How do you shoehorn 50 years of New Orleans R&B history into one night? You make a movie, which is what filmmaker Michael Murphy decided to do. To film MAKE IT FUNKY, he has arranged a concert at the Saenger Theater (143 N. Rampart St., 524-2490) Tuesday featuring legends Allen Toussaint, the Neville Brothers, Dave Bartholomew, Lloyd Price, the Dixie Cups, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and Earl Palmer, along with Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Irvin Mayfield, Kermit Ruffins, Jon Cleary, Henry Butler and Big Sam's Funky Nation. Irma Thomas will be a part of the movie but is unable to perform Tuesday. Obviously, that's a lot of talent on one stage, and there is talk of more. "I don't know what's going happen," Murphy admits. There are going to be tributes to Professor Longhair and Earl King, but beyond that, he'll say little except "the evening is definitely going to be historical." Showtime is at 8 p.m. at the Saenger Theater. Tickets range from $35-$55. SOUTH AFRICAN FREEDOM DAY FESTIVITIES start with a rally and parade beginning at noon Tuesday at the Treme Community Center. Later at TwiRoPa Mills (1544 Tchoupitoulas St., 587-3777), funk heroes Cyril Neville & the Uptown All-Stars and Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste (pictured) with Zigaboo's Funk Revue share a bill with South African artists Soweto Street Beat and Ringo Madlingozi. Neville is also celebrating 20 years of the Uptown All-Stars, while Modeliste has a new album, I'm on the Right Track. Ringo, as he is known in South Africa, has a reputation for energetic live shows. Soweto Street Beat, an all-male dance troupe, combines contemporary and traditional Zulu dancing and has been known to throw in a little American break-dancing as well. The SOUTH AFRICAN FREEDOM DAY CELEBRATION is at 7 p.m. at TwiRoPa Mills. For ticket info visit www.nosaconn.com. The stars of groovy record collections will star Tuesday and Wednesday nights at the PONDEROSA STOMP at Mid City Lanes Rock 'N' Bowl (4133 S. Carrollton Ave.). Tuesday night features stars of soul and rockabilly with the show hosted by comedian Rudy Ray Moore, and Wednesday night is all swamp pop, hosted by legendary pimp Filmore Slim. The Ponderosa Stomp starts at 5 p.m. each night, and tickets cost $35 each night. -- Alex Rawls

Kékélé 9 p.m. Monday, April 26 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE Just one night after closing out Lafayette's Festival International de Louisiane, the Congolese supergroup Kékélé makes a rare appearance in New Orleans. With raves for its CDs Rumba Congo and Congo Life, Kékélé -- which includes solo performers from top Congolese bands from the past several decades -- favors the lush, melodic 'Congolese rumba' that enjoyed its heyday in the 1960s and early '70s. Beat Magazine named Congo Life the best CD of 2003, and the London Guardian hails Kékélé as 'the Congolese answer to Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club.' This is the group's only New Orleans appearance. Tickets $16. -- Michael Tisserand

MO Fest Noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, April 26-27 Woldenberg Park, Hibernia Pavilion, 565-8318 Once the days between Jazz Fest weekends were for catching up on sleep. Thankfully, that is no longer the case because we've got MO (Mayor's Office) Fest, a city-sponsored music festival showcasing how deeply New Orleans' jazz and R&B traditions run. It gives out-of-town movers and shakers in the music industry another chance to check out the local talent, but that doesn't mean that music fans can't come down and dig the performers in this beautiful setting, as they play right on the river that has inspired so many songs. This year's festival features 16 bands including Ricky Sebastian, Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers, the Hot 8 Brass Band, the New Orleans Jazz Vipers, 3Now4, and MOre. The full schedule is available at www.mofestival.com. Free admission. -- David Kunian

SMEIA Benefit Performances 1 a.m. Tuesday, April 27, 10 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, April 28-April 30 Chez Vodun, 822 N. Rampart St., 558-0653 Jams and unusual musical groupings in the clubs accompany Jazz Fest like zany poles and tie-dye. The most intriguing series of pairings features Los Hombres Calientes' rhythm section (including organizer and percussionist Bill Summers) hosting shows with guests from all across the world music spectrum. The most exciting presents the band with Zaire soukous guitarist Diblo Dibala (who is playing with his band April 27 at Cafe Brasil). Guests such as New Orleans' Funkin' Horns (Tuesday), Eric Krasno of Soulive (Thursday) and Henry Butler with MeShell Ndegeocello (Friday) suggest the shows could go many different directions, all of them exploring the intersections of rock, funk, jazz and world beat. The shows are a benefit to raise money for Summers' Multi Ethnic Institute of the Arts, a nonprofit organization giving young artists a better-rounded multicultural background. No cover, but donations are appreciated. -- Rawls

HP Classic of New Orleans Wednesday-Sunday, April 28-May 2 English Turn Golf & Country Club, 831-GOLF While the music world's focus this weekend is on New Orleans and Jazz Fest, the golf world turns its eye across the river to the West Bank and the pristine English Turn golf course, home of the area's lone PGA Tour stop, the HP Classic. The tournament has provided plenty of top-flight players and exciting action (LSU graduate and local favorite David Toms won a few years back), but also generates an estimated economic impact of $23 million and priceless exposure -- the USA network airs the first two rounds and CBS broadcasts the weekend's play. There are plenty of events surrounding the tournament as well, from pro-ams to youth clinics to celebrity fundraisers. On Wednesday, LSU students with valid ID are granted free admission for the pro-am that features Toms and LSU football coach Nick Saban. Players competing for the $5.1 million purse include recent Masters champion Phil Mickelson (exhale!), Hal Sutton and Paul Azinger. Daily passes $25; visit www.forekidsfoundation.com to purchase or for more info. -- Frank Etheridge

