The best jazz shows this month in NYC

Rising jazz vocal star Cécile McLorin Salvant sings with a grace and wit that evoke the greats of the idiom. It's easy to hear why she won the prestigious 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition at just 21 years of age.

Known for appearing alongside the like of fusion legend Herbie Hancock and contemporary hard-hitter Avishai Cohen, Beninese guitarist and vocalist Lionel Loueke has earned a winning reputation for his smooth, sophisticated blend of jazzy impulses and African resources.

The Blackbox Ensemble, an ambitious ensemble that creates music with provocative critical frameworks, debuts a new piece, "Artificial Life," which explores the interconnectedness of sound, biology, and physical space. The program features collaborative work by two up-and-coming artists: composer and clarinetist Andrew Moses, an alum fellow with the LA Philharmonic, and violinist and sound artist Lara Lewison, whose diverse work winds between electroacoustics, classical composition, and kaleidoscophic video collage.

The work of vocalist-composer Jen Shyu brings tight, jazz-informed interplay to bear on themes of the Asian-American diaspora. She sings, dances and plays various instruments during this weekend's 25th anniversary celebration for the Jazz Gallery.

A veteran of Suicidal Tendencies and a protégé of Flying Lotus, electric-bassist Stephen Bruner now plies funky, jazzy grooves as Thundercat, in which guise his work can call to mind vintage Stanley Clarke and Bootsy Collins, as well as more recent low-end theorists Squarepusher and Victor Wooten.

This alt-jazz phenomenon made its name—and earned itself a few haters—interpreting favorites by Blondie, Nirvana and other rock icons, but has since aimed the spotlight on its striking, inventive postbop-gone-pop originals, tunes that handily demonstrate the group's uncommonly broad pool of influences. Experience the next chapter in the band's history here, with Orrin Evans taking over the piano bench in the recent absence of the idiosyncratic Ethan Iverson.