Jazz musician, composer and poet Roy Nathanson, an OTBKB fave and one of the 2009 Park Slope 100, will perform on Sept 28  and 29th at The Jazz Standard with the original Jazz Passengers (Curtis Fowlkes, Marc Ribot, EJ Rodriguez, Bill Ware, Brad Jones, Sam Bardfeld and Roy). at 116 East 27th Street -(212) 576-2232. Shows are 7:30 and 9:30. At the Sept 29th show Debbie Harry (of Blondie fame) will sing instead of Ribot on guitar.

October 7th is your chance to hear “Subway Moon,” Nathanson’s beautiful spoken word jazz cycle performed by Sotte Voce at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. Show begins at 8:30PM and it’s free.

The Jazz Passengers were founded in l987 by Nathanson and Trombonist Curtis Fowlkes. The two musicians met in the band of the Big Apple Circus and toured extensively together in John Lurie’s The Lounge Lizards. The two musicians connected over their Brooklyn roots, their affection for hard bop, comedy and eccentric currents in modern American music.

In l989 Bob Blumenthal wrote in the Boston Globe, “The seven piece Passengers often suggest a perverse mainstrean band, a hard-bop group as imagined by Frank Zappa.” This is an apt description of the two leaders intention in forming the band.

Early Passengers sets and cds involved complicated and soulfull compositions mixed with original vocals and comedy pieces. This mixture was in evidence in their first 5 cds: Broken Night/Red Light, Deranged and Decomposed, Live at the Knitting Factory, Plain Old Joe and Implement Yourself.