Jazz is on its way back to the Backstage Bar at Theatre Square in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, with the return of BNY Mellon Presents JazzLive.

A winter installment of the year-round series kicks off with a performance from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday by Roger Humphries + RH Factor. It will run weekly through March 29.

A production of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, JazzLive performances are free and open to the public.

Late afternoon on a weekday is “a nice little sweet spot” for JazzLive, said Terri Bell, the series curator and the Trust’s vice president of strategic partnerships and community engagement.

“It’s a great thing to do on your way home from downtown, or before you go out for the evening to one of our shows or out to dinner,” she said.

It also works well for the musicians, said Thomas Wendt, who will play Feb. 15 with his quartet.

“Tuesday typically is not a very busy night for musicians, so it’s great to have an opportunity to play on an off-night,” he said. “Because it’s early, people can come right after work and not be out too late. It’s a nice, relaxing environment.”

Performers are a mix of crowd favorites and new acts, playing a variety of jazz styles, Bell said.

“There are artists who have been with us for 18 years since the program launched, and we’re always looking for new acts to come in, folks who are great musicians and worthy of being part of this historic program,” she said. “We’re always trying to mix it up — musicians who have been around for a while, new artists at the beginning of their careers, women, men, a variety of the best of jazz in this region.”

There’s something for every music lover in the mix.

“We have artists who are more smooth jazz, we have artists who mix a little R&B into it, some pop,” Bell said. “Of note during this particular winter lineup, which will be February and March, is that Women’s History Month is in March, and we’re celebrating that. Every week in March is headlined by a woman jazz artist.”

Jazz from the classic canon

A Pittsburgh native, Wendt has been playing the drums professionally since age 14. A former student of Humphries, he has played with local jazz luminaries including Dwayne Dolphin, Joe Negri, Sean Jones, Dave and Maureen Budway, Kenia, Salsamba and the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra.

At the Backstage Bar, he’ll be at the drums with the Thomas Wendt Quartet, with Jeff Bush on trombone, Clifford Barnes on piano and Eli Naragon on bass.

“We play a lot of music from what you might call the canon of classic jazz, compositions written by jazz musicians from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s,” Wendt said. “We also draw from the Great American Songbook, music written by people like Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.

”The music from the ’30s to the ’60s, for me, sort of encompasses everything that’s great about this music,” he said. “There’s a lot that happened in America between 1930 and 1970, and the music that we play reflects all the different things, good and bad, that happened during that era; and that seems to be inspiring to us.”

Due to the pandemic closure of Trust venues, the RH Factor date will be the first indoor JazzLive show since March 2020, Bell said. The Backstage Bar is the series’ regular indoor home from October to June, while June-September concerts take place outdoors in Katz Plaza in the Cultural District.

“Last summer, we did have a 10-week run at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s pop-up Allegheny Overlook Park,” she said.

The upcoming JazzLive schedule includes:

• Feb. 1: Roger Humphries + RH Factor

• Feb. 8: Reggie Watkins Quartet

• Feb. 15: Thomas Wendt Quartet

• Feb. 22: Dwayne Dolphin

• March 1: Anita Levels and SoulVation

• March 8: Deanna Witkowski Trio

• March 15: Kenia

• March 22: Ava Menna Trio

• March 29: Lynn Speakman Quintet

The Backstage Bar is located at 655 Penn Ave. Proof of vaccination or negative covid-19 test, along with photo identification, is required of all visitors to Trust venues. Masks also are required.

For more information on JazzLive or safety protocols, visit trustarts.org.

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