Eddie Moore Jazz Festival
Thurs/8-Sat/17, Oakland Asian Cultural Center and Expression Center for New Media

NOTHING CAN BLUNT the cutting edge of jazz more than a festival. But for a dozen years the all-volunteer Jazz in Flight organization has offered its annual Eddie Moore Jazz Festival as a kind of whetting stone for the music, allowing both the artists and the audience to sharpen their sensibilities and slice directly to the spaciousness and freedom promised by the improvisational innovations of the 1960s and '70s. In its 13th edition, the EMJF (founded in honor of the late beloved Bay Area drummer Eddie Moore) is held in two new venues with seven concerts that qualify as rare events on the West Coast. Guitarist John-Carlos Perea opens the festival Thurs/8 with a quartet that includes saxophonist Francis Wong, percussionist Jimmy Biala, and guitarist Makoto Horiuchi. On Fri/9 the Cosmosamatics, an outfit featuring saxophonists Michael Marcus and Sonny Simmons, bassist Tarus Mateen, and drummer Jay Rosen, perform. Hamiet Bluiett's trio with pianist D.D. Jackson and percussionist Kahil El'Zabar makes up the bill on Sat/10. Other concerts include performances by reed player Marty Erlich's quartet (Thurs/15) and saxophonist Ellery Eskelin with Andrea Parkins and Jim Black (Sat/17). Thurs/8-Sun/11 and Thurs/15, 8 and 10 p.m., Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 Ninth St., Oakl.; Fri/16-Sat/17, Expression Center for New Media, 6601 Shellmound, Emeryville. $16-$24. (510) 763-4663, www.jazzinflight.org. (Derk Richardson)