The Austin Chronicle

Recommended

edited by Christopher Hess

10TH ANNUAL AUSTIN JAZZ & ARTS FESTIVAL

Victory Grill/Waterloo Park, Friday 12- Sunday 14

The Jazz Fest winds up in high style this weekend: early Friday evening at the Victory Grill features trumpeter Bobby Bradford, who molded the free-jazz experience he got playing with Ornette Coleman into his own distinct style. Later that night at the Victory, drummer Donald Edwards celebrates his new Leaning House release, In the Vernacular, with a hot combo from his hometown of New Orleans. Saturday afternoon at Waterloo Park features Concerto Grosso, Elias Haslanger, the Sheila Sanders Band, and more. That night, Jason Marsalis and his quintet Los Hombres Calientes bring their Afro-Cuban influenced jazz to the Victory Grill. Sunday at the park includes Fred Sanders, The Golden Arm Trio, Salongo, the Asylum Street Spankers, and culminates with the salsa-bebop extravaganza of world-renowned percussionist Ray Barretto & New World Spirit.

NATHAN & THE ZYDECO CHA-CHAS/IRMA THOMAS

Antone's, Friday 12/Saturday 13

They're calling this "The Real Louisiana Weekend" over at Antone's, and with good reason. Accordion-slingin' Nathan Williams will be cooking up a hot night of Creole rhythms on Friday, while Saturday night finds the soul queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas, stirring hearts with the same sort of Louisiana R&B she pioneered in the Sixties.

NICK LOWE

La Zona Rosa, Friday, June 12

Lowe's latest, Dig My Mood, is a sleeper. Too bad. It's a superior disc - torchy, twangy, melancholy, and full of the same humor and grit that made his name in the early Eighties as main hammer in Rockpile and "Cruel to be Kind" New Wave Jesus of Cool. The new Lowe is full of the same wide range; he's not afraid to dig into the depths of darkness à la Johnny Cash, but can turn it all around and croon and drip as unforgettably as Nat King Cole. But no matter the turn of phrase or twist of mood, he's 100% Nick Lowe. - Kate X Messer

BAD LIVERS

Stubb's, Friday 12 & Saturday 13

The pastoral life Danny Barnes must surely lead in the far reaches of Washington State has not dulled the punk ethos that roots around in the dirt under the bluegrass foundation of his and bassist Mark Rubin's Bad Livers. Their upcoming release, Industry and Thrift, has its share of traditional pickers as heard on Hogs on the Highway, but also plugs back into the old Touch & Go days. Friday night it's the good ol' acoustic Livers with Paul Sweeney's mandolin, and Saturday night they'll have a drummer behind them and electric guitars strapped on.

ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT

Liberty Lunch, Saturday 13

The words "Big Rock Show" are never more faithfully applied than when speaking about the aural upheaval that is a Rocket From the Crypt show. Fat guitars, blaring horns, growly, screaming vocals by mastermind Speedo, and matching glittery shirts - Elvis punk. The smoke has cleared from the San Diego punk boom of a few years ago, and it's no surprise that Rocket, under the power of their latest for Interscope, RFTC, are the last ones standing.

BARDO POND, ST-37, LITE BRITE HIGHWAY

Electric Lounge, Monday 15

The stew-thick sludge-rock of guitars and more guitars that comprises the boggy soundscape of Matador's weed-hazed Bardo Pond can be deceptive; there's a lot going on under all that noise. When Isobel Sollenberger enters the fray with her sotto voice and flute, the effect is both mesmerizing and unsettling. Austin's ST-37 blast out the middle, and openers Lite Brite Highway wowed 'em at the Melodica Festival last month.

BLUE MOUNTAIN, MARAH/JON DEE GRAHAM, MIKE IRELAND & HOLLER

Continental Club, Monday 15 & Tuesday 16/ Wednesday 17

The World Cup of Alternative Country, Americana, just plain rock & roll: Can Philadelphia's Marah, whose new Let's Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later Tonight is a potent blend of Wilco and the Bottle Rockets, upstage Oxford Mississippi's feral backwoods rockers Blue Mountain (whose label put out Marah's debut) over a two-night stand Monday and Tuesday? Does Kansas City's Mike Ireland, whose recent Sub Pop debut Learning How to Live may be one of the better No Depression albums this year, stand a chance of upstaging Jon Dee Graham - the Man! - on his Wednesday night turf at the Continental? You won't have to sit in a stadium with 50,000 crazed soccer fans to find out. - Raoul Hernandez

STEVE LACY

Continental Club, Thursday 18

Few who were there will ever forget the astonishing performances given by Lacy & Co. at the Continental Club early this decade. Since then, the jazz world's premier soprano saxophonist has relocated from Paris to Berlin and trimmed his group from longstanding sextet to a trio.
A former McArthur Fellowship winner and the first jazzman to play modern/avant styles on the straight horn, Lacy is said to have inspired John Coltrane to pick up the instrument. His heady musical mixture of sublime melodies, knotty rhythmic contours, and jaw-dropping improvisation is best described as "The Sounds of Surprise." Two sets, 8pm and 10pm with the Golden Arm Trio playing after the second. Expect the unexpected. - Jay Trachtenberg

ALSO PLAYING

Friday: Old 97s, Damnations, Liberty Lunch

Saturday: Swamp Dogg, Continental Club; Guy Clark, Terry Allen, Ana Egge, Dessau Music Hall

Sunday: Digital Underground, Atomic Cafe

Monday: Classical Guitar Night, Mozart's

Tuesday: Converge, Today is the Day, Emo's

Wednesday: Man... or Astroman? Clone Project, Stubb's, Buddy Miles, Dessau Music Hall

Thursday: Spring Heeled Jack, Electric Lounge

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