When you find Igor Stravinsky, Steve Vai and the Screaming Headless Torsos in the same list, you might be forced to make connections you never thought possible. A quick listen to Joe Deninzon's music will do pretty much the same thing.  

Dana Hall isn't merely a Jazz drummer — he's a magician who elicits the same jaw dropping reaction with a kit and sticks that David Copperfield gets when he makes aircraft carriers or the Statue of Liberty vanish. His two-night stand at the Blue Wisp serves as a CD release event for his album 'Into the Light,' but the real event will be witnessing the stellar work of one of music's great beatkeepers.  

Setting contemporary Pop to an African beat is threatening to overtake baseball as the Great American Pastime, but there are plenty of practitioners out there who are hybridizing genres in unique and original ways. Among them is the Chicago Afrobeat Project, formed in 2002. They honed their skills playing the Windy City's loft party scene, earning a solid reputation as a complete live experience and accruing a rabid fan base.  

OK, here's the deal ... a “new rule,” if you will: If you move to Cincinnati and are in a really good active band, even though your bandmates might not live here, we still get to claim you as an honorary "local band." Such is the case with Cincinnati's newest revved-up Swing/Rockabilly/Blues/Jazz band, Neon Swing X-perience, based in Pittsburgh but with singer/trumpeter Mike Urick in town for grad school.  

The Dan Karlsberg Group's show Sunday will have a reunited-and-it-feels-so-good feel as bassist Steve Whipple and drummer Anthony "T" Lee return from New York City, where they both now live and work, to join Karlsberg. The trio will be heard together again later in 2010 on new releases by the Dan Karlsberg Group and saxophonist Brent Gallaher.  

Veteran Jazz musician Bruce Menefield formed the Omni Works Music organization to teach about Jazz via after-school programs around the city. He teams up with a local school that does recognize the intellectual importance of music education, Walnut Hills High School, for the first Omni Works Music All Star fundraising event Monday at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club. Menefield and his Omni Works Music All Stars (which will include Mike Wade, Marc Fields and Billy Larkin) will be joined by the school's Jazz Band.   

Guitarist Bobby Broom might not have the kind of high profile that some of his Jazz contemporaries enjoy, but he has the kind of resume that would make a good many of them green with envy. He's worked in stints with Art Blakey, Dave Grusin, Tom Browne and Hugh Masekela and has successfully balanced his formidable schedule as a guitarist for hire with his burgeoning solo career.   

The Young Republic in an Indie band from Nashville whose members are actually quite accomplished on their instruments and utilize seemingly the entire history of popular music in their songwriting. By no coincidence, the group formed five years ago when they met as students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.  

Soon Clifton's Gaslight District will host a place to buy hammers and nails and possibly a venue to hear live Jazz performed nightly. Already considered one of the city's most livable neighborhoods, Ludlow Avenue's versatile, metropolitan vibe continues to evolve.  

Springfield, Mass., might not be the acknowledged capital of grinding Metal, but that hasn't stopped The Acacia Strain from perfecting the art of down-tuned guitar and demon-balls-in-a-bear-trap vocals.