Jesse Gallagher of Apollo Sunshine

MARK ZALESKI is only 22, but the saxophonist, who just began his final semester at New England Conservatory, has played with both Dave Brubeck and Jethro Tull. He studied at Brubeck’s Institute in California, and in 2006 he played clarinet in an orchestra Tull took on tour. Nice credentials. But he’s proudest of his all-NEC-based sextet, the Mark Zaleski Band, who released a homonymous CD late last year that’s solid bebop and swing with impressive improv chops. “Everyone comes from a jazz background,” he says, “but we also fit into the modern jam-band category. I don’t want to alter the music, but I’d like to the change the face of the [jam-band] field. One of the things Brubeck advised was, ‘Do what’s cool for you; don’t copy.’ Same at NEC. Doing something distinctly your own is embraced.”

APOLLO SUNSHINE are still working on their Great Mysteries of the Old Soul CD, but they’ve booked what they’re calling a “low-key, intimate” gig at the Milky Way on January 25. . . . KEVIN PATEY and Jittery Jack Management launch a weekly series of DJ nights at T.T. the Bear’s called “Dance Craze” on January 27. DJ FORD E. BUXWORTH spins the first three Sundays, playing Northern soul, ska, old reggae, and more. . . . And RYAN MONTBLEAU — voted Best Male Vocalist at last year’s Boston Music Awards — plays a benefit for Common Ground Relief, a non-profit that provides short-term relief for disaster victims, at the Paradise on February 5. PETER PRINCE, SAM KINNINGER, and JOHNNY TRAMA UNIT will join him.