September 7, 2003

Jazz & Pop

ll dates subject to change.

September

JOHN ZORN As he did 10 years ago at the old Knitting Factory for his 40th birthday, the saxophonist and composer Mr. Zorn will celebrate himself with a month of continuous performances, amounting to an exhaustive, if not quite complete, retrospective. Tonight he plays his string quartets; tomorrow he duets with the drummer Milford Graves; Tuesday he plays his scores to films by Kenneth Anger, Maya Deren and Harry Smith; and so on through September. Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, (212) 358-7503. www.tonicnyc.com

NICHOLAS PAYTON Well, now it's official: every major young trumpeter in jazz keeps a funk band on the side. Mr. Payton's Sonic Trance has come up with a first, self-titled album, and it alters the cluttered landscape of these backbeat side-projects. It is, in places, legitimately weird and thoughtful; its post-electric-Miles scuffs and skids transcend the jazz musician's common desire to make a soigné mood album or a blunt attempt at hip-hop. Tuesday. Warner Brothers.

ANDREW W. K. This tall, bearded commando-nerd of partydom wants your business: if his first album never stopped hectoring you to exult with him, his second, "The Wolf," suggests ways to counterbalance the exultation with some feeling, some sharing, some growing. Tuesday. Island.

JUNE CARTER CASH Now that she's gone, having died in May at 73, June Carter Cash really seems pretty far ahead of her time in white, mainstream American show business: a God-fearing but entirely tolerant matriarch. On "Wildwood Flower," her final effort, full of the contributions of other Cashes and streaked with snippets of early-career radio performances, she sounds like the least pretentious person ever, rattling off old and new songs in her shaky voice. And unlike her husband, Johnny, she didn't use her frailty to enhance her personal mythos. Tuesday. Dualtone.

MICHAEL BRECKER This influential jazz saxophonist is also a veteran record maker, having worked in all kinds of straight-ahead and pop contexts. He returns with "Wide Angles," an ambitious record credited to his Quindectet. That means a 15-piece group; it includes French horn, oboe, a string quartet and the standard jazz brass and rhythm-section set-up. Tuesday. Verve.

BRANFORD MARSALIS The saxophonist's second quartet album on his own label draws inspiration from "The Art of Romare Bearden," a major posthumous retrospective of the painter's work at the National Gallery of Art in Washington that opens next Sunday. Bearden let the sound and shape of jazz suggest his paintings; Mr. Marsalis does the reverse in return. Tuesday. Marsalis Music.

MY MORNING JACKET An interesting little band from Louisville, Ky., which could become a pretty interesting big band. The music on its third album, "It Still Moves," shuffles the way the Stones did when they started recording in America and briefly felt Southern, but the record also uses the droning sound-architecture that sounds so good to the Radiohead generation. Tuesday. ATO.

JAMES BLOOD ULMER Though he's believable as an earthy old salt with a guitar, it's kind of disappointing that the guitarist, after 20 years of being completely uncategorizable in the spaces between jazz and funk and rock, is making blues records; now he's got a category. "No Escape From the Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions" is produced by Vernon Reid. Tuesday. Hyena.

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS Luther Dickinson, the guitarist in this outfit, is the jammingest musician you can imagine: this year at Bonnaroo, the annual festival of post-hippie aesthetics, he was neck-and-neck with Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers for hopping on the most stages and cutting loose. "Polaris," the band's third album, has more wide-open psychedelic patches than before, yet the group still plays straight-ahead John Lee Hooker grooves. Tuesday. Tone-Cool.

JOAN BAEZ Who was expecting a modern-sounding album from Joan Baez? But here's "Dark Chords on a Big Guitar," her first in five years, with songs written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Greg Brown and others. (Mark Spector was the clever producer.) It's not moth-eaten folk ballads, but much closer to what Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams are up to; "Rosemary Moore" begins with some chicken-scratch guitar in a well of echo, slow-dance drums, and the opening line, "Take out your hearing aid, we'll go have a drink." Tuesday. Koch. (Ms. Baez will perform at Town Hall on Oct. 17, with Laura Cantrell opening.)

OMAR SOSA A Cuban pianist with the dexterity of Chick Corea or his compatriot elder, Chucho Valdés, but with hippie-ish enthusiasm for everything: jazz, hip-hop, African and Asian music, beating up the insides of his piano. After an effusion of varied albums (duo, trio, octet, orchestra), his newest is the solo set "A New Life." Tuesday. Ota. (Mr. Sosa will perform with his octet at Zankel Hall during the new theater's opening festival, on Friday).

SINEAD O'CONNOR For her final album (she says), "She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty," Ms. O'Connor will gather live and rare performances from her past, as well as a recent live set encompassing old hits and traditional Irish music. Tuesday. Vanguard.

