In March, the New Orleans jazz scene usually reflects a post-Mardi Gras, pre-Jazz Fest Lenten lull. Not so this year. The rich array of options, from major national talent like Nnenna Freelon, Mike Clark and Steve Lacy, to cutting-edge local collaborations, makes this possibly the best non-Jazz Fest month since I started writing this column back in 1997.

First, on the local front, Indian music meets jazz, and, for once, we’re not talking about Mardi Gras Indians, but classical Indian music from, yes, India. Tabla drummer Andrew McLean has organized a fascinating series of concerts at Zeitgeist on Thursdays (at 8 p.m.) featuring himself, Priyo Majumdar on sarod (a 25 string lute with a fretless metallic fingerboard and skin on the body much like a banjo) and a different local jazz musician each week. On March 1, it’s trumpeter Michael Ray, then steel pan drummer Gregory Boyd on March 8, bassist Jimbo Walsh on March 15, tenor saxophonist Tim Green on March 22 and the exhilarating pianist Henry Butler on March 29.

Last June, McLean organized a similar series at Zeitgeist which created quite a stir, especially the mind-blowing concert with piano wizard Henry Butler, who McLean called for the gig on more than a hunch. “I had read an article where someone asked what Henry had been listening to lately and he said klezmer and Indian classical music,” recalls McLean. “I was living with the Klezmer All Stars at the time, and I was practicing tabla and learning Indian classical music, so it really stuck with me.”

McLean, 26, is actually a New Orleans native who ten years ago was playing electric guitar and singing in a prog-rock band called On in clubs like the old Howling Wolf in Fat City, Muddy Waters and Jimmy’s. “I was playing a Strat and a Marshall, you know, writing these epic tunes,” he recalls with a chuckle.

But then McLean went to college in California, where he eventually enrolled in UCLA’s budding ethnomusicology program and later became interested in tabla drumming and Indian music. A year after a field study stint in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where he studied ceremonial healing songs with a Quichua shaman, he got a grant to conduct a “post-modern exploration of New Orleans,” where he interviewed and played music with many notable New Orleans musical shamans, such as Michael Ray, Nicholas Sanzenbach and Harold Battiste. To his surprise, they all responded well to the tabla sound.

“All these musicians that I deeply respected were just eating the tabla up, even though I’d only been playing four or five months,” he says. “They were saying, ‘Keep going with that!’ So I recognized that it was something that the community of New Orleans would really appreciate.”

After several more years on the West Coast at the Ali Akbar College of Music, where he studied Indian music intensively under Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, McLean returned to New Orleans in 1997. He became the most qualified tabla player in town, teaching students, playing classical Indian concerts and collaborating with numerous musicians in diverse genres, such as Theresa Andersson, Dreamland, Edward “Kidd” Jordan, George Porter Jr. and the Indians of the Nation.

Not long after his return, he was asked to produce a concert for the American Association of Indian Pharmaceutical Scientists convention, and he somehow persuaded the organizers that instead of a local jazz band followed by a classical Indian concert, it would be better to present one band with musicians from both worlds.

His neck thusly stuck out, he assembled a quintet with sarodist Majumdar, Tim Green, bassist James Singleton and drummer Mark DiFlorio. “No one in the quintet but me really knew what was going to happen or how it would work out,” he recalls. “I rehearsed everyone pretty much separately, and we showed up and played this gig that was supposed to be 50 minutes long, and the first tune went 50 minutes, the momentum was that on… They responded so well to the whole group it just kind of blew our minds, not expecting it to be so cohesive as it was.”

Of course, jazz musicians have been digging Indian music since the ’60s, when Coltrane and Eric Dolphy (along with the Beatles) were drawing inspiration from Ravi Shankar, but there have been relatively few attempts to fuse it on an equal basis with jazz. The most influential attempt was guitarist John McLaughlin’s Shakti, an all acoustic group co-led by violinist L. Shankar and featuring tabla master Zakir Hussain and clay pot player Vikku Vinayakram that made a big impact internationally from 1975 to 1978.

McLean is quick to dispel direct comparisons to Shakti, saying that his jazz-Indian fusion sessions are less structured and more “intuitive and spontaneous,” closer to a free-jazz conception. But it’s obvious that Shakti still functions as a common reference point for the musicians involved, especially Tim Green.

