Jazz picks: Fred Hersch with Julian Lage, Anthony Wilson and more

A rundown of jazz and jazz-adjacent shows coming to L.A. in the coming days.

Anthony Wilson’s Seasons Quartet at the Broad Stage

Consider an all-guitar jazz quartet and it’s easy to conjure images of fingers burning up and down fretboards with the kind of mind-scrambling fireworks that’ve made heroes out of Pat Metheny and John McLaughlin.

Anthony Wilson offers something more understated with his Seasons quartet. Assembled after being commissioned by guitar maker John Monteleone (whose wares will be featured here), the quartet of Wilson, Julian Lage, John Storie and Larry Koonse conjures a project that debuted with a concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that became a split CD/DVD release in 2011. The lush results rest between thoughtful chamber-jazz and the sort of instrumental cross-pollination reminiscent of the records by McLaughlin with Paco de Lucía and Al Di Meola from the ‘70s. (Wilson also performs at the Blue Whale on Saturday night in a group with Petra Haden and onetime Norah Jones collaborator Jesse Harris).

The Edye at the Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. 8 p.m. Friday. $25 www.thebroadstage.com.

CRITICS’ PICKS: What to watch, where to go, what to eat

John Ellis’ Double-Wide at the Blue Whale

Selected as the Make Jazz Fellow at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica earlier this year, saxophonist John Ellis has served as a powerful sideman for the likes of Charlie Hunter, Robert Glasper and Dr. Lonnie Smith. Here he fronts his own free-swinging, New Orleans-tinged ensemble Double Wide, which features the sousaphone of Matt Perrine, drummer Joe Dyson, local organist Joe Bagg and trombonist Eric Miller. The Blue Whale, 123 Astronaut E S Onizuka St., No. 301. 9 p.m. Friday. $15 www.bluewhalemusic.com.

Fred Hersch with Julian Lage

Pianist Fred Hersch, a major influence on modern jazz stars Brad Mehldau and Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus (who both studied under him), has if anything become a more powerful force since falling gravely ill with pneumonia and AIDS-related dementia in the late ‘00s. Here he appears in a sterling, sympathetic meeting of talents with relative newcomer Julian Lage, who at just 21 earned a Grammy nomination for his debut, “Sounding Point,” in 2009 and is currently part of Gary Burton’s new quartet.

If this meeting of Hersch and Lage sounds anything like “Free Flying,” the duo’s 2013 live album, jazz fans will be going home very happy. Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, Schoenberg Hall, 445 Charles E. Young Drive East, L.A. $29-$41 7 p.m. Sunday. cap.ucla.edu.

ALSO:

Album review: Rick Ross’ ‘Mastermind’ disappoints

Schoolboy Q, Beck albums debut high on Billboard 200 chart

Album review: ‘Girl’ shows Pharrell as better musician than wordsmith

Twitter: @chrisbarton