MARK RONSON You don't want to like a mixtape album by a celebrity D.J., but you will anyway: "Here Comes the Fuzz" makes all the music in Mr. Ronson's database (early hip-hop, soul, disco) large-scale and super-sexy. Tuesday. Elektra.

SEAL For "Seal IV," his first album in five years, the singer is back with the producer Trevor Horn, who makes songs the size of football fields. It's mass-pop music — ballads, dance tracks, some soul-flavored stuff, all immaculately produced to work on your emotions and lodge melodies in your head. Tuesday. Warner Brothers.

ZZ TOP From the beginning you could have sensed that these Texans might be here 34 years later: a rock-trio sound as simple and armored as theirs, with lyrics about legs and cars and whiskey, does not age. "Mescalero" updates the sound, filtering it through electronic effects. Why not? Taco Bell has a Web site, but the food's the same. Tuesday. RCA.

JOHN COLTRANE BIRTHDAY BROADCAST The annual juggernaut of Coltrane on New York radio: all his recordings, including live and archival stuff that can't be found in record stores. And it will mark the return of WKCR, Columbia University's radio station, to its old broadcasting power — out to the five boroughs, New Jersey and Westchester — after two years of reduced power following the loss of its transmitter atop the World Trade Center. Next Sunday through Sept. 26. WKCR-FM, 89.9. www.wkcr.org

DMX The hardcore rapper — who goes to No. 1 on the charts as soon as each new album hits the street — has intimated that he may quit after his new "Grand Champ." His priorities are elsewhere: he has fallen in love with religion and out of love with the record industry. He has also created a line of clothes for dogs. Sept. 16. Def Jam.

ERYKAH BADU Ms. Badu is forever intimating incredible promise, then taking two steps back, or just disappearing for longer than most. But the single "Danger" from her new album, "Worldwide Underground," sounds fine: streamlined, sculptured into choppy beats by her new live, no-guff-taking band Freakquency. Sept. 16. Motown.

ARETHA FRANKLIN "So Damn Happy" is the Queen of Soul's first new record in five years, and it's an up-to-date pop-gospel record using producers who have worked with Whitney Houston, Faith Evans, Mary J. Blige and others. Ms. Blige contributes vocal arrangements and backup singing on a few tracks. Sept. 16. Arista.

PATTY LOVELESS After a recent detour through bluegrass music — to the satisfaction of the new audience for bluegrass — Ms. Loveless is back to well-made Nashville country-folk with "On Your Way Home"; she's working with an aesthetically upscale songwriting crew including Marty Stuart, Jim Lauderdale, Rodney Crowell and Buddy and Julie Miller. Sept. 16. Epic.

NATALIE MERCHANT Like a lot of artists with self-perpetuating fan bases but without enough hit-single heat to make the major-label ride worth it, Ms. Merchant has decided to put out her own records. "The House Carpenter's Daughter" is her first release on her own label, and it's a collection of old American songs, including the 1930's coal-miner's union song "Which Side Are You On?" Sept. 16. Myth America.

BUBBA SPARXXX It took Timbaland to see that a hardcore white archetype — the Southern good ol' boy — could yield incredible hip-hop records. "Deliverance," his second album, improves on the first by mixing in sounds swiped from rockabilly, bluegrass and blues. Sept. 16. Beat Club/Interscope.

JOSS STONE A white 16-year-old from Dover, England, who has studied and internalized soul music of the 60's, Ms. Stone is automatically due for attention; happily she was allowed to make a careful, smart record, "The Soul Sessions," helped by old hands (Betty Wright, Timmy Thomas) and the best of the new hands (Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Angie Stone). Sept. 16. S-Curve.

YOUSSOU N'DOUR This great Senegalese singer canceled his last American tour to protest American actions in Iraq, but he's back for Zankel Hall's opening festival. Sept. 16. Zankel Hall.

DAVID BOWIE Historically, it's done Mr. Bowie good to stay in one place and work steadily with a band until he really gets a new sound in place. But his married and stable, New York-dad period just isn't his best — the stirring moments on "Reality" are spread pretty far apart. Sept. 16. ISO/Columbia.

SHELBY LYNNE Once a country singer, now simply a Southern singer, Ms. Lynne has been a creature of her own gut reactions. "I Am Shelby Lynne" in 2000 abandoned any pretense of country music and seemed like a release of startlingly good ideas; "Love, Shelby" followed, an emboldened attempt to be the kind of high-budget act who performs the national anthem at ballparks; the new "Identity Crisis" lurches back in the other direction, with just voice and guitar. Sept. 16. Capitol.

THURSDAY Big hopes are pinned on this rock band, the newest embodiment of the rock subgenre called screamo. As in, misery-wracked vocals like the kind you remember from the Cure, and the hundred-pound guitar sound that you remember from Metallica. The new album is called "War All the Time." Sept. 16. Island.

A PERFECT CIRCLE Maynard James Keenan's other band, in addition to Tool, travels in the same dark, swirly, mysterious area of hard-rock; when the songwriting is at its best, it's an efficient, powerful unit. The new album is "Thirteenth Step." Sept. 16. Virgin.

