Ari Hoenig Quartet

Fri., Dec. 26, 8 and 10 p.m., $20; mid., $15, Chris' Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom St., 215-568-3131, chrisjazzcafe.com.

by Shaun Brady

jazz

Despite the fact that his regular groups occasionally appear under the name Punk Bop, drummer Ari Hoenig took the "punk" purely as a modifier, keeping the music in a recognizably hard bop vein. Unlike other of his contemporaries, he doesn't typically strive to incorporate melodic concepts from rock and electronica into his music, though he cites them as influences; instead, his idiosyncratically physical playing draws on their attitudes. But Hoenig recognizes how the whole concept of fusion has to keep up with the times, saying recently, "Fusion became big in the '70s and '80s, but both rock and jazz have changed so much since then, that there's a whole other kind of fusion now." When Hoenig returns to his hometown this Christmas, he'll visit Chris' with a band that seems to fit that definition, a newly assembled electronic project featuring Anthony Tidd on bass, Tim Motzer on guitar, and John Swana plying the cosmic sounds of the EWI rather than his familiar trumpet.

Fri., Dec. 26, 8 and 10 p.m., $20; mid., $15, Chris' Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom St., 215-568-3131, chrisjazzcafe.com.