A few months back, San Jose Jazz’s Arturo Riera told Metro that he defines jazz very simply: It’s “music that requires improvisation.”

The genius of this definition is not only its simplicity, but its accuracy. Try to define it any other way and you’ll find exception after countless exception. The one thing that binds all jazz musicians is improvisation. This fact is on clear display in the SJ Jazz Winter Fest lineup.

The biggest name on the bill is undoubtedly Roy Ayers. The massively influential vibraphonist and pianist, now in his sixth decade of touring, plays the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto on Feb. 24. The list of people who look up to Ayers is long and staggering. Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, Tupac, Mary J. Blige—all of them have cited Ayers’s music as influence. The dude has a stranglehold on cool, and it really only takes one listen to “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” or “The Third Eye” to see why.

Equally experienced and steeped in lore are the members of The Cookers, who play Cafe Stritch on Feb. 16. The septet might have just formed in 2007, but don’t let that fool you. Between them, the members have played with Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, and countless others. This is a band of heavyweights.

Then there are the young cats. Reva DeVito is a rising R&B singer from Portland. She plays The Continental’s weekly alt-soul party, The Changing Same, on Feb. 23. The following evening, Feb. 24, future-funk outfit Troker bring their off-kilter jams to MACLA. The Mexico-based sextet craft tunes that sound something like a hip-hop-inspired side project of The Mars Volta’s horn and keys section. After Troker wraps their show, head over to Stritch for a set from The Huntertones—a brass- and reed-driven band from Brooklyn with mad beat-boxing skills. Think “slappin’ de bass,” only on the tuba.

San Jose Jazz Winter Fest is bringing 24 live performances from veteran and emerging jazz acts, as well as student groups. Here is a selection of some of the most interesting musicians playing at this year’s gathering.

Marquis Hill
Cafe Stritch; Thu, 7pm, $15-$25

Known for his technical but elegant sound, trumpeter and composer, Marquis Hill is quickly becoming recognized as one of the most imminent trumpet practitioners of his generation. Hill has had a long history in jazz with a resume to prove it. Since the age of twelve, Hill has performed in countless ensembles, earning a MA in Jazz Pedagogy from DePaul University from which he began leadership of his long running ensemble, the Blacktet. With four albums under the belt, Hill’s innovative composition and performance was awarded with the 2012 International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition and the 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition. Hill is also a noted musical educator, with past teaching positions at University of Illinois, Chicago and the NIU Summer Jazz Camp. Marquis Hill and the Blacktet, which includes Christopher McBride on alto sax, Justin Thomas on vibraphone, Joshua Ramos playing bass, and Makaya McCraven on drums will be performing for one night only at Cafe Stritch. (TM)

Nicholas Payton Trio
Jade Leaf Lounge;Fri, 8pm, $25-$35

San Jose Jazz has a built reputation for consistently exhibiting exciting and imaginative musicians. With their upcoming presentation of the Nicholas Payton Trio, the company is ramping up its renown. Two decades ago he was hailed as one of the jazz’s most promising trumpeters. The Grammy-award winner has collaborated with everyone from Ray Charles to Herbie Hancock, and a revolutionary style, Nicholas Payton is considered one of the most important and distinct boundary pushers in jazz. This innovation extends to the use of other instruments such as keyboards and organs, which further extend Payton’s tantalizing but ethereal soundscapes. Much of this is a showcased on the Nicolas Payton Trio’s 2015 double album Letters, which they will be performing along with songs from Numbers  at the Jade Leaf Lounge. Payton’s trio also includes bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Joe Dyson. (TM)

Nosotras
MACLA; Fri, 8pm, Free

In 2007, an 8.0 earthquake struck Peru. It lasted for three minutes and killed 519 people—including 17 attending mass in a church in Ica. More than 1,000 people were injured and 50,000-plus houses were destroyed. The destruction still affects daily life. Nosotras formed to raise money for the survivors. Composed of female performers, the renowned collective has toured South America, hoping to inspire and stress the crucial role women play in the arts. The quartet plays modern jazz, spiced up by percussive dancing by Gabriela Shiroma and conga and cajon slapping by Peta Robles. (JF)