KEITH JARRETT-GARY PEACOCK-JACK DEJOHNETTE TRIO A return by this always reliable, high-flying jazz trio, one of the most important going concerns in the business over the last 20 years. They have lately been alternating programs of astutely chosen standards and programs of completely free collective improvisation. A JVC Jazz Festival event. Sept. 19. Carnegie Hall.

`A MIGHTY WIND LIVE' It had to happen: a real-life Town Hall performance of the bands from Christopher Guest's folksploitation-docucomedy "A Mighty Wind." Including the imaginary acts the Folksmen, the New Main Street Singers and Mitch & Mickey. Part of the New Yorker Festival. Sept. 20. Town Hall. festival.newyorker.com

APRIL MARCH It's easy to dismiss a cultured American dabbling in groovy French music of the 1960's as un peu pretentieux, but April March (née Elinor Blake) has worked assiduously at it for the last 10 years. And with the producer Bertrand Burgalat she has built on a root concept with more and more high-flying sounds and songwriting; "Triggers," released in France months ago, is her best album yet. Sept. 23. PIAS.

AESOP ROCK There is no more verbose rapper alive. (Unless there's someone who can bust rhymes like "Let us hope that the horrors of evil/ No longer loiter on the doorstep of your past/ Circle of sandbags drag the shield a meal the meaty hand grabs/ I'm splitting hopes at your local Acropolis," only faster.) But the million-stanza marches on "Bazooka Tooth" work as word-music, and the surreal backgrounds are worth listening to a second time. Sept. 23. Definitive Jux.

STEVE EARLE "Just an American Boy" is a live album, released in conjunction with a DVD documentary about Mr. Earle's musical and political activity. Because it's a live album, there are raps between songs; because it's Steve Earle, the raps get a little preachy. But it is good to hear someone articulate nuanced views, then turn around and rock so well. Good live sound, too. Sept. 23. Artemis.

DAVE MATTHEWS His first solo album without the Dave Matthews Band is called "Some Devil," and no DMB means a different animal altogether. Sept. 23. RCA.

LIMPBIZKIT If public opinion is turning against Fred Durst — which seemed the case this summer when the band toured with Metallica — he will tell you that he predicted it long ago, that he can see within our minds, that he wanted us to hate him. But even as an emotional demagogue he can be a big yawn. The new album is called "Results May Vary." Sept. 23. Flip/Interscope.

NICKELBACK "The Long Road" will be the fourth album from this million-selling pop-metal band, and according to reports, it veers sharply toward the real thing, with louder guitars and more venomous singing. Sept. 23. Roadrunner.

OUTKAST Soon we will all awaken and realize that the perceived differences between Andre 3000 and Big Boi amount to a false duality: weirdos can bring the groove and hardheads can get weird. But for now the two members of the extraordinary Atlanta hip-hop group are pushing those differences, with a double album "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below"; it isolates Boi's work on one disc and Andre's on the other. Sept. 23. Arista.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Mr. Wainwright was recently seized by a songwriting frenzy that resulted in enough material for two albums. Both are aptly called "Want," because underneath that old-fashioned Debussy-meets-Brian Wilson songwriting gift is a hungry id. "Want One," supposedly the more upbeat and accessible of the two, will appear first. Sept. 23. DreamWorks.

ELVIS COSTELLO Recording mostly with piano, upright bass and brushed drums — as well as the jazz soloists Lee Konitz and Lew Soloff, and the Brodsky String Quartet here and there — Mr. Costello is doing slow songs with cabaret dynamics on "North." It's a set of songs about a breakup, and finally about finding love again; in related news, he has become engaged to the jazz singer Diana Krall. Sept. 23. Deutsche Grammophon. (Mr. Costello will perform at Town Hall on Sept. 22 and 24.)

JOE HENRY A quirky, moody songwriter whose audience runs small but deep. "Tiny Voice" uses jazz musicians, of a sort (Don Byron and Ron Miles), oddball instrumentation, atmospheric room sounds; it tries hard to be different. Sept. 23. Anti-.

MORBID ANGEL The most influential and popular band in death-metal; a new album, "Heretic"; a seven-part suite called "Cleansed in Pestilence (Bride of Elohim)"; Trey Azagthoth's backward-sounding guitar solos; bass-drum beats like thousands of tiny soda bubbles. You get the picture. Sept. 23. Earache.

EMMYLOU HARRIS Firmly in a new phase of her career, as a maker of low-key, post-country pop for settled adults, she has made "Stumble Into Grace," an album of fairly effortless charm. Sept. 23. Nonesuch. (Ms. Harris will perform with Neil Young on Friday at the PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, N.J., and organize a series of concerts at Zankel Hall in October, as well as play her own concert at Carnegie Hall's Isaac Stern Auditorium on Oct. 25.)

