Keter Betts, (the other) Billy Taylor, Steve Novosel and so many more. Seppa has an original approach to the instrument, just as firm as it is fluid. He’s working with all sorts of artists around town, defining a bass sound that will

Allen Jones

Last, let’s talk about Allen Jones. The young drummer cropped up a few years ago, in his mid-teens, playing jazz gigs at Utopia and HR-57 and sounding a lot like a Tony Williams fan with a metal streak. No surprise—he’s exactly that. Since then Jones has developed on his own, gigging on straight-ahead as well as with Nag Champa, an Afrosurrealist dance/trance project that lies at the Great Divide between now and the future and the back of some alley in East London 20 years ago.

And hey, for good measure, here’s a video from our second-ever DC Jazz Loft, way back in 2011. Sparks were flying that night. Expect some more this weekend.

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