Sunday. Jan. 9

Jazz-rock fusion has a negative connotation in a lot of people's minds because they invariably think each genre is compromised, not enhanced. They have a point. The Boston quintet Esthema makes a very good counter-argument. (It's not exactly jazz-rock fusion, either.) After listening to their second disc, "The Hereness and Nowness of Things," I'd agree with Gerald Van Waes of Phyyche Music, who says, the band creates "a new new form of chamber folk (rock) music with a total world music fundament." Violinist Onur Dilisen was raised in Turkey and graduated from the Boston Conservatory; oud and bouzouki player Tery Lemanis is a Berklee grad; drummer Bruno Esrubilsky hails from Rio and is currently at Berklee; bassist Ignacio Long was born in Argentina and is another Berklee grad; guitarist Andy Milas has been performing traditional and contemporary Greek music for two decades and has written and arranged for various prog-rock, metal, jazz and new age projects. So, you might expect this seamless blend of Eastern and Western music, a sinuous, flowing work that snakes its way through the brain and hits a variety of pleasure receptors. They're playing at Church with Emperoor Norton's Stationery Marching Band Sunday Jan. 9. Starts at 9.

69 Kilmarnock St., 617-236-7200  www.esthema.com www.churchofboston.com