DIANNE REEVES The only jazz singer with a voice big enough to rival Sarah Vaughan's has forsworn overblown arrangements and made the small-group album many were wishing for, "A Little Moonlight" (Blue Note); she'll perform with this same backing trio during Zankel Hall's ambitious first concert season. Sept. 25. Zankel Hall.

`ALL THINGS MUST PASS: A TRIBUTE TO GEORGE HARRISON' No one should forget that the shy Beatle was a great lead guitarist. If you have, Vernon Reid, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Steve Bernstein's Sex Mob with Dave Tronzo, and the Joel Harrison Ensemble will remind you in this concert, part of the New York Guitar Festival. Sept. 26. Merkin Concert Hall.

`MARTIN SCORSESE PRESENTS THE BLUES' Seven television films on the subject of the blues, with Mr. Scorsese as executive director. It does go chronologically. But unlike Ken Burns's "Jazz," the series isn't all controlled by the same hands, and doesn't try to construct a new single history. Each is a filmmaker's take on a single subject. Mr. Scorsese's "Feel Like Going Home" follows Corey Harris to Mississippi and West Africa; Wim Wenders's "Soul of a Man" tries to tell stories about Mr. Wenders's favorite musicians through a mixture of documentary and dramatic recreation; Mike Figgis's "Red, White and Blues" investigates how rock's British invasion spread blues around. Sept. 28-Oct. 4. PBS. www.pbs.org/theblues

MERLE HAGGARD For a new record on his own label, this great country singer has written another one of his cranky political songs. (You'll remember the half-serious, half-lampooning, hippie-hazing "Okie From Muskogee.") But "That's the News" — from the new "Like Never Before" — gets more specific than usual: it criticizes the American news media for snowballing us with Laci Peterson when battles roar on in the Middle East. Sept. 30. Hag Records.

GARY ALLAN Gary Allan, from Southern California, has his roots in the Bakersfield hard-country of the 1960's, and enough outsider-rebel in him to stand out in commercial Nashville; Dwight Yoakam cleared the way for talents like this. His new album is "See If I Care." Sept. 30. MCA Nashville.

JASON MORAN'S BANDWAGON When Mr. Moran's trio plays the Village Vanguard for a week, it's an event — something that the curious to the doubtful to the thoroughly converted all want to see. The last time he did, the tapes were rolling: "The Bandwagon," a new album on Blue Note, resulted, full of the trio's tumultuous pushing and pulling, clever remakes of standards and curious ideas like incorporating taped human speech into collective improvisation. Sept. 30-Oct. 5. Village Vanguard.

GEOFF MULDAUR In "Private Astronomy," Mr. Muldaur has taken the five existing piano pieces written by Bix Beiderbecke — strange, exotic, impressionist creatures usually overlooked by those who loved him as a jazz cornetist — and arranged them for a chamber ensemble. Sept. 30. Universal Classics.

MIROSLAV VITOUS A resurfacing by a top jazz musician who left the bandleading-and-recording grind in the 80's, and has recently been showing up here and there in concerts with his old comrades. "Universal Syncopations" is a beguiling album with a top-shelf lineup: Jan Garbarek on saxophones, Chick Corea on piano, John McLaughlin on guitar, Jack DeJohnette on drums. Sept. 30. ECM.

THE UNDERTONES This late-70's/early-80's garage-pop band from Derry, Northern Ireland, whose singer Feargal Sharkey sang sweetly about basic teenage topics, is back with a new album, "Get What You Need," without Mr. Sharkey. Sept. 30. Sanctuary. (The classic early albums "The Undertones," "Hypnotised," "The Sin of Pride" and "Positive Touch" are being reissued on Tuesday, also on Sanctuary.)

RANDY NEWMAN Mr. Newman is a purist's nightmare: he once wrote brilliant leftist songs that sent up greed and xenophobia while simultaneously flirting with a more real, Menckenish viciousness; these days he makes pots of money composing songs for Pixar movies. (He is my 3-year-old son's favorite composer, after someone named Traditional.) And now he's going the Nonesuch route — the upscale treatment, wherein a middle-aged pop musician becomes an American Master. He doesn't sing his songs a bit differently than ever on his new album, "The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1," except that it's only he and piano. The great craftsmanship is more apparent in the stripped-down context. Sept. 30. Nonesuch. Mr. Newman will be performing at Zankel Hall on Sept. 28.

OBIE TRICE Eminem has a new protégé — and following in the tradition of 50 Cent, it's another rapper with word-power as well as hard-guy mystique. A space is reserved in the top 10 for Mr. Trice's "Cheers." September. Shady/Interscope.

October

GREG OSBY With his recent album "St. Louis Shoes" (Blue Note), Mr. Osby has done the thing he rarely does on records: play other people's tunes. But the selection of tunes (by Ellington, Jack DeJohnette, Cassandra Wilson and others) is, as usual, less interesting than how he gets his players to play within them. His bands have been changing a lot lately; it's hard to tell what you might be hearing at his next weeklong engagement. Oct. 7-12. Village Vanguard.