Incendio
Jade Leaf Lounge; Fri, 10pm, $15-$25

Before J.K. Rowling borrowed the word to christen flaming spells, Incendio served as a fitting moniker for this energetic group. Meaning “fire” in both Italian and Spanish, the band plays “Latin guitar world fusion,” which means they lay down some truly blistering acoustic and electric licks over a eclectic array of clean, invigorating rhythms. Since 2000, they’ve averaged more than 150 shows a year, hitting venues like the Sundance Film Festival, the California World Festival and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. They’ve released nine studio albums—their seventh, “The Shape of Dreams,” sat atop the Amazon Flamenco charts for the better part of 2013. (JF)

Bria Skonberg
Cafe Stritch; Sat, 6pm, $20-$30

Bria Skonberg lives as testament to how full of crap dumb blonde jokes are. The award-winning trumpeter, vocalist and composer stands out among modern musicians for her roots in classical jazz, but explorations that fold in influences from soul music, world percussion and New Orleans blues. After two heavily praised albums, So Is the Day and Into Your Own, her third album will be executive produced by San Jose Jazz Festival—the venture funded by an anonymous donor. She runs the New York Hot Jazz Camp and Festival, and still somehow finds time to volunteer at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens. (JF)

Bill Doggett
Jade Leaf Lounge; Sat, 8pm, $20-$30

Titanic R&B organist Bill Doggett is turning 100. The legendary centurion and former child prodigy formed his first collective at the ripe age of 15. He worked with and arranged compositions for Ella Fitzgerald. He toured with her as well as with Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris and Lionel Hampton. He’s known for singles, “Hippie Dippie,” “Slow Walk” and his signature hit, “Honky Tonk.” The shimmering instrumental strolls along a loping bassline, giving time for his accomplices to rip solos on the guitar and saxophone before Doggett brings things home with a rollicking organ riff where his fingers zip, slide and pounce on the keys with holy exuberance. (JF)

J.C. Smith Blues Guitar Slingers
Cafe Stritch; Sat, 9pm, $20-$30

The Bay’s own J.C. Smith cracked into music as a drummer for the Back to Back Blues Band. Then, he traded in the sticks for an axe—a Gibson 335 to be precise—and started hacking new paths through the genre. His latest release, “Defining Cool,” stuck on the Roots Music Report for 20 straight weeks. He assists the Silicon Valley Blues Society and appears on KKUP-FM as “Johnnie Cozmik.” Rounding his lineup of slingers: Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Alvon Johnson, Jimi Hendrix tribute artist Pistol Pete, and Swiss import Aart de Geus, who creates his distinct sound by pumping his guitar through antique amps. (JF)

Keyboardist Robert Glasper was in San Jose with his band the Robert Glasper Experiment for two shows at Theatre on San Pedro Square for San Jose Jazz Winter Fest.

Metro photographer Aron Cooperman was there to catch the action.

In the scheme of things, Robert Glasper knows that winning the 2013 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album is a very big deal. But the jazz pianist’s immediate reaction in the hours after he scored an unprecedented triumph with his Blue Note project Black Radio was to fall soundly asleep.

“I flew into L.A. from Japan five days before the Grammys to produce Chaka Khan’s record. Once we won, my body just crashed, and I slept for about 24 hours,” says Glasper, 34, who plays two shows Saturday at Theatre on San Pedro Square with his Experiment as part of San Jose Jazz’s Winter Fest. “Then I went to Lagos, Nigeria for two days with Maxwell—and I just got back.”

With his serious jazz chops and love of the piano trio format, Glasper might not seem to be a likely candidate to spearhead a soul revival. But his R&B-infused Experiment, the band featured on Black Radio, is steeped in the cadences of the African American church, which is where Glasper learned to play.

His mother, Kim Yvette Glasper, was a Houston institution, a pianist and vocalist who led a soul band and played regular jazz gigs. She was also the music director at the East Wind Baptist Church, which is where Glasper started performing in public. She was killed in a double homicide with Glasper’s stepfather in April 2004.

“I was the only child, and I grew up just with her,” Glasper recalls. “She was one of those moms who didn’t want a babysitter, so when I wasn’t with my aunt, I was at a lot of rehearsals and gigs. She sang everything, and every night [played] a different kind of gig: jazz, R&B, Broadway, pop, rock. I grew up with no understanding of genre, like an iPod on shuffle. That was the vibe.”

