Mina Agossi

Of joint French-Benin heritage, Mina Agossi started as a casual blues singer but quickly discovered jazz and her quirky but engaging approach to it. Her first recording featured only her freely improvising voice and a double bass, a pared-down approach that she still favors a dozen years later. Her latest, Who Wants Love? (Candid), a live album that appropriately kicks off with the Gershwins' "Slap That Bass," also has a drummer and occasional contributions from a trumpeter and additional percussionist. But that still gives Agossi plenty of room for her sometimes-spectacular vocal high jinks, ranging from idiosyncratic scatting to imitations of scratching, horns, and electric guitars. She can play it dark and sultry, too, or turn on the power jets for an African-flavored stunner like "Aloe." But nothing she does sounds conventional, whether turning Cole Porter or Ray Noble upside-down with touches of hip hop, drum 'n' bass, free jazz, and global rhythms, or turning in equally eccentric interpretations of Hendrix. $17 at 7:00 p.m.; $12 at 9:00 p.m.
Mondays, Sundays. Starts: Sept. 9. Continues through Sept. 10