CASSANDRA WILSON While her last album was mostly covers in the service of a Southern theme, "Glamoured" is covers for the sake of covers; Ms. Wilson sings songs by Sting, Bob Dylan and Abbey Lincoln over her typically slinky, misty group sound. Oct. 7. Blue Note.

JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS Before he died last year at 50, the former Clash frontman was getting at a concept that people like Manu Chao and groups like El Gran Silencio have been simultaneously moving toward: a street-folk, ground-level form of world music, using the most virulent rhythms and song styles of pop from different countries. "Streetcore" is the album, mostly finished before his death, but patched up to completion by his loyal band. Oct. 7. Hellcat/Epitaph.

THE SHINS It took a few decades for them to stand up and be counted, but the Beach Boys have hundreds of aesthetic offspring. The next exhibit of multitracked vocal harmonies and Pet Soundsology: "Chutes Too Narrow," by the Albuquerque band the Shins. Oct. 7. Sub Pop.

GALACTIC This New Orleans jam band, feeding great, greasy Meters grooves through a swirl of other sonic influences, has made a new album produced to shiny, mesmerizing effect by Dan (The Automator) Nakamura. Oct. 7. Sanctuary.

LUDACRIS The irrepressibly goofy and vulgar rapper almost got a spokesman job on Pepsi ads, then got skunked when Bill O'Reilly encouraged viewers to boycott the soda if it chose such an unseemly character. We await Mr. O'Reilly's nuanced review of "Chicken and Beer," Ludacris's third album. Oct. 7. Def Jam.

ARTHUR LEE AND LOVE There's no reason Arthur Lee, the leader of the 60's Los Angeles psychedelic pop band Love, shouldn't be a wreck: his 15 minutes of fame were followed not only by lots of career trouble, but by jail time as well. Upon his release he began touring again, and early this year, with a young English band and string orchestra, he performed Love's great album "Forever Changes" onstage in its entirety. You'd do better to get yourself around the original album, with all its sweet, slightly sinister, far-seeing looniness and professionalism. But "The Forever Changes Concert" is sharper than you'd think. Oct. 7. Snapper.

BETH GIBBONS AND RUSTIN MAN Things move slowly in the land of Portishead, the English band that used eerie singing and ebb-tide, downtempo dance-floor beats to make one great album, "Dummy," nine years ago. Much has been expected of the band's singer, Beth Gibbons, but for a long time she has stayed mum; a low-key album released last year, "Out of Season," made with Rustin Man of the band Talk Talk, was an exception. They will perform the music for the first time in New York as part of the Arts at St. Ann's series in Brooklyn. Oct. 10-11. St. Ann's Warehouse, 38 Water Street, Brooklyn, (718) 858-2424. www.artsatstanns.org

TWILIGHT SINGERS A name behind which the Afghan Whigs' singer Greg Dulli makes whatever kinds of albums he wants to make. "Blackberry Belle" is slightly grandiose pomp-rock, with Mr. Dulli's whispery voice feather-dusting the songs. Like, say, Tom Petty, but along entirely different music-business models, Mr. Dulli is finally a guy who simply knows how to make music that feels good in the ear. Oct. 14. Birdman.

`FESTIVAL IN THE DESERT' A recording from last January's Le Festival au Desert, an extraordinary event held in the sands at the edge of the Sahara in Mali, north of Timbuktu, amid the Tuareg people. It's mostly Malian music, but not entirely. Much of the document is genuinely great; there are a few pre-eminent Malian musicians like Oumou Sangare, Afel Bocum and Ali Farka Toure, as well as a few names you won't know, like the guitarist Baba Salah, the stomping blueslike Tuareg band Tinariwen, the traditional Tuareg vocals-and-handclapping group Kel Tin Lokiene and the Navajo rock band Blackfire, from Arizona. Then there's also someone named Robert Plant, who used to sing in a band called Led Zeppelin. Oct. 14. World Village.

MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO After last year's experimental "Cookie," the extravagantly talented Ms. Ndegeocello

has come up with something resembling a chill-out record. It's not just dry ice and patchouli; with her writing the lyrics and playing two-thirds of the instruments, it's necessarily more thought-intensive. Yet parts of "Comfort Woman" aren't that far away from the last Sade album. Oct. 14. Maverick.

ROD STEWART Cabaret is still the last refuge of a scoundrel — so much so that the scoundrel can get back on the charts with it and follow up with a sequel, "The Great American Songbook, Vol. 2." Oct. 14. J Records.

RAPHAEL SAADIQ A sprawling talent in the new R & B and possibly one of the greatest producers of the day, this multi-instrumentalist gives his best in a live recording; "All Hits at the House of Blues" includes new material from his recent "Instant Vintage" as well as a reunion of his old band Tony! Toni! Toné!. Oct. 14. Pookie Entertainment.

