Earshot Jazz Festival: Week two

Among the nearly 20 musicians and combos performing the second week of the Earshot Jazz Festival is pianist Helen Sung. She came relatively late to jazz, when she was almost finished with college.

A trained, classical pianist until then, she was inspired by a solo piano performance by Harry Connick Jr. and immediately put all her energy into learning jazz. Fourteen years after her conversion, and two years after winning the prestigious Mary Lou Williams piano competition, she will perform with her trio Saturday night at the Kirkland Performance Center (350 Kirkland Ave.; $25-$30; 425-893-9900 or www.kpcenter.org).

As a Chinese-American woman with a college-professor father, the Houston-born Sung went from being a type to a curiosity — she was recently chosen to be a musical ambassador to Africa — when she switched genres, quickly putting her technical skills toward a different form, showing that jazz is as much an expression as a discipline.

And that is, in large part, the point of the Earshot festival which continues through Nov. 8. This week's lineup features electronic jazz, avant-garde, fusion, straight-ahead, historical and even some music that does not strictly qualify as jazz such as the Khoomei Taiko Ensemble: a group of Mongolian throat singers and Japanese taiko (drum) players, who will play in Seattle's Town Hall Sunday night (1119 Eighth Ave., Seattle; $21-$24; 800-838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com).

"We like to encourage people to set aside their preconceptions about what the music is and what it isn't and try to be open to it," said festival director John Gilbreath. "It should be a lot more joy than it is work."

Perhaps the least familiar member of the famous Marsalis clan is drummer Jason Marsalis, who will play vibraphone (a new instrument for him) at Tula's Thursday and next Friday night (2214 Second Ave., Seattle; $16; 206-443-4221 or www.tulas.com). Young Brooklyn pianist Marco Benevento, 31, fuses jazz with rock and hip-hop at the Triple Door Wednesday night (216 Union St., Seattle; $18-$20; 206-838-4333 or www.tripledoor.net). He is among many innovative musicians fueling a vibrant music scene in and around Park Slope, Brooklyn. Veteran pianist Hal Galper plays Tula's tonight and tomorrow with local sidemen Jeff Johnson and John Bishop ($15). Hard bop, piano prodigy Eldar Djangirov, born in Kyrgyzstan, plays Tula's Monday and Tuesday night ($18).

Several acts with local roots will also play this week: Hadley Caliman, Thomas Marriott, the Washington Composers Orchestra, Tom Varner, Andy Clausen, Anne Drummond, Myra Melford and Greg Williamson. Go to www.earshot.org for the full lineup.

Hugo Kugiya: hkugiya@yahoo.com