Museum pieces are no good for jazz. But then there are players who speak a vocabulary of the past with so much power and conviction that they make it a living tongue, and Eric Alexander is one of the most valuable of these. The Olympia-reared saxophonist is fully planted in the Blue Note hard-bop tradition, but he never sounds like an homage act; he’s got too many surprising ideas, too many sparks flying off the bell of his horn. With his regular New York pianist, David Hazeltine, and Seattle support from Chuck Deardorf and Matt Jorgensen, Alexander will make his persuasive case that the muscle-swing format of the ‘50s and ‘60s can yet reach the hearts and minds of the Twittering class.

Tue., May 12, 7:30 p.m.; Wed., May 13, 7:30 p.m., 2009