JERRY GONZALEZ Y LOS PIRATAS DEL FLAMENCO One of New York's better jazz musicians, the trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez, flew the coop in 2000 and moved to Madrid, where he explored flamenco with the same intensity that he used to create a new strain of Latin jazz right here. The outcome was an excellent album, "Jerry Gonzalez y Los Piratas del Flamenco," which hasn't gotten much distribution in America yet, The band, with the Gitano guitarist Niρo Josele, the percussionist Piraρa and the singer El Cigala, will perform the seductive, airy, floating-rhythm music. Oct. 18. Aaron Davis Hall, Convent Avenue at West 135th Street, (212) 650-7289. www.aarondavishall.org

EDIE BRICKELL It has been nine years since she made a solo album; the folkish Texan with the ethereal voice got married to Paul Simon, raised children and slowly got herself back into performing shape. "Volcano" is produced by Ms. Brickell and Charlie Sexton, better known as Bob Dylan's guitarist. Oct. 21. Universal Motown.

VAN MORRISON He's been tending toward jazz and blues lately, but "What's Wrong With This Picture" is his first record on an actual jazz label. All original songs, with the exception of the old standby "St. James Infirmary." Oct. 21. Blue Note.

THE RAPTURE Every rock scene produces a flagship band; the Rapture represents Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And very much like an evening out in Williamsburg, its music can provoke a breakdown, a feeling of incomprehension: what does it all mean? Essentially, this is a low-fidelity, punk version of Duran Duran. Yet "Echoes," the band's first full-length album, finds fertile areas; overhyped or not, the band does its thing with sweat and energy. Oct. 21. Strummer/DFA/Universal.

TOSHIKO AKIYOSHI The jazz pianist Ms. Akiyoshi has run a big-band in the United States for 30 years, and has decided to retire it with a performance of her major new work. "Hiroshima: Rising From the Abyss," a long-form tone poem, deals with the consequences of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, when she was a girl of Japanese parents living in Manchuria. Oct. 17. Carnegie Hall.

BASEMENT JAXX On its last two albums, the British electronic duo blasted apart established dance-music subgenres without forgoing the idea of music as pure bodily pleasure. "Kish Kash" promises more of such. Oct. 21. Astralwerks.

THE STROKES Two years after the New York band's first album, which grew slowly in England and then, to the surprise of many doubters, over here as well, the Strokes must contend with all the other bands that have ballooned in their wake. All of a sudden, there's a lot of dirty-faced boys playing good rock 'n' roll in New York. Gordon Raphael, who produced the band's debut, will produce the still-untitled second album, not Nigel Godrich, as had been planned. Oct. 21. RCA.

DAVE DOUGLAS Some people want to seesomething new all the time — there are a lot of those people in New York — and the trumpeter Dave Douglas honors them. Each of his records or major club appearances offers something drastically different, and this is no exception: he'll be bringing a new band into the Village Vanguard, including two extravagantly talented 60's-era musicians, the singer Andy Bey and the trombonist Roswell Rudd. Oct. 21-26. Village Vanguard.

HENRY THREADGILL The idea of Mr. Threadgill's being given a proper New York theater venue — as opposed to a jazz club — to put on some of his more ambitious, through-composed, large-ensemble work has come up over and over again in the last decade. But Miller Theater is the first to get him: his new work, "Peroxide," will be performed by the 11-piece Aggregation Orb. Oct. 22. Miller Theater, Columbia University, Broadway at 116th Street, (212) 854-7799. www.millertheater.com

MARTIAL SOLAL For 50 years this brilliant French-Algerian pianist was an exceedingly rare presence in New York; all of a sudden, thanks to the sponsorship of Blue Note records, his first American record label, he's getting a foothold. It's time for his Jazz at Lincoln Center coronation: two big concerts including the saxophonists Steve Lacy and Phil Woods, and the Herve Sellin Tentet. Oct. 23 and 25. Alice Tully Hall.

COURTNEY LOVE Her band Hole is no more; this is her first album under her own name, and on a new label. "America's Sweetheart" was recorded in France last spring; the songwriter Linda Perry, who helped Pink become what she is today, was on hand as a collaborator. Oct. 28. Virgin.

November

DONALD BROWN The jazz pianist and composer, influential for the 1980's generation of new, straight-ahead jazz musicians like Wynton Marsalis, gives a rare performance in New York with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra. Nov. 3. Paul Hall, Juilliard School, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, at 65th Street, (212) 769-7406. www.juilliard.edu

TOBY KEITH "Shock'N'Y'all" is the young country star's new album, consciously echoing the phrase "shock and awe", and he's proof that while rock 'n' roll has pretty much given up on changing the world, country music is the appropriate genre for waging political firefights. (In recent shows, Mr. Keith has displayed doctored photos of the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines with Saddam Hussein, after she criticized President Bush; she struck back by wearing rude T-shirts about Mr. Keith.) Nov. 4. DreamWorks Nashville.

