Babatunde Lea and Friends

Date: Friday, April 5
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Paul Mahder Gallery, 222 Healdsburg Ave., 800-838-3006

Tickets: $20

It’s the annual return of the Operation Jazz Band artists, Babatunde Lea and Friends. Throughout the previous week, they’ve been helping local 5th graders in Healdsburg schools understand the underpinnings of jazz in their classrooms.

Azar Lawrence (tenor sax), Bill Ortiz (trumpet), Gary Brown (bass) and Frank Martin (piano) will join the charismatic Babatunde in this always-fun spring concert, which gives the musicians a chance to show their stuff after playing together for a week. Concert ticket sales help support Healdsburg Jazz’s Music in the Schools programs.

Tickets available online, or by walk-in at: Paul Mahder Gallery,  222 Healdsburg Ave.,  Wednesday-Monday 10-6, Sunday 10-5, closed Tuesday.

Check out trumpeter Bill Ortiz, a veteran of Santana’s touring band and recently seen in Healdsburg with the Marcus Shelby Quintet at the Raven: