Broadway at 74th St. (212-465-6500) - May 3: The Southern California singer and guitarist Ben Harper and the blues-harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite. The two first worked together in 1997, when they were both tapped for a John Lee Hooker recording session, and their musical paths have crossed a few more times over the years, most recently in an album-length collaboration of original tunes called "Get Up!" 317 Clermont Ave. (718-638-1256) - May 1: An impressive lineup of more than twenty artists (including the Roots" Questlove, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Wilco's Glenn Kotche, and the party scholar Andrew W.K.) will perform an evening of improvised round-robin duets. (The show is part of the "Red Bull Music Academy" series of events. For more information, visit redbullmusicacademy.com.) 30 W. 26th St. (212-255-4544) - May 3: The blues singer Cassie Taylor (see the Critic's Notebook). (212-777-6800) - May 2: When the Smiths broke up, in 1987, their co-songwriter and guitarist, Johnny Marr, was only twenty-three years old, and already a legend. Marr went on to become one of rock's most dependable sidemen and collaborators, forging a career that has included work with Talking Heads, Modest Mouse, the Cribs, the The, and the Electronic (which also featured New Order's Bernard Sumner). In 2003, Marr released his first solo record, "Boomslang," with his band, the Healers. Marr didn't follow it up until this year, when he released the album "The Messenger," which delivers lively six-string riffs and a taste of Marr's many moods. May 7: The Detroit underground rapper turned hip-hop golden boy Danny Brown. With Kitty. Last year, as her career was just beginning, the red-haired Florida rapper Kitty Pryde (who recently shortened her stage name) said that all she wanted was to meet Brown. She got her wish, and joins him for a few weeks on his Old & Reckless Tour. 52-19 Flushing Ave., Queens (No phone) - This former glass-and-door factory in the gritty Queens neighborhood of Maspeth should satisfy those in search of an "alternative event space." It features, among other things, a miniature-golf course. The energy drink Red Bull seems to see the potential in the venue (and in the target demographic), and on May 2 it hosts one of its "Music Academy" events here, with Stephen O'Malley, Body/Head (which features Kim Gordon and Bill Nace), Dominick Fernow's gothic-noise act Prurient, the black-metal guru Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, and the virtuosic guitarist Mick Barr, whose work with his bands Ocrillim, Octis, and Orthrelm will leave any aspiring guitarist feeling soul-crushingly inadequate. 622 Degraw St., between Third and Fourth Aves., Brooklyn (718-855-3388) - The folks behind the soul-music party "Dig Deeper," which specializes in finding old stars and coaxing them back onstage, have long had an interest in Jamaican music, especially rocksteady, the pre-reggae style that fused American soul with languid island beats. On May 3, they bring in one of the icons of the genre, the crooner Ken Boothe, for a rare Brooklyn show. 158 Bleecker St. (212-505-3474) - May 5: The venerable and versatile guitarist Marc Ribot convenes his power trio, Ceramic Dog (with Shahzad Ismaily, on bass and electronics, and Ches Smith, on drums), for a release party for the group's album "Your Turn." It's a raw, explosive effort that touches on everything from hip-hop to country blues. Mostly, it's fast and loud. 70 N. 6th St., Brooklyn (718-384-4586) - May 4: Andy Stott. On his newest record, "Luxury Problems," the British dub-techno producer collaborates with the singer Alison Skidmore, who lends an air of humanity to his blasted post-industrial dance music. He's here with a slew of other folks, most notably Atom™, the German composer and producer Uwe Schmidt, who has been turning out delightfully warped music for decades under various names, including Señor Coconut, Atom Heart, Lassigue Bendthaus, and Lisa Carbon. 610 W. 56th St. (212-582-6600) - May 3: Foals. The songs on the third album by this quintet out of Oxford, England, "Holy Fire," strive to elevate brainy, zoned-out math rock to stadium heights, delivering intricate jams that still manage to reach the back of the arena. With the catchy guitar-pop act Surfer Blood and the dreamy synth act Blondfire. May 4: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, named for Marlon Brando's gang in the 1953 film "The Wild One," plays masculine rock steeped in soul, blues, and grunge. These days, the band is also laboring in the shadow of tragedy. While backstage at a show in Belgium in 2010, the trio's sound engineer, Michael Been - the former lead singer of the Call and the father of B.R.M.C."s bassist and vocalist Robert Been - had a heart attack, and died. The songs on the group's latest release, "Specter at the Feast," showcase the intense emotions that followed in the wake of Been's death. The opening act is the Mississippi band Bass Drum of Death, which traffics in fuzzy punk tunes that are equal parts melody and attitude. 315 W. 44th St. (212-581-3080) - April 30-May 4: The modern piano master Steve Kuhn is joined by two highly sympathetic rhythm partners, the bassist Buster Williams and the drummer Joey Baron. 131 W. 3rd St. (212-475-8592) - April 30-May 5: The piano virtuoso Michel Camilo and his passionate trio. Carlyle Hotel, Madison Ave. at 76th St. (212-744-1600) - Through May 4: The nineteen-seventies pop songwriter and TV personality Paul Williams, the subject of the noted 2011 documentary "Paul Williams Still Alive," has had his share of personal travails, but he remains a compelling performer with a surprisingly sturdy back catalogue. 29 Cornelia St. (212-989-9319) - May 4: Secret Keeper. The guitarist Mary Halvorson unites with the bassist Stephan Crump, who shares her taste for exploring the fringes of new jazz. Broadway at 60th St. (212-258-9595) - May 2-5: Although no one is likely to mistake the voice of Ann Hampton Callaway for that of the legendary jazz diva Sarah Vaughan, Callaway presents an earnest tribute to her here. Lexington Ave. at 92nd St. (212-415-5500) - May 2: The bassist Dave Holland and the pianist Kenny Barron are veteran stylists who operate on a transcendentally elevated level of musicianship; their occasional duets are to be savored and treasured. 509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn (917-267-0363) - Over three nights, May 1-3, the trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith presents his five-hour opus, "Ten Freedom Summers," a musical reflection on the civil-rights movement. On the strength of the work, Smith was chosen as a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for music. May 6: The pianist Craig Taborn fortifies his reputation as an exacting composer and incisive improviser on his new trio album, "Chants." 121 Ludlow St., second floor (650-400-5100) - May 2: The Microscopic Septet. During its heyday, in the eighties and early nineties, the saxophone-heavy group drew on a cache of inspired improvisers and on two of the era's most sophisticated and stylistically slippery jazz composers and players - the pianist Joel Forrester and the saxophonist Phillip Johnston. This annual reunion promises, as always, both braininess and zaniness. Broadway at 95th St. (212-864-5400) - May 3-4: Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra widen their pan-Latin scope to include newly commissioned music that draws on the brass-band traditions of Mexico and South America. S., at 11th St. (212-255-4037) - April 30-May 5: Bill McHenry, a saxophonist of strength and imagination, has found a musical soul mate in a renowned drummer thirty years his senior, Andrew Cyrille; their bustling interplay can be heard on the new live album "La Peur du Vide," which was recorded here, with Orrin Evans, on piano, and Eric Revis, on bass.