ABBEY LINCOLN With "It's Me," the singer continues her streak (since the early 1990's) of remarkably honest records, with poetic lyrics on aging and surviving, made with a cast of great younger musicians. Nov. 4. Verve.

IGGY POP His kind of dumb smarts were what made him special, and he was best at it with the Stooges — rather than as the moody boulevardier of his last few albums. Or than as the whatever-he-was of his last 10. His backup band on several songs of the new "Skull Ring" includes Ron and Scott Asheton of the Stooges, and that's the great news. The bad news is that Sum 41 and Green Day back him up on other tracks. Nov. 4. Virgin.

RONALD ISLEY Back on the map in the late 90's with hit albums — the last one hitched to R. Kelly's talents as a songwriter and producer — the Isley Brothers have clout again. Ronald, the singing brother, will apply his falsetto to old Burt Bacharach songs, in "Here I Am," a collaborative album arranged by Mr. Bacharach himself. Nov. 11. DreamWorks.

JAMES CARTER A new album by this young musician, who uses a big, curvy, old-fashioned tenor-saxophone tone — exaggerating it wildly or using it satirically for effect here and there. "Gardenias for Lady Day" is his full-blown orchestral ballad album, a move that works for his outsize musical personality. Nov. 11. Columbia.

PINK Some of the catchiest pop songs of last year were hers; she's using her favorite songwriter, Linda Perry, again for "Try This," and some say she's singing better than before. Nov. 11. Arista.

AL GREEN It's Mr. Green's reunion with the producer Willie Mitchell, his greatest collaborator. The record, still untitled, is all new, original songs, recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis with some of the musicians who used to work on his Hi records in the 1970's and 80's. (On Sept. 16, EMI releases a boxed set of Mr. Green's Hi output.) Nov. 18. Blue Note.

ALICIA KEYS With the second album we will see if the Grammy voters — and, yes, lots of ordinary people — were wrong about Ms. Keys the first time around; her appearances on other people's songs since then haven't been too inspiring, but Clive Davis, her Svengali, is a wily man. Nov. 18. J Records.

JAY-Z Practically every major name in hip-hop is rumored to have a hand in "The Black Album"; Jay-Z occupies a funny position as the pre-eminent egomaniac and the pre-eminent collaborator of the genre. Nov. 28. Roc-a-Fella.

December

DON BYRON AND THE SYMPHONY SPACE ADVENTURERS ORCHESTRA As he has done in the last few years with his Symphony Space house band, Mr. Byron will remake two bodies of music that appear to have nothing to do with each other. Provocatively, one of them is usually selected as an affront to, ahem, "taste." This year it will be Herb Alpert and Earth, Wind and Fire, neither of which have a perch in Symphony Space's usual kind of high culture. But consider that Miles Davis worshiped Alpert's trumpet tone, and that most of today's best jazz performers — from 20-somethings to 40-somethings — grew up on a steady diet of E.W.F. Dec. 5. Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400.

ANDREW HILL-JASON MORAN Part of Merkin Hall's well-chosen series of solo-piano double bills. Mr. Moran is the talk of the jazz world, and Mr. Hill is one of his greatest idols; whatever Mr. Hill does, you can be assured that Mr. Moran won't be coasting. Dec. 8. Merkin Concert Hall.

FRED HERSCH DUOS Mr. Hersch, who has raised solo-piano jazz performance to a high level, is booked in duos with a series of musicians, from old-school to resolutely new-school. He will perform with the saxophonist Lee Konitz (Dec. 9), the percussionist John Hollenbeck (Dec. 10), the saxophonists Jane Ira Bloom (Dec. 11) and Joe Lovano (Dec. 12), and the singers Kate McGarry (Dec. 13) and Kurt Elling (Dec. 14). Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, (212) 576-2232.

KARRIN ALLYSON/LUCIANA SOUZA Two prominent new jazz singers, who have pushed into the field from other places — Ms. Allyson from folk and rock and blues, Ms. Souza from Brazilian music. Dec. 17. Zankel Hall.

MIGUEL ZENON It didn't take long for this Puerto Rican-born alto saxophonist to rise to the top of the new Latin jazz scene in New York, with a bright, beautiful tone and some real promise as a composer. Even more, he has shown curiosity about how to make contemporary jazz records sound new. His second album, "Ceremonial," will arrive in January. Marsalis Music. (Mr. Zenon will play every Thursday in September 2003 at the Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street.)

COUNT BASIE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION Born in Red Bank, N.J., in 1904, Count Basie set up two model styles of jazz: one in the 1930's, with his roaring, laconic Kansas City bands, and another in the 1950's, with a modernized, expanded harmonic palette that's still the backbone for a great deal of big-band jazz. The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra honors him, with guests including the singer Carmen Bradford and the marvelous saxophonist and flutist Frank Wess. Jan. 29 and 31. Alice Tully Hall.

