Jay Harvey Upstage

  Blending genres to express her musical identity, Grace Kelly opened her quartet's first set Saturday night Grace Kelly holds forth at the Kitchen. with a tightly fused mini-medley of a James Bond movie tune and Billie Eilish's "No Time to Die." It was a much-anticipated return visit to the Jazz Kitchen, a club about which she expressed enthusiasm repeatedly while noting the two-night stand was the last stop on her current Midwestern-East Coast tour. Kelly, red mane waving as she acrobatically played her shiny alto sax, has increased the proportion of singing to her free-flowing instrumental prowess since I last heard her here. Remaining intact is her outspoken embrace of the audience and a knack for cultivating its heartiest responsiveness. By her encore, Huey Lewis and the News' "Power of Love," she was circulating through the dining-room audience in extended soloing on the groove-heavy tune. But she has  based her appeal increasingly on vocals, bei...

  The '"musical mayor" of Indianapolis, Rob Dixon , reached out to his constituents Friday night Rob Dixon holds forth at the Kitchen. at the Jazz Kitchen , and his position was sustained by acclamation  over a long set that climaxed with his stroll around the venue playing a long solo that, by virtue of a microphone attached to his tenor sax, got heard by everyone and was reinforced in sync with the band. Like a deft politician, he managed to reach out to shake hands as he passed by one table after another.  The non-peripatetic personnel of Dixon's enlarged Triology included Reggie Bishop and Gary Mielke, keys; Brandon Meeks, bass, and Richard "Sleepy" Floyd, drums,with a special guest appearance by Vick Luna , trombone. They all stayed on the bandstand, but lifted the mood all along the way wherever Dixon wandered. The band opened with a  unified, powerful  pair of statements that included Dixon's "Ten Thousand Ships," the title alluding the...