Free tickets to Kris Kimura!

Editor's Note: The first 10 readers to post a comment at the end of this story will receive two complimentary tickets to the show. To comment you must be a registered on this site. Tickets must be picked up at The Monitor office at 1400 E. Nolana in McAllen Friday, April 18 before 5 p.m.

In a strange and twisted way jazz musician Kris Kimura envies Britney Spears.

Though he says the troubled pop princess can't sing her way out of a paper bag, Kimura says we live in a day and age where people listen with their eyes.

"There are artists out there who will never look like Britney Spears and will never get the attention they deserve," he said in a phone interview from San Antonio. "The attention span has changed so much that people need this whole package, good looks, flashy lights and fog machines and it's cool I guess, but so many others are being overlooked."

Kimura and his Kris Kimura Quartet consider themselves a part of a dying genre which they hope to resuscitate.

Harry Connick Jr. did it back in the 90's and Michael Buble and Norah Jones are part of the newer generation giving jazz its second, or third, wind. Kimura says even that isn't enough.

"We need the next batch of guys to do it again," he said. "Jazz is dying in this country. It was popular music back in the day because of its content. And way back in the day it was content that made things popular.

"But it was also wonderful music done by these trained and talented musicians."

Back then it was forward-thinking Cole Porter and George Gershwin who kept audiences on their toes and provided an entertaining outlet for music lovers, Kimura said.

"That's what was going on at that time," he said. "If these lights and fog machines were around then people would've been going to that too. There are still people who love this music it's just hard to find them."

This jazz quartet can be found in Austin, the live music capital of the world. They are a staple at the Elephant Room, one of the city's most revered jazz clubs and can be found two nights out of the week at Eddie V's, a five-star downtown restaurant and regularly performs at Austin hotspots such as III Forks, Z-Tejas, Reed's Supperclub and McCormick & Schmick's.

The quartet, made up of Kimura's buddies of 12 years, Ryan Davis (piano/organ), Tommy Howard (guitar), Adam Booker (bass) and Kimura on saxophone and vocals, will perform Friday night in McAllen as part of Cine El Rey's South of the City Limits concert series.

Kimura says he looks forward to gigs outside of the restaurant circuit to really showcase their love for the music. At any given performance folks can hear a little, "Fly Me to the Moon," or "Mack the Knife," but the quartet will also treat fans to some originals.

Original arrangements of the music from the Great American Songbook are par for the course, according to the band's biography. The band lineup is one that emphasizes swing, modeled after two of the greatest jazz trios of the past- the Nat Cole Trio and the Oscar Peterson Trio. However, the band is certainly not limited to swing. The group also performs the bossa novas, Latin jazz, Dixieland traditional jazz, bebop, and more.

"We're the throwbacks," he joked. "We're not doing this to be trendy, we're doing this because (jazz) is what we love. I want it to be like it was back then. To me it's what the music stood for back then. Had we been born 50 or 60 years ago we would've fit right in."

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Miriam Ramirez covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4468.

KRIS KIMURA QUARTET

WHEN: Friday, 8 p.m.
WHERE: Cine El Rey, 311 S. 17th St., McAllen
COST: $10 G.A.
FOR MORE INFO: www.cineelrey.com