Celebrations across the state have already provided us with a number of interesting and informative Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial remembrances, from license plates to staged recreations with costumed characters. But opening this Saturday, art is added to the mix with the opening of JEFFERSON'S AMERICA & NAPOLEON'S FRANCE exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art (City Park, 488-2631). The buzz surrounding NOMA's much-anticipated exhibit began with the naming of First Lady Laura Bush as honorary chair, with NOMA officials calling the exhibition the museum's "most ambitious exhibition to date." What brings about this billing is the work of international dignitaries and scholars bringing to NOMA artifacts and experiences that cover a wide range of aesthetics and history. Highlights are found spread among the exhibit's paintings, sculptures and historic documents -- including the original Louisiana Purchase, furniture and other decorative arts. In addition to displaying such grandeur, the exhibition will examine the relationship between Louisiana and France during this period, as well as delving into the personalities and power behind the deal's leading men, President Thomas Jefferson and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Fans of these powerful figures will savor exhibition details such as Jefferson's personal ivory notebook, a "Virtual Monticello" installation and Josephine Bonaparte's jewels. The display goes beyond the usual history lessons to explore elements of the two men such as Jefferson's style and how it helped define a nation he began to lead during its infancy. Napoleon's (and Josephine's) lust for the finer things also brings to the exhibit artifacts of their lavish lifestyle, evidenced in Jacob Desmalter's 1804 construction from wood gold, red velvet and gold thread, "Swan Armchair of Empress Josephine." Jefferson's America & Napoleon's France runs at NOMA through Aug. 31. The exhibit will be on display during regular museum hours Tuesday through Saturday (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), with last entry at 3:30 p.m. (NOMA will be closed Easter Sunday, April 20, and July 4.) Admission prices are $12 adults, $11 seniors and students, $6 children ages 3-17, and free for kids under 3. Visit www.jeffersonnapoleon.com for more info. -- Frank Etheridge

The Pfister Sisters 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Sunday, April 13 Snug Harbor, 626 Frenchmen St., 949-0696 The Pfister Sisters recall the magic of the Boswell Sisters on Sunday at Snug Harbor. Since their 1930s heyday, few vocal groups have dared to emulate New Orleans' world-famous Boswell Sisters, but the Pfister Sisters have been doing it since the late '70s. Like the Boswells, the Pfister Sisters pull off astonishing feats of vocal acrobatics, performing songs with close harmonies and varying tempos, swinging numbers that take you back to the days when jazz was new. Just after the release of 2000's All¹s Well That¹s Boswell, the Sisters' middle-part singer Suzy Malone left town and local siren Debbie Davis stepped up to the challenge. With original members Yvette Voelker Cuccia and Holley Bendtsen holding fast, the trio is currently in the studio again, recording with such revered musicians as trumpeter Charlie Miller, percussionist Hector Gallardo and the group's longtime pianist Amasa Miller. "It's like a home for crazy old geniuses," says Voelker. Performing live with a big band, the Sisters dash off new originals and old favorites from Glenn Miller, Louis Prima and, of course, the Boswell Sisters. Admission TBA. -- Diettinger

4th Annual Wednesday at the Square Concert Series kickoff featuring Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 9 Lafayette Park, Lafayette Square across from Gallier Hall, 561-8927 For less raucous local music fans, the Downtown Development District's free Wednesday concert series is a godsend. Set in the bucolic little alcove of Lafayette Square, the series offers top-flight local musicians at no charge in a kid-friendly environment from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., so you can still get home in time for dinner. Or you can show your appreciation and support for the series by patronizing the local food and beverage vendors that help subsidize the series; a 14-ounce beer will only set you back $2. In that spirit, there is one rule change this year: no outside food or beverages are allowed. Music-wise, this is the strongest year yet; besides tonight's Jon Cleary performance, future Wednesdays will feature acts such as Marcia Ball, Sonny Landreth, Los Hombres Calientes and Nicholas Payton. For a complete schedule of upcoming performers, check out www.wednesdayatthesquare.com. -- Jordan

And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead 9 p.m. Monday, April 14 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE While the peculiar and cumbersome moniker will drive some people away before the first listen, ... And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead has managed to create a mystique that beckons many others to give the band a chance. Despite the irreverent play on a common Christian catch phrase, the band's music is not as fixated on carnage as its name suggests. Its sound appeals more to post-punk art rock than grindcore or death metal, and its typical emo mood is more dark and introspective than angry or aggressive. Trail of Dead's past is a mystery, since it distributes fictitious biographies with vague and elaborate explanations for its existence, ranging from anthropological theory to metaphysical experiment. We do know that the group's from small-town Texas, that it launched in Austin circa 1994, and that it gestated on indie labels for several years and two albums before honing its sound for a major-label debut, Source Codes & Tags, released last year on Interscope Records. Tickets $13. -- Diettinger

Friends of Gravity 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 9 Dragon's Den, 435 Esplanade Ave., 949-1750 Since last summer, area jazz-funk trio Friends of Gravity have been creating original instrumental music in various open-minded settings. Featuring the forthright rhythm section of Tommy Sciple (bass) and Simon Lott (drums), both of local jazz band Quintology, the group introduces keyboardist Andy Bourgeois of Baton Rouge. Sciple and Bourgeois had collaborated on numerous musical projects before deciding to refocus their efforts and settle down with drummer Lott. The Capitol City stickman can nail a whole spectrum of styles, switching rhythms on a dime without missing a beat. Friends of Gravity's original material builds on the outer limits of straight-ahead jazz, incorporating elements of funk and electronic tricks, including loops, samples and effects pedals. The players write songs together, and use live performance to build on their compositions, turning simple grooves into full-textured soundscapes. Admission $5. -- Cristina Diettinger

Fritz Bultman: Collages Through April 15 Shannon Foley Gallery, 3935 Magazine St., 891-3235 Little known here in his old hometown, Fritz Bultman was a legend among the "Irascibles," the New York artists who defined modernism to the rest of the world in the mid-20th century. A scion of the St. Charles Avenue dynasty, Bultman, as a teen in the 1930s, had studied art in Munich with the famous expressionist, Hans Hoffman. Hoffman soon fled to escape the Nazis, and when he ended up in New York, Bultman followed suit. There, Hoffman and Bultman became seminal figures in the nascent movement known as abstract expressionism, embracing then little-known artists such as Jackson Pollock (whose early drip paintings Bultman persuaded his New Orleans relatives to buy when New Yorkers wouldn't touch them). Although his star never ascended to the dizzying heights of a Pollock or Motherwell, he was an important figure in the history of modernism, and this Shannon Foley show reveals his accomplishments in collage, one of his favorite media. -- D. Eric Bookhardt

Southern New Plays Festival Thursday, April 10, through April 27 Southern Repertory Theatre, The Shops at Canal Place, third floor, 835-6002 Two native New Orleanian playwrights headline Southern Rep's Southern New Plays Festival. Working in a rotating repertory, rising star Barret O'Brien will present the world premiere of Mr. & Mrs. Hollywood, along with another debut, The Visitation, by Jim Fitzmorris. O'Brien's work examines the adverse effect ambition can have on love. Starring Karl Lengel and Ashley Nolan as the lead couple, Mr. & Mrs. Hollywood follows a celebrity couple of two actors under pressure from the stiff competition surrounding their Academy Awards nominations, compounded by fears of aging and that effect on their sex life. Though not even staged yet, O'Brien's script was selected for Smith & Krauss' New American Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2003. Fitzmorris' work explores a political family's life-impacting decisions in 1962. J. Daniel Stanley directs Amy Alvarez, Karen Kaia Livers, Mark McLaughlin, Gavin Mahlie and Robert Pavlovich in The Visitation, Fitzmorris' final installment in a series that includes With Malice Towards All, The Big Shot of Africa and Ecumenical Conversion Scam. The plays alternate between 8 p.m. showings Thursday to Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday matinees, with tickets $10-$20. In addition, free staged readings will be held throughout the two weeks, including works by R.J. Tsarov and Keith Glover (In Walks Ed). Call Southern Rep or check Gambit Weekly's theater listings for more info. -- Etheridge

The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, April 11-12 Mahalia Jackson Theatre of the Performing Arts, 1201 St. Peter St., 522-0996 Beginning in the 1950s, The Joffrey Ballet earned a reputation for changing the face of modern ballet and dance through the combined efforts of founders Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino. These days, its offshoot, The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, continues this anti-traditional tradition through the work of now-artistic-director Arpino and a group of highly trained dancers. They return to New Orleans this week for the first time in two dozen years with a pair of entirely different programs for dance fans. The only question: which to go to? The recommendation: both. Friday's show, The Diaghilev Dynasty, features three dances from Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russes, "Parade," "Les Noces (the Wedding)" and "Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring)." The Saturday program, Encore, Arpino!, showcases the work of the resident choreographer, who created more than one-third of the company's original repertoire. Tickets range from $26-$75, with a $7 discount for seniors and students. -- Deborah M. Stein

The Krewe of Pork and Beads' Cochon Cotillion VII 7 p.m. Saturday, April 12 Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World, 233 Newton St., 522-2124, ext. 13 or 17 Going hog-wild this weekend could help a good cause in celebrating with Blaine Kern (King Cochon VII to you) and his queen, Nell Nolan. Attendees dress in costume or "tacky formal" and participate in a silent auction to raise money for Bridge House and ABC26/WB38 Children First. Bridge House, a nonprofit halfway house, has been offering substance abuse treatment and aftercare for the poor since 1957. Children First gives funds to local children's charities and has supported educational, advocacy, rehabilitation and mentoring programs as well as health projects focusing on children in the past. But charities aren't the only ones who benefit from the party: there will be a costume contest for guests, live music by ELS and Michael Ward, among others, and food by local institutions from the Windsor Court Hotel to Krispy Kreme. A painting by Colombian artist Gustavo Duque, valued at $4,000, will be auctioned. If you want to be a generous and noble marcassin (that's heraldry talk for a young wild boar), a set of 10 tickets starts at $1,500. Tickets for patron party and cotillion $100. -- Stein

Pearl Jam 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 8 Kiefer UNO Lakefront Arena, 6801 Franklin Ave., 280-7222 Pearl Jam's new CD, Riot Act, shows that the Seattle hard-rock outfit is still writing and performing original and challenging material, and lead vocalist Eddie Vedder still has one of the best sets of pipes in rock 'n' roll. From the insistent acoustic guitar and piano waves on "Can't Keep," to the mournfully elegiac intro giving way to distortion squalls in the solo of "Love Boat," to the biting "Bushleaguer" -- a swipe at George W. -- Pearl Jam's creative juices continue to flow. When you get right down to it, recent Pearl Jam albums such as No Code are solid, too, and the band's supposed diminished appeal is more a practical matter; it's almost impossible to sustain the gigantic fan base that arrived with Pearl Jam's 1991 classic, Ten, which is still one of the best hard-rock albums of all time. Invigorating rock trio Sleater-Kinney opens. Tickets $35. -- Scott Jordan

Straight from the 6th Ward CD release party 10 p.m. Saturday, April 12 Tipitina's, 501 Napoleon Ave., 895-TIPS For brass band newbies, Straight From the 6th Ward is a quick crash course, and for brass heads, it's a colorful cross section of the past, present and future of a treasured tradition. Released on Tipitina's Records and masterminded by producer Lee Frank, the eight-song compilation features four of the Treme neighborhood's most popular brass bands. The ReBirth, the New Birth, the Treme, and the Lil' Rascals all perform selections from their back pages, as well as new compositions. The 6th Ward All Stars, a conglomerate of prominent players from the brass band family, formed especially to record for the project. Straight From the 6th Ward also unveils the Lil' Rascals' new anthem, "H-I-T," and its infectious anti-drug chorus. The album finishes with a hip-hop remix by Eric Krasno of New York City funk-jazz band Soulive, with Washington, D.C. rapper Bedouin laying down clever lyrics on the spot. The CD-release party is set to be a massive brass throwdown, complete with sit-ins and surprises. Admission $10. -- Diettinger