Quintet

Here is a promise: You will not hear a local jazz group play with more talent, more focus, more intensity than the quintet led by drummer Brooke Sofferman. Sofferman, a New England Conservatory professor who calls his group The Sofferman Perspective, has quietly become one of Boston's most interesting musicians and band leaders. As a drummer, he is nonpareil; he elicits a symphony of percussive sounds from his kit. As a composer, he is impressive; his tunes incorporate intricate melodies and utilize odd time signatures.

DETROIT — Ali-Ollie Woodson, who led the legendary Motown quintet The Temptations in the 1980s and ’90s and helped restore their hit-making glory with songs including “Treat Her Like A Lady,’’ has died, a friend said. He was 58. Mr. Woodson died Sunday in southern California after battling cancer, said Billy Wilson, Motown Alumni Association president. Wilson said Mr. Woodson’s wife, Juanita, told him about the death Sunday. Mr. Woodson was not an original member of the group, which had several lineup changes since it started in the 1960s.

In Jody Weber's new dance quintet "Revolve," floor-to-ceiling triangles of billowy white cloth lit by a warm golden light suggest the sails of ships at sunrise. As the five women dip and turn, it is a gorgeous image, complemented by the sounds of water lapping against the sides of a boat. Then, with just a simple shift of lighting and the entrance of Middle Eastern-sounding music, the panels seem to become the doorways of Bedouin tents, and the dancers form slowly shifting lines and circles, a folklike quality to their simple walks and their arms swinging in weighted arcs.

In the sometimes murky world of experimental jazz, New York’s Claudia Quintet stands out with a playful spirit and utterly distinctive sound that gets hips swaying and heads nodding in even the most austere music-nerd performance spaces. A not-found-elsewhere front line of accordion (Ted Reichman), clarinet (Chris Speed), and vibraphone (Matt Moran) makes for bright tones filled with folky allusions and plaintive undercurrents. The compositions of drummer-bandleader John Hollenbeck privilege rhythm, so that even the sparest passages crackle with momentum.

MONROE, Ga. - Fred Mills, a Grammy nominee who made numerous records as a trumpeter with the Canadian Brass quintet and performed with several orchestras, was killed Monday night in a car crash in Georgia, said officials at the University of Georgia. He was 74. Mr. Mills was a professor at the university, joining it in 1996. Besides teaching trumpet, he coached a graduate brass quintet, The Bulldog Brass Society. A native of Canada and graduate of the Juilliard School of music in New York, Mr. Mills performed across the globe, from Sweden’s Brass Nova to Orquesta...

Dave Holland's stellar quintet of recent years is undergoing a bit of renovation. Not to worry, though. Yes, it is rare for a leader to corral a group of thoroughbreds as talented as Holland's old unit and keep them together long enough to feel like a genuine band. And yes, the quintet the past several years was particularly fine, with Grammy nominations for each of its first four albums. (The most recent, the live double CD "Extended Play," lost out to Wayne Shorter's "Alegria.

"On days like this, you separate the music fans from the wimps," exclaimed Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik while surveying the drenched but cheerful crowd at the 12th Annual WBOS EarthFest at the DCR Hatch Shell Saturday afternoon. The day's mood was dampened by the rain, which alternated between sprinkles and downpours. And the festival spirit was lessened somewhat by a more uniform lineup than usual. It was heavy on male-fronted adult-contemporary alternative-rock bands such as Carbon Leaf and Low Millions, and light on stars, which in past years have included Sheryl Crow and...

CAMBRIDGE — You’ve got to admire bassist Dave Holland. The guy has been at the forefront of jazz for more than 40 years — from providing the brooding thump on Miles Davis’s landmark “In a Silent Way’’ to pressing one of avant-garde jazz’s finest recordings, “Conference of the Birds,’’ to leading the most consistently impressive bands of the past 20 years. Yet he doesn’t seem to have an ounce of ego about him. Friday night at the Regattabar, he chewed the fat with people in the audience before his set. Onstage he introduced each song and took the...

Billy Corgan seems confused these days, even for a guy whose bewildered, angst-ridden lyrics made him a spokesman for sensitive music fans when he fronted mid-'90s, alt-rock powerhouse the Smashing Pumpkins. He looked relaxed during his 90-minute set before a packed house at Avalon on Thursday night. But the show hinted that he's in flux as a musician and a performer (as does his recent campaign to revive the Pumpkins). As he unleashed songs from his solo debut, "The Future Embrace" -- from hypnotic set opener "A100" to the dance beat-driven "Mina Loy (M.O.H.)"

Things kept happening at the 2006 Tanglewood Jazz Festival that weren't supposed to. Luckily, most of them -- in particular the surprise guest appearance of Diana Krall at her husband's taping of "Piano Jazz" -- only made for a better show. The weather, alas, wasn't as near-perfect as it's been in previous years, driving attendance down to 13,000 from last year's peak of 17,000, with Saturday night's chilly, rain- threatened double bill of Wynton Marsalis and Dr. John by far the hardest hit. The weather wasn't responsible, but Marsalis showed up with a quintet instead of his...