LEELA JAMES Somewhere between Tina Turner and Beth Orton there's room for a knockout young R&B singer: someone who doesn't overindulge in melisma, intimates past and future, and isn't on a Macy Gray tarry-voice trip. Leela James could be that singer. Her first album is "The Soul Songstress." January. Warner Brothers.

TWEET She made one of last year's best hip-hop albums, but aside from a strong hit single, "Oops (Oh My)," it was a little bit forgotten. Tweet is back with a new album, from which one advance single, "Shook Up," already sounds spare and mesmerizing. January. Elektra.

DANILO PEREZ TRIO/DANILO PEREZ-STEVE LACY DUO The Panamian jazz pianist Danilo Perez is one of jazz's best performers; he has a massive sound, a deep knowledge of Afro-Cuban, Caribbean and South American rhythm and an alertness that's been honed by two years of working with Wayne Shorter's new band. He's also been playing intriguing duets with the soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, and both of these groups are on a double bill. Feb. 4. Zankel Hall.

RANDY WESTON AND RODNEY KENDRICK Two pianists, one born in 1926 and the other in 1960, both with a percussive style that descends from Monk. Mr. Weston's solo performances are probably the best way to see him, and Mr. Kendrick doesn't perform enough; they might well bring out the best in each other. Feb. 9. Merkin Concert Hall.

SHIRLEY HORN/AHMAD JAMAL The singer Ms. Horn has been ailing lately: she lost one of her feet to her battle with cancer, and she had to cancel a Tanglewood date late last month. But she is scheduled for a big Jazz at Lincoln Center concert, double-billed with the pianist Ahmad Jamal, who is every bit the marvelously idiosyncratic, strong-willed bandleader that he was 40 years ago. Feb. 13. Avery Fisher Hall.

`THE MUSIC OF ORNETTE COLEMAN' It hasn't happened yet in more than a decade of Jazz at Lincoln Center programs, but Mr. Coleman will finally be getting his due from the world's most powerful jazz institution. He will not perform himself, but the guest soloist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra will be the saxophonist Dewey Redman, Mr. Coleman's long-time collaborator. Feb. 19 and 21. Alice Tully Hall.

N.E.R.D. Along with Timbaland, the Neptunes are leaders of the new producer's philosophy that anything and everything should be grist for hip-hop; Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo choose not to see the difference between black and white music, and in their band N.E.R.D. they keep their eye on the bright bounce above all else. So far they've barely gone wrong. The group's second album is "Fly or Die." February. Virgin.

DAVE HOLLAND BIG BAND Mr. Holland, the jazz bassist, recently expanded his small-group conception to big-band size, and it actually worked. He doesn't do things sloppily; you get the sense of a tightly drawn intellect, and in his quiet way, without making concept records or symphonies, he has become one of the best jazz bandleaders in the last 30 years. March. 10. Zankel Hall.

LINCOLN CENTER AFRO-LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA Last year this group became incorporated into Jazz at Lincoln Center, creating steady work for its leader, the pianist Arturo O'Farrill, and the first-rate sidemen he has hired into the band. For repertory, they're not stopping at Machito and Mr. O'Farrill's father, Chico O'Farrill; they're using jazz's vast resources, as well as the world of Latin music beyond Afro-Cuban. March 11 and 13. Alice Tully Hall.

DAVE BRUBECK OCTET Mr. Brubeck recorded with a fascinating octet in 1946, several years before Miles Davis became synonymous with a similar sound — music that was bebop's inverse, cool and slow with classical touches. Instead of playing with his long-standing quartet, which has been his normal mode of performance for as long as anyone can remember, Mr. Brubeck will re-energize the old octet music with new musicians. March 22. Avery Fisher Hall.

THE BAD PLUS This new trio — with a bona-fide jazz pianist (Ethan Iverson) and bassist (Reid Anderson) and a slightly more rockish drummer (David King) — made its first album on Columbia last year. The reception was divided neatly between "of course" and "never again." This has little to do with the band's musicianship. Rather, it may be because they bait rock-haters by covering old rock songs, in a manner that they defend as high seriousness but that can come off as a joke. If you've never heard "Heart of Glass" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit," though, perhaps it wouldn't bother you. The second album is called "Give." March. Columbia.

CAETANO VELOSO Brazil's great singer-songwriter is organizing one of Carnegie Hall's mini-festivals, meaning that he will stick around town for more than one concert — an essential step forward in our understanding of him. He will perform two large shows at Carnegie Hall on April 16 and 17, the second one with David Byrne as guest; he will also participate in smaller shows at Zankel Hall on April 14 (with Banda Afro Reggae) and April 15 (Mat'Nalia).

Compiled with the assistance of BEN SISARIO