Gerald Trimble with Bird Fleming

If Bach or Mozart had been born a century or two later, they might have earned a place alongside Bird, ‘Trane, Monk and Miles in the great pantheon of singularly named jazz giants. The extemporaneous compositional skills of these renowned composers have been muted by a few centuries’ worth of concert-hall canonization, but Kansas City troubadour Gerald Trimble seeks to reawaken the improvisational spirit of music that predates even these two geniuses. Armed with an impressive technical command of medieval and Renaissance stringed instruments and a wealth of knowledge related to the fascinating cross-cultural array of folk forms that span from India to Ireland, Trimble doesn’t merely preserve the sounds he studies; he reinvents them. His upcoming concert, titled “¡Cubaroque! — The Renaissance Meets the Caribbean,” features Afro-Cuban percussionist Bird Fleming and represents the first of three performances that will make up his Africa, Andalusia, America concert series, dedicated to celebrating the marriage of cultures through music.