April will be the premier month for jazz in Denver and Boulder, due to the arrival of the Denver Jazz Fest. Kicking off April 3 and running through April 6, some of the area’s best-sounding venues will open their doors to present internationally known artists and local jazz luminaries.

Performers include saxophonist Joe Lovano’s Paramount Quartet, guitarist Bill Frisell, multi-Grammy winner and Denverite Dianne Reeves, who is unquestionably one of the most accomplished living singers, pianist Omar Sosa, saxophonist Charles McPherson teaming up with trumpeter Terell Stafford, vocalist Ganavya, Boulder-based piano legend Art Lande, emerging and incendiary saxophonist Isaiah Collier, the funk-drenched Ghost Note, The Headhunters and more.

There will be 30 shows total.

It’s encouraging to see the involvement of so many venues in Denver and Boulder, from Nocturne to the Newman Center, presenting such heartfelt music. This will be the first Denver Jazz Fest, and hopefully an annual Colorado tradition will be established. It’s time for the world to be reminded of our extraordinary musical history. Everything you need to know is at denverjazz.org.

Record Store Day

“You can never have enough records” is a statement I embrace. Luckily, Record Store Day is Saturday, April 12. That means your favorite local retailer will amass a stash of limited-edition vinyl for you to grasp excitedly. The archival jazz crop this time around is excellent: there are recently-unearthed live dates from trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (“On Fire – Live From The Blue Morocco”,) bassist Charles Mingus (“In Argentina – The Buenos Aires Concerts”,) and trumpet king Kenny Dorham (“Blue Bossa In The Bronx”) which is of particular interest, because there really isn’t a lot of Kenny Dorham music around in physical form.

There’s also an exhilarating four-hour vinyl box from big bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra, “Nuits de la Fondation Maeght,” which includes a generous amount of previously unreleased sounds of joy from the summer of 1970. It’s as noisy as it is delightful. Locations and the definitive list are at recordstoreday.com. I hope you get what you want.

Guitarist Dave Devine will perform music associated with guitar hero Grant Green at Nocturne March 30, along with a six-course dinner…The Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra presents a tribute to Quincy Jones at Dazzle March 31…The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band will perform at DU’s Newman Center April 8…The Mike Marlier Quartet honors Chick Corea at Nocturne on April 9…the gifted saxophonist Miguel Zenon brings his quartet to Dazzle April 14…saxophonist-vocalist Brianna Harris performs “The Modern Songbook” at Nocturne Saturdays in April…NEA Jazz Master-saxophonist Gary Bartz, who has worked with legends from Art Blakey to Miles Davis, will take to the Dazzle stage May 1-2. Bartz is living history, and he doesn’t appear in Colorado very often…Victor Wooten and the Wooten Brothers appear at the Boulder Theater May 3…

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Even with all of the records that Nikola Jokic already holds in the NBA, he somehow still finds a way to mesmerize fans every game.

As the Denver Nuggets faced off against the Utah Jazz on Friday night, Jokic did the unbelievable and hit a near full-court buzzer-beater in a moment that left fans shocked.

Most importantly for Jokic and the Nuggets, they came out with a win against the Utah Jazz.

After the game, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone gave his thoughts on Jokic’s impressive accomplishment.

“I don’t know if this still holds true and maybe you guys would know but, somebody told me if Nikola Jokic didn’t shoot those desperation heaves, he would be leading the league in three-point shooting,” Malone said. “If you took all of those out, and what you love about him is he does not care. He shoots the ball because he believes that they are all going in.”

“And when I asked him about it after the game when it left your hands did you think it was going to go in? And he told me actually it did, the way it came out and we all know that we have got spoiled watching him with the touch that he has,” Malone said. “His shot-making ability that he has is just incredible. That put us up by ten at the half. But Nikola can find ways to impress which is very hard to do when a player with as many accomplishments that he has.”

To a degree, NBA fans truly have become spoiled watching Nikola Jokic play basketball. Game after game, he’s found a new Wilt Chamberlain-esque record ot break and continues to hit half-court shots with ease.

Nikola Jokic is in a rarefied type of air, one where he could easily be winning NBA MVPs every year, but he doesn’t, solely due to voter fatigue.