FRIDAY NIGHT JAZZ
FRIDAYS THROUGH OCTOBER. Moody Brews. 6-9 p.m. Free. 

To get a full, poetic picture of what’s been happening behind Moody Brews in Pettaway Square on Friday nights when weather allows, follow tenor saxophonist Dave Williams II on social media and scroll until you find his introspective narratives on how the jazz jams took shape — and how he’s watching his bass-playing son participate in its evolution. In a way, the sessions that soundtrack the astroturf-carpeted courtyard each week are an entirely new phenomenon, in a microbrewery relatively new to the Pettaway neighborhood. In another way, they are part of a long-running, complicated, nomadic and undersung jazz scene here in town, one that reaches back to lively late nights at the bygone Afterthought, to the familial and casual jams at Williams’ dad’s shuttered downtown cafe, to the avant-garde recordings out of Chad Fowler’s Hot Springs Village-based jazz label, to the endlessly fruitful collaborations sparked by Chris Parker and Kelley Hurt’s “No Tears Suite,” written to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine in 2017. Musicians wander in and out of the ensemble seamlessly and informally, augmenting Parker’s piano and Williams’ sax as the courtyard fills up and the sun goes down. Kids and dogs abound, conversations mingle and overlap and expand to include acquaintances at the next table and, without the transactional pressure of menus and servers and table turnover times, the whole collective pace seems to shift into low gear. These days, Moody Brews has set up Tent City — a network of pop-up pavilion shade tents and heavy-duty oscillating fans — to make the summer evenings bearable. We highly recommend pairing your leisurely hang with a smoked tofu banh mi from the brewery and a generous pour of Stomp, the breezy new salted lime lager they’re making with Isbell Farms rice. Follow @moodybrewsbeer on Instagram for updates.