MUSIC

Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian is, with the exception of "Chipmunks" creator Ross Bagdasarian Sr., America's most beloved Armenian. This is possibly because the former System of a Down frontman is blessed with a charisma that's hard to come by. During his Thursday night performance at the 9:30 club, Tankian managed to appear warm and personable -- like your older rock-star brother -- even while he was caterwauling that "the arms of time are breaking off," in a song whose title, well, has something to do with Beethoven's private parts. Appropriately clad in a circus master's top hat, Tankian led a solid four-piece band -- which included Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde -- through a one-hour set drawn from Tankian's solo debut, "Elect the Dead." The politics were a little heavy-handed. If Tankian's mid-song banter of "Praise the Lord and spend money on killing people," didn't suffice to remind you that he hated the government, then a ripping cover of the Dead Kennedys' "Holiday in Cambodia" really brought the point home. But Tankian expertly buoyed the set's energy. The singer fell to his knees, played air guitar, and half-rapped in his stuttering trademark hyperactive flow -- somewhere between Chuck D and Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof." Even after Tankian strapped on an ornate semi-acoustic guitar and steered things into power-ballad territory -- making strange but persuasive bedfellows of Morrissey and Faith No More -- the audience kept on moshing.

-- Aaron Leitko

Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival

Doing the math was easy when the 13th annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival opened at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater on Thursday night: three headliners, three standing ovations. Even so, the response to vocalist Catherine Russell's standout performance seemed a tad insufficient.

Opening was saxophonist-composer Grace Kelly, a sure-fire crowd pleaser who was celebrating her 16th birthday. Gifted and perky, she delighted the audience long before pianist Billy Taylor, the festival's founder, rolled out a candlelit cake. Her best moments came when pursuing small-combo soul-jazz or funk grooves with plenty of help from trumpeter Jason Palmer and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. Keyboardist Keiko Matsui, who closed the show and who was by far the best known of the artists featured, had no difficulty winning over an audience clearly familiar with her smooth-jazz recordings, beginning with the rhapsodic "A Great Romance." Too often, though, the arrangements emphasized an overly familiar, radio-geared blend of soprano sax, keyboards and electric guitar.

No, the evening belonged to Russell, a wonderfully charismatic performer with a show-stopping voice and an unabashedly old-fashioned repertoire. The daughter of pianist-arranger Luis Russell and vocalist Carline Ray (who was honored by the festival three years ago), Russell has a long string of contemporary pop credits, having collaborated with the likes of Steely Dan, Paul Simon and David Bowie.

But during her festival appearance Russell focused almost exclusively on vintage pop, swing and blues tunes in an acoustic trio setting, accompanied by pianist Mark Shane, bassist Lee Hudson and guitarist-banjoist Matt Munisteri. She paid tribute to Bessie Smith ("Kitchen Man"), Dinah Washington ("My Man's an Undertaker") and Pearl Bailey ("I'm Lazy, That's All") with the requisite power, sass and charm. The festival finishes tonight, with performances beginning at 7.

-- Mike Joyce