Frisell’s signature guitar sound
Bill Frisell with Thomas Morgan (10:30 p.m., Gesù, 1200 Bleury St., $54.35). Frisell blends most known genres into a highly-individual, signature sound, with all its spaces, loneliness and hope. Few are as melodic and inventive in their guitar explorations. If the recent live beauty Small Town, recorded with bassist Morgan, is anything to go by, it will probably be worth it just to hear them do the James Bond-theme classic, Goldfinger. (The documentary Bill Frisell: A Portrait is playing at Cinéma du Parc throughout the festival. See montrealjazzfest.com for the schedule.)
ALSO
Ron Sexsmith (6 p.m., Club Soda, 1225 St-Laurent Blvd., $33.25 to $35.25). Virtually no one in the music business can so consistently bang out memorable pop melodies. With a ridiculously gemfilled catalogue that has not weakened since Grand Opera Lane in 1991, Sexsmith’s songs — not to mention those beautiful ballads — will be going through your head for days.
Marianne Trudel: Tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim, plus original songs (7 p.m., Dièse Onze, 4115A St-Denis St., free). The music of bossa nova pioneer Jobim is always something to celebrate. Trudel, a resourceful and lyrical pianist, is more than up to the task of honouring that incomparable sound.
Polly Gibbons (8 and 10 p.m., Rio Tinto Stage, corner of Ste-Catherine and Jeanne-Mance Sts., free). The big sound of this young British jazz vocalist has critics searching for superlatives. She’s clearly from a generation that listened not only to Ella and Billie, but also Janis and Aretha. Alternating between velvety and gritty, her voice sails on, above and in the corners of the rhythm. The smart money is not on her doing free outdoor shows much longer.
Betty Bonifassi: Lomax (9 and 11 p.m., TD Stage, Place des Festivals, free). Bonifassi continues to pay tribute to ethnomusicologist and field recorder Alan Lomax by reimagining turn-of-the-century slave songs. Her most recent disc, named after that seminal recorder of musical history, is a deeper and rougher exploration of some of the songs that shook us deeply on her 2014 self-titled disc.