Tacoma’s Pearl Django kicked off the Jazz Under the Stars concert series 10 years ago and will return to help the free Pacific Lutheran University program celebrate in a special show Tuesday at the Museum of Glass.

The hot acoustic Gypsy jazz and swing ensemble will be joined by the terrific jazz singer Greta Matassa and her trio in a double bill that starts at 7 p.m.

Some announcements for the concert made it seem like Matassa would be performing with Pearl Django, but that dream-team scenario won’t happen until “later this year,” said Matassa, a four-time winner of the Earshot jazz award as “Best Jazz Vocalist” in the Northwest.

“We have a gig together on Camano Island in September,” she said.

Many have wondered why the talented singer hasn’t spread her wings and worked more outside this area, but the coming months will see her piling up the frequent-flier miles.

In August, she will join popular Northwest saxophonist Alexey Nikolaev for one of his return trips to Russia.

“We’ll do a big jazz festival in Moscow, then we do a bunch of club dates right outside Moscow and then we play the Black Sea Jazz Festival,” Matassa said. “It’ll be great. You know, I’ve been raising kids. I’ve hardly gotten out of town in 15 years.”

She said working with the remarkable Russian, who has performed locally with jazz groups large and small, DoctorfunK and Vicci Martinez’s pop-rock band, is always a treat.

“The first time I heard Alexey … he started playing, and he was just bringing it,” Matassa said. “He did chorus after chorus without repeating a single idea. It had been a long time since I’d heard anybody do that … just one fluid concept after another and complete control. … It was really fun. And he’s such a sweet guy. To have that much power and command of his instrument – and not being a complete egomaniac at the same time – was such a plus.”

Then, in September, she heads for L.A. to record a new album, her first in a long time with someone other than herself as producer. George Klabin of Resonance Records, who has been booking Matassa recently for gigs in Beverly Hills, will guide the project.

“The album will have a lot more contemporary L.A. sound,” Matassa said. “We’re doing a Herbie Hancock tune, ‘Chanson,’ and we’re working up an Al Jarreau tune called ‘Save Me.’”

Though Matassa is best known for interpreting jazz standards, she said singing more contemporary material “might be good for me. And I can always come back and do my own projects whenever I want.”

One project she’s thrilled about is traveling to Singapore at the end of the year for a New Year’s Eve show with her best friend, vibraphonist Susan Pascal.

“I think it will be exciting for me to get out of the country and see how I’m received in other cultures,” Matassa said.

Still, she’s excited about doing Jazz Under the Stars, too.

“I haven’t done it four or five years,” she said, “but one of my favorite things to do there is take requests. That’s a lot of fun.”

The Jazz Under Stars series returns to PLU’s Mary Baker Russell Amphitheater July 10 with Olympia vocalist Dennis Hastings. The remaining shows this summer will feature Lance Buller and Stephanie Porter (July 17), Greg Williamson’s Pony Boy Records All-Star Big Band (July 24), the Tacoma trio Hip Bone (July 31), singer Gail Pettis (Aug. 7) and the David Joyner Trio (Aug. 14).

The free concerts all start at 7 p.m. Stargazing will be offered at the W.M. Keck Observatory following the final three performances, and free coffee and star charts will be distributed. If it rains, concerts will be held in Lagerquist Concert Hall.

Early warning: Next year’s South Sound representative at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis will be decided at the Freedom Fair today starting at 3:30 p.m. (see Page 13), but you can hear the 2003 winner of the prestigious competition in a 9 p.m. show at Jazzbones on July 11.

Australia’s Fiona Boyes has been piling up honors ever since she won the Beale Street blues contest. Grammy Awards adviser Jeff Tamarkin calls her U.S. debut album, “Lucky 13,” “one of the most sizzling blues albums – by anyone – in years.”

And Blues Hall of Fame pianist Pinetop Perkins said, “I ain’t heard a woman finger-pick a guitar like that since Memphis Minnie. … She’s the best gal guitar player I’ve heard in more than 35 years.”

Tickets are $8 advance or $10 on the day of the show.

HALF NOTES

 • The New Orleans Creole Cafe features the Blues Gypsys tonight.

 • At the Steilacoom Pub and Grill, Loose Gravel & the Quarry will start at 7 p.m. tonight.

 • Blues guitarist Teddy Lee Hooker will be at the Jambalaya on Saturday, at the Cedarwood on Monday and joins Maia Santell and Randy Oxford at the Muckleshoot Casino on Tuesday.

 • Jazzbones features the Vicci Martinez Band on Saturday. On Sunday, the Aces of Harps, bluesman Charlie Musselwhite, returns for 6 p.m. all-ages dinner show; $20 advance, $22 day of show.

rick.nelson@thenewstribune.com