Glasper started accompanying his mother in his early teens and co-wrote many of the gospel tunes that she recorded on two albums for Born Again Records. Another pianist who often played with her sparked Glasper’s interest in jazz, showing the aspiring teenager interesting chord voicings. When it came time for him to audition for Houston’s vaunted High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (which also produced drummer Kendrick Scott and pianist Jason Moran), the pianist taught him the Spider Man theme as a minor blues, and it did the trick.

Glasper made the move to New York City in the mid-1990s to study at the New School, which is where he met neo-soul belter Bilal Oliver, who ended up introducing him to numerous hip-hop and R&B artists. For the past decade, Glasper has maintained an enviable double musical life.

He landed a series of high-profile gigs with jazz heavyweights like guitarist Russell Malone, trumpeter Terence Blanchard and bassist Christian McBride while also leading a sophisticated post-bop trio featuring drummer Damion Reed and bassist Vicente Archer. Jazz’s most prestigious label, Blue Note, cemented his status as a rising star by signing him in 2005, the first new addition to the label in five years.

At the same time, he has sustained deep ties to the world of hip-hop, collaborating with artists such as Q Tip, Kayne West, Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Common and, most importantly, Mos Def (a.k.a. Yasiin Bey), who hired him as music director.

He tried to bridge the two musical realms on his 2009 Blue Note album Double Booked, which he divided between his straight-ahead trio and the Robert Glasper Experiment, a quartet featuring Casey Benjamin on saxophones, flute and vocorder, electric bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Chris Dave.

On Black Radio, Glasper stepped away from jazz to deliver an R&B manifesto featuring a host of soul-drenched singers, including Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, Erykah Badu, Chrisette Michele, Meshell Ndegeocello and East BayÐraised Ledisi (on the Grammy-nominated track “Gonna Be Alright”).

A clever play on words, Black Radio can be seen as a cri de coeur over the sorry state of R&B on the FM dial. But the title track refers to the indestructible black boxes recovered from plane crashes, using the familiar image as a metaphor for the enduring power of black music.

“It has a double meaning,” Glasper says. “When music is crashing around us, this will not burn in the flames. Good music always stands the test of time.”

Whatever side of the street Glasper chooses to play on, his music embodies timeless values, delivering a welcome dose of smart and buoyant soul.

Jose James

Other Festival Picks:

San Jose Jazz’s Winter Fest (March 6-15) brings an impressive array of talent to the South Bay over the next 10 days, though some of the best acts overlap this weekend at Theatre on San Pedro Square and San Pedro Square Market. Here are several recommended concerts. The action continues on March 15 with the Vijay Iyer Trio.

Jose James
Friday at 8pm, Theatre on San Pedro Square; $25/$30. Always on the lookout for fresh blood to join the thin ranks of male jazz singers, the scene has readily embraced JosŽ James, though he’s still in the process of figuring out where he fits. A soulful crooner, he has explored jazz tunes with pianist Junior Mance and interpreted ballads with McCoy Tyner (in a project based on the classic album pairing vocalist Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane). But his new album on Blue Note, No Beginning No End, taps into hip-hop, soul and electronica, styles he references with authority and fluidity. A real talent to watch.

Delhi 2 Dublin
Friday at 9pm, San Pedro Square Market; $25. Proving that the party music knows no borders, Punjabi bhangra, traditional Irish dance music and international electronica beats come together in British Columbia’s Delhi 2 Dublin. Originally assembled for a St. Patrick’s Day club night in Vancouver seven years ago, the Indian/Irish axis kept the dance floor so packed the musicians decided to turn the one-off project into a band.

Sean Jones
Saturday at 4pm, Theatre on San Pedro Square; $25/$30. A prodigious horn player who held down the lead trumpet chair in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra from 2004 to 2010, Sean Jones is a powerfully expressive improviser who has recorded a series of excellent albums for Mack Jazz focusing on his original compositions. Wynton Marsalis isn’t the only trumpeter who has employed Jones. When masters like Tom Harrell and Jon Faddis keep calling a cat for gigs, he’s got to be fierce.

Tony Monaco Trio
Sunday at 2pm, Theatre on San Pedro Square; $25/$30. On a scene rife with impressive young organ players who know their way around a Hammond B-3, Tony Monaco stands out as one of the very best. Championed by organ great Joey DeFrancesco, who produced his breakthrough 2001 album, Burnin’ Grooves (Summit), Monaco possesses superlative technique, sweat-inducing rhythmic drive and boundless imagination.