Jazz has long had an influence on Geils’ music. His father John “Jack” Geils was a big jazz fan and had a large collection of vintage recordings of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. “Some of the first music I heard as a kid in the late ’40’s … was by Benny Goodman,” Geils told the All Music Guide’s Joe Viglione.

Geils later discovered artists like Miles Davis and learned how to play the legend’s tunes on trumpet and drums. Geils also discovered blues greats like Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters via New York radio station WRVR’ s Sunday afternoon broadcasts. Later, while a student at Northeastern University in Boston in the mid-1960s, Geils discovered the folk music of Tom Rush, Dave Van Ronk and Jim Kweskin. All these disparate styles would play a major role in Geils’ development as a guitarist.

After transferring to Worcester Poly Tech, Geils met harp player and multi-instrumentalist “Magic” Dick Salwitz and bassist Danny Klein. Together with these two musicians, Geils formed the J. Geils Blues Band, a group he described to Viglione as “this kinda little acoustic folk blues group.” The group evolved into the J. Geils Band with vocalist Peter Wolf and moved into rock ’n’ roll history.

By the early 1980s, Geils found himself outside of music and heavily involved in restoring and racing cars. Geils told Viglione that, from 1985 until 1992, he “didn’t even touch a guitar.” But, in 1992, Geils re-emerged, forming the band Bluestime with Magic Dick and re-launching his music career by focusing on purer aspects of the music.

In 2004, Geils came full circle, joining a collaborative group called New Guitar Summit and recording a CD titled “Shivers” with guitarists Duke Robillard and Gerry Beaudoin. The three musicians performed tunes such as Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home,” Charlie Christian’s “Shivers” and Mose Allison’s “Your Mind is on Vacation,” among several other jazz and blues classics. It is in this vein that Geils will perform on Sunday, taking a live approach similar to Robillard or TJ Wheeler, in which the lines between mainstream, swing-oriented jazz and blues overlap. The $15 show begins at 6 p.m.

Portsmouth’s trend of attracting some of the best singers in jazz continues at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14, when Meredith D’Ambrosio, a.k.a. the Little Jazz Bird, performs at The Press Room with her husband and frequent collaborator Eddie Higgins on piano. Instead of working in their more customary duo setting, D’Ambrosio and Higgins will join bassist Peter Kontrimas and drummer Les Harris, Jr. This appearance marks the return of the voice/piano duo to the Portsmouth venue after an absence of a few years.

D’Ambrosio is a singer in the same style as Mark Murphy and Sheila Jordan. What sets her apart is that she has a very casual, almost nonchalant approach, more like a storyteller or poet. It’s a lyrical technique that places equal emphasis on how the melody and lyrics intertwine to shape the overall arc of a song. D’Ambrosio’s style allows Higgins to inject imaginative and colorful lines and phrases to complement her subtle approach. It’s music in the true jazz spirit, with plenty of room to explore and create.

Several jazz musicians have passed away over the last few months. Among those who have died is a musician who made appearances in the local music scene for many years. Dick Creedon, whose velvet-toned cornet graced many a band along the North Shore of Massachusetts and who was a long-time member of the Tom Gallant All-Stars, passed away on July 28 at the age of 88. Creedon was a musician whose playing mirrored his up-beat personality and who remained a stalwart of the Bobby Hackett approach to good, swinging, melodic jazz trumpet.

Big band composer/arranger and pianist Bob Florence passed away in Los Angeles on May 15 at the age of 75. An imaginative composer/arranger, Florence wrote for a variety of artists, including Dean Martin, Count Basie and the Tonight Show Orchestra. Florence appeared locally with the Seacoast Big Band several years ago during a concert at the University of New Hampshire. He was a warm human being with a gentle soul and a fine sense of humor.

Drummer and music producer Lee Young, brother of saxophone legend Lester Young, passed away in Los Angeles at age 94 on July 31. Young performed and recorded with Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, among others. He was also the first black artist to work as a first-call, regular studio musician.

Another drummer whose deep pocket grooves and swing formed the foundation for a variety of jazz artists was Bobby Durham, who passed away on July 7 at the age of 71. Durham was Ella Fitzgerald’s drummer of choice for many years, and he performed with a wide range of other artists, including Al Grey, Tommy Flanagan and Oscar Peterson.

Two guitarists who recently died both left indelible marks on the music. Joe Beck, who recorded with Miles Davis and blurred the lines between jazz and rock, passed away on July 22 at age 62. Hiram Bullock, whose rock-oriented playing always maintained a jazz sensibility, passed away on July 25 at age 52.

The jazz world also recently lost two remarkable pianists. Gerald Wiggins, a versatile and imaginative L.A.-based player who performed with Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Roy Eldridge and singer Lena Horne, passed away in mid-July at the age of 86. Ronnie Mathews was a New York City-based player who worked with Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, Art Blakey and T.S. Monk. Mathews, who died on June 28 at age 72, became the pianist of choice for two jazz saxophone stalwarts upon their return to the United States after many years in Europe—Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin.

Griffin himself passed away on July 25 at the age of 80 at his home near Poiters, France. Griffin was an exciting player who worked with a variety of artists, including a stint with Thelonious Monk in the late-1950s. Griffin’s passing is also notable because he, along with Sonny Rollins, was one of the few remaining tenor saxophonists hailing from the glory days of the hard-bop era of the late 1950s.

Composer/arranger, singer and actor Isaac Hayes died on Aug. 10 at the age of 65. His theme to the 1970s movie “Shaft” won both a Grammy and an Oscar award, and his 1969 release “Hot Buttered Soul” is still a landmark recording in the world of soul music.