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Saxophonist and composer Dan Peterson has been living with his song cycle “Five Simple Worlds… And Ways Of Getting There” for several years; some of the material goes as far back as 2001. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live with a still-evolving work of your own creation for so long, but I know I admire the devotion and lack of ego that it demonstrates.

The suite, which Peterson first performed in June of 2007 with an 8-piece band plus two vocalists and three guest soloists, consists of five pieces about loss and two that deal more with the recovery that follows loss. Peterson’s goal is eventually to perform “Five Simple Worlds…” with sets, costumes, and dancers, but for now he’s focusing on a CD release of the material sometime in the spring and this week’s Tritone performance. Wednesday night Peterson will perform parts of the suite with just a trio, consisting of himself on reeds, Mike Taylor on bass, and Doug Hirlinger on drums.

The performance is part of this month’s installment of Avant Ascension, a monthly series co-presented the third Wednesday of every month at Tritone by Peterson and trombonist Larry Toft, both of whom are members of Bobby Zankel’s Warriors of the Wonderful Sound and a variety of other local bands. The goal of the series is to provide a forum for local ensembles that are, in Toft’s words, “pushing the envelope of any style of avant-garde music.”

Performing after Peterson’s trio is Here Vibe, a new band led by trumpeter Patrick Hughes. The sextet also includes Toft on trombone, Tim Wendel on guitar, and Hughes’s Melody Gardot bandmates, Bryan Rogers, Ken Pendergast and Chuck Staab, on tenor sax, bass, and drums respectively. Following Here Vibe there will be an open jam session.

Avant Ascension: Dan Peterson’s “Five Simple Worlds” and Patrick Hughes’s Here Vibe
Wednesday, February 18, 9:30 p.m., $5

Tritone
1508 South St, Philadelphia, PA
www.tritonebar.com