Zeb's Presents The NYC Jazz Guitar Festival
• Zebulon Sound and Light 223 W. 28th St., (212) 695-8081 Friday-Sunday
Situated above a plumbing-supply company in Chelsea, Zeb's is an ingeniously and independently operated jazz loft with better audio and acoustics than many of its upscale rivals. The house specialty is jazz vocalists, who regularly congregate for open-mic sessions. However, owner-operator Saul''Zebulon''Rubin is himself an accomplished guitarist, and this weekend he's amassing a dozen or so colleagues representing all subgenres and generations of strummers and pickers into an ambitious weekend of jazz guitar. Highlights include veteran Italian Gene Bertoncini and Bucky Pizzarelli (who will join his son's quartet at the Caryle after Saturday's show). But I'm also looking forward to the exciting Ed Cherry, and to Mr. Zebs himself. On Sunday, the whole lineup builds to an "After Party and All Star Jam."