Don Byron and Aruán Ortiz at Mezzrow

Don Byron and Aruan Ortiz at Mezzrow
Tickets: $20. Sets at 8 pm and 9:30 pm.

Clarinetist Don Byron is a musical polymath. He’s played everything from early Duke Ellington to free jazz, composed chamber music – including a piece that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize – and turned heads when he became a rare musician of color playing mid-20^th century Jewish klezmer music. So when he turns up with Cuban pianist like Aruán Ortiz, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. Until they start playing – then surprise is kinda the point. Ortiz and Byron take on a wide-ranging repertoire, upending expectations and taking extraordinary musical leaps together Wednesday night, Feb. 27, at the jazz club Mezzrow.