Green says: “In my teenage years, along with listening to the music we all listened to on AM radio, I was interested in music from other cultures. During that same period, a band making a great statement was Shakti. I would travel to New York just to hear this group a total of four times. It was McLaughlin with L. Shankar, with whom I played in 1994 with Peter Gabriel at Woodstock! This music was incredible, spiritually and technically.

“Years later, I listened to Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek’s explorations of Indian classical music, plus I was trying to teach myself some of the scales (ragas) and how to integrate them into the music I’ve been playing.

“When I met Andrew, he told me of his interest, and eventually proposed that I do some playing with him and Priyo. I was very apprehensive, as I know how deeply one must study that music and that particular discipline and all of its rules. I knew that I was just a dabbler, and though very interested, I could never devote the effort to that one discipline at the expense of all the others I’m studying. But eventually Andrew convinced me that it would be okay; that they would teach me some real basic things about form and the progress of the music, and that my abilities as an improviser would be welcome, and not disrespectful to their traditions.

“Andrew has been right on the money. It has been an incredibly beautiful experience, and as close as I can get to the feeling I had twenty-five years ago when I would travel on the train to Manhattan to see Shakti perform at the Bottom Line or some festival. Andrew’s concept is working because he has educated himself well within the Indian classical music tradition, but, as an American, has many other musical interests and knowledge, and is willing to and has the imagination to explore the many possible fusions. I’m lucky to be in the number.”

NNENNA FREELON

On March 17, jazz vocalist and three time Grammy nominee Nnenna Freelon performs at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in the third edition of “Jazz America,” a series of concerts curated by Terence Blanchard and coordinated by the CAC and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation. Freelon is touring in support of her recent Concord release, Soulcall, which also garnered a Grammy nomination with its intensely personal and compelling blend of standard and eclectic influences (pop, gospel, funk and hip-hop). She is likely to appear with her touring band: pianist Takana Miyamoto, bassist Wayne Bachelor, drummer Woody Williams and percussionist Beverly Botsford.

MIKE CLARK

Legendary jazz-funk drummer Mike Clark brings his “Prescription Renewal Tour” to House of Blues on March 8, featuring four leading young players in the neo-jazz-funk scene: 8-string guitarist Charlie Hunter, keyboardist Robert Walter, saxophonist Skerik and turntablist DJ Logic. Perhaps best known for his work with Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Clark has become one of the most sampled drummers in hip-hop music, and, as they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery. He recently released his debut solo album, Actual Proof (Platform), which blends, in typical Clark fashion, hard-swinging jazz with earthy funk.

STEVE LACY

A soprano saxophonist/composer whose 45-year career mirrors the evolution of jazz, from traditional jazz to bebop, free-jazz and beyond, Steve Lacy was one among first people to seriously study and interpret the music of Thelonious Monk, who continues to inspire much of his finest work. He plays Snug Harbor March 1 & 2, hopefully in the company of his working trio: Jean-Jacques Avenel (bass) and John Betsch (drums).

NEW VENUE

By now you’ve probably heard about Kermit Ruffins new club in the Treme, but do you know about St. Mary’s Bar? Located at 961 St. Mary Street (one block off Magazine), the bar now features “Club Crescendo,” a hip, cozy jazz scene Uptown (where a jazz club is desperately needed). It provides an appropriately dark, romantic atmosphere, with red lighting and plenty of candles flickering on the brick floors and walls. Sky Covington, the elegant proprietor and jazz poet, often serves treats to the patrons, ranging from chocolate-covered strawberries and caviar to red beans and rice.

On Sundays, the club presents “The Spiritual Ascension,” with drummer James Alsanders, guitarist Jesse Lewis, singer/rapper/poet Kelly Jones and Covington supplying poetry and jazz vocals. Tuesdays are devoted entirely to jazz poetry with a pronounced beatnik feel. Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown’s quintet holds court on Wednesdays. Fridays alternate between trad jazz from Gene Black and straight ahead jazz from Generation Next, followed by a DJ, spinning jazz and hip hop into the early morning hours. An open “anything goes” jazz jam heats up Saturday night. Call (504) 410-1421 for more information.