One of the most enticing curiosities on the Milwaukee music scene, The Scarring Party play old timey, tuba- and accordion-driven jazz; classic American music as re-imagined through the lens of Tom Waits records and haunted carnival rides. Although they’re filtered through a quirky, vintage...

Countless television viewers are familiar with saxophonist Dave Koz’s work, thanks to the “General Hospital” theme song, which Koz wrote and performed. Koz’s mellowed-out, mid-afternoon nap jazz is about as smooth as smooth jazz gets, and tonight, he’ll be serenading audiences at the Pabst Theater with . . .

Like a good jellyroll, the heart of jazz is the jam. The organized spontaneity and free-spirited approach to familiar material that can ignite at a jam session has always been emblematic of the music. In healthy jazz scenes, players get together regularly to improvise with one another. Milwaukee hasn’t had a regular jazz jam in years—until last November, when a weekly session debuted on Wednesday nights at Treats, 2221 N. Humboldt Ave. There had been blues jams and jam-band jams . . .

On Monday Montel Williams’ publicist offers to have the mustachioed talk-show host apologize on air to 17-year-old Courtney Scott, after threatening to blow her up. Williams, whose tact is rivaled only by his hair growth, had walked out of an interview with the high school intern for the Savanna Morning News early last Saturday. Hours later, Scott went to cover a separate story - on gingerbrea...

John Coltrane took jazz as far as it ever reached before his death in 1967. He remains a touchstone for young musicians and the subject of many books. The latest, by New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff, is true to its name. The Story of a Sound isn’t a compendium of anecdotes about the saxophonist’s life, but a thoughtful . . .

Milwaukee has been called a big small town, but it’s large enough for musicians in overlapping circles to know each other without actually playing together for decades. Such was the case with respected Latin jazz percussionist Luis Diaz and the funky pop jazz duo of Connie Grauer and Kim Zick, aka Mrs. Fun. “When we started jamming together once a week, we commented that we’ve never collaborated after all these years,” Grauer says. And then there was a relative newcomer to town, Cuban-born cellist Ana Ruth Bermudez

Danceworks Performance Company is an integral part of Milwaukee’s performing arts community, known for bringing humor and virtuosity to its concerts. Danceworks’ studio offers dance classes for ballet, hip-hop, modern and jazz. In addition to yoga classes...

Latin-jazz legend Tito Puente passed away in 2000, but his son, Tito Puente Jr., has carried on his legacy, touring with an orchestra and playing many of the same songs his father popularized. Tonight, the Tito Puente Jr. Orchestra performs an 8 p.m. concert at the Wilson Center.