CAMBRIDGE — You’ve got to admire bassist Dave Holland. The guy has been at the forefront of jazz for more than 40 years — from providing the brooding thump on Miles Davis’s landmark “In a Silent Way’’ to pressing one of avant-garde jazz’s finest recordings, “Conference of the Birds,’’ to leading the most consistently impressive bands of the past 20 years. Yet he doesn’t seem to have an ounce of ego about him. Friday night at the Regattabar, he chewed the fat with people in the audience before his set. Onstage he introduced each song and took the solo spotlight only...

The NBA draft got a lot stronger yesterday, with the announcements that several outstanding players are leaving college to try their luck at the professional game. Freshman All-Americans John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins are among five Kentucky players who have declared for the NBA draft. After collecting nearly every national player of the year award, Ohio State’s Evan Turner is skipping his senior season. And talented first-year star Xavier Henry tearfully said he is leaving Kansas.

The Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, all members of that august orchestra, made their Boston debut on Friday with a Celebrity Series concert at Jordan Hall. The wind quintet is, tonally speaking, a fractious bunch; only the oboe and bassoon can claim any true family resemblance, the rest a miscellany of timbres and shades. The question for any iteration of the group is whether to regard that dissimilarity as a virtue or a problem. The Berliners fall into the latter category, and have solved the problem extremely well; their blend, their ability to unite all five...

MONROE, Ga. - Fred Mills, a Grammy nominee who made numerous records as a trumpeter with the Canadian Brass quintet and performed with several orchestras, was killed Monday night in a car crash in Georgia, said officials at the University of Georgia. He was 74. Mr. Mills was a professor at the university, joining it in 1996. Besides teaching trumpet, he coached a graduate brass quintet, The Bulldog Brass Society. A native of Canada and graduate of the Juilliard School of music in New York, Mr. Mills performed across the globe, from...

A federal judge yesterday blocked the NFL from suspending five players for violating the league's anti-doping policy by using a banned diuretic, clearing the way for them to play tomorrow. US District Judge Paul Magnuson said he needed more time to consider the case after hearing several hours of arguments from the league and the NFL Players Association. "I've got to read the background material," said Magnuson, who noted he received a 20-page filing from the NFL earlier that morning.

MANSFIELD - There's an old pop-music business saying that goes "don't bore us, get to the chorus," a nod to the fact that a catchy chorus sells records. Apparently, that attitude goes beyond the Brill Building and extends even to hard rock these days. Mississippi quintet 3 Doors Down's set at the Comcast Center on Tuesday revolved around accessible, tuneful, and much-repeated choruses filled with simple statements heavy on sentimentality. During "Be Like That," singer Brad Arnold moaned plaintively: "If I could be like that/ I would give anything just to live one day in those...

Gomez has always been a bit of a mystery to mainstream music fans. The English quintet first made a splash with the 1998 release of their debut album, "Bring It On," subsequently garnering a number of awards in their native land and seemingly setting the stage for international fame. Instead, the band has become something of a cult favorite, fueled by critical praise and a dynamic live show. With the release of "Split the Difference" that may be about to change. The album is easily their most accomplished effort to date, showcasing the wonderful blend of four distinct vocalists as well as the group's continuing...

MANSFIELD - There's an old pop-music business saying that goes "don't bore us, get to the chorus," a nod to the fact that a catchy chorus sells records. Apparently, that attitude goes beyond the Brill Building and extends even to hard rock these days. Mississippi quintet 3 Doors Down's set at the Comcast Center on Tuesday revolved around accessible, tuneful, and much-repeated choruses filled with simple statements heavy on sentimentality. During "Be Like That," singer Brad Arnold moaned plaintively: "If I could be like that/ I would give anything just to live one day in those...

Here is a promise: You will not hear a local jazz group play with more talent, more focus, more intensity than the quintet led by drummer Brooke Sofferman. Sofferman, a New England Conservatory professor who calls his group The Sofferman Perspective, has quietly become one of Boston's most interesting musicians and band leaders. As a drummer, he is nonpareil; he elicits a symphony of percussive sounds from his kit. As a composer, he is impressive; his tunes incorporate intricate melodies and utilize odd time signatures.

Things kept happening at the 2006 Tanglewood Jazz Festival that weren't supposed to. Luckily, most of them -- in particular the surprise guest appearance of Diana Krall at her husband's taping of "Piano Jazz" -- only made for a better show. The weather, alas, wasn't as near-perfect as it's been in previous years, driving attendance down to 13,000 from last year's peak of 17,000, with Saturday night's chilly, rain- threatened double bill of Wynton Marsalis and Dr. John by far the hardest hit. The weather wasn't responsible, but Marsalis showed up with a quintet instead of...