Disney on Ice 7 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; April 28-May 2 UNO Lakefront Arena, 280-7222 or 522-5555 When Disney on Ice glides to town with its newest show, Princess Classics, young and old fans of the bejeweled, doe-eyed Cinderella, Mulan et al will be able to gaze at a royal sorority that spans a couple generations of animation. But judging from the last time Disney on Ice came to town with Toy Story 2, the production offers more than magic carpets and mouse-driven pumpkins. Disney on Ice gathers together a company of international skaters with much talent. This year's program features top bladerunners from icy climes such as Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and Minnesota, performing to Disney songs such as 'Under the Sea,' 'Heigh Ho,' and 'Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo.' Production values are high, making this one of the better big shows aimed at the kids. Tickets $12 to $30. For more info, visit www.disneyonice.com. -- Tisserand

Sex Mob 10 p.m. Wednesday, April 28 Old Point Bar, 545 Patterson St., 364-0950 After it fades in like an unruly parade nearing the corner, Sex Mob's Dime Grind Palace (Rope a Dope) is another whacked-out affair from New York City's jazz jokesters. Released last fall, the album is a collection of wily original tunes ranging from rubbery funk and mellow organ grooves to cartoon soundtrack anxiety and horn mania. It's a shift from Sex Mob's beloved covers of well-known pop and rock songs. After forming around downtown New York's jazz scene, members of the band quickly discovered that crowds responded better to its twisted renditions of anything by the Grateful Dead or Prince than its own originals. The 2001 album, Sex Mob Does Bond, is a tribute to John Barry's James Bond film music, punctuated by big horns and plenty of pitch-bending and sandwiched by two versions of bandleader Steven Bernstein's 'Dr. Yes.' With its massive horn chaos and danceable tunes, Dime Grind Palace shows that Sex Mob isn't all gimmick. The band is also playing a sold-out show Thursday at Tipitina's French Quarter with Charlie Hunter, Stanton Moore, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and others. $10 cover at Old Point; no cover at Tulane. -- Cristina Diettinger

Valid Records Creative Jazz Event featuring Naked On the Floor plus the Rob Wagner Trio 8 p.m. to 12 p.m. Thursday, April 29 Piety Street Recording Studio, 728 Piety St., 948-4968 The brainchild of music fan Benjamin Lyons, Valid Records is dedicated to maintaining the creative musical spirit in jazz. This combined showcase/party will feature the two bands on the label, Naked on the Floor and the Rob Wagner Trio. Naked on the Floor, guitarist Jonathan Freilich's small jazz band, plays tunes that are both subtle and complex, but never so abstract that they fail to move the audience. Freilich is also a hilarious frontman, and his explanations of the tunes are almost as good as the songs themselves. The Rob Wagner Trio plays jazz that sounds like Sonny Rollins from the 1950s and '60s. Saxophonist Rob Wagner's songs go places with melodies that stick in your head. This is Naked on the Floor's only gig during Jazz Fest, so it is worth venturing into the Ninth Ward to the majestic Studio A at Piety Street Studios to hear both these bands. No cover. -- Kunian

James Blood Ulmer 1 a.m. Thursday-Friday, April 29-30 The Parish at the House of Blues, 229 Decatur St., 529-2583 Guitarist/vocalist James Blood Ulmer, bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and drummer G. Calvin Weston make sonically raw, yet emotionally nuanced music. Ulmer will no doubt play some of the material from No Escape From the Blues, the harmolodic blues sessions produced by Vernon Reid, but it is likely to sound dramatically different from the recording, if only because in Ulmer's world, no song is ever played the same way twice. 'The thing about Blood is that he's not playing the blues, he is the blues,' says Reid. 'He's staring his past straight in the face with this music.' Previous shows with this lineup have started with Ulmer playing solo guitar and singing Delta blues classics in often startling reconfigurations, with the others joining in until the trio is playing a frenetic, post-Hendrix power trio groove. Tickets $20. -- John Swenson

King Hedley II 7 p.m. Friday-Sunday, April 30-May 2; through May 23 Anthony Bean Community Theatre, 1333 S. Carrollton Ave., 862-PLAY Hailed as one of America's leading dramatists, playwright August Wilson had already won two Pulitzer Prizes before he debuted King Hedley II, a continuation in a series of works beginning with Seven Guitars that seek to chronicle the 20th century African-American experience. King Hedley II earned six Tony Awards nominations in 2001, including Best Play, and has since become one of the most in-demand works in theater. The play is set in Pittsburgh's Hill District in 1985 and centers around the struggle of ex-convict King Hedley II to come to terms with his past relationships and bring back together a once-proud neighborhood besieged by poverty and crime. For this production, Anthony Bean directs a cast that includes Tory Andrus, City Councilman Oliver Thomas, Gwendolyne Foxworth, Harold X. Evans, Will Williams and Yvette Foy. Tickets are $17 adults, $15 students and seniors; group rates available. -- Etheridge

The Dave Brubeck Quartet 8 p.m. Friday, April 30 Mahalia Jackson Theatre of the Performing Arts, 801 N. Rampart St., 529-2278 In the mid 1940s, French composer Darius Milhaud told a young music composition student named Dave Brubeck that 'if you're going to express America, you've got to have the jazz idiom in your music.' Brubeck went on to form the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which pushed the jazz envelope with unusual time signatures and mismatched key signatures. In its best form, the quartet contained legendary saxophonist Paul Desmond and created such timeless pieces as 'Take Five' and 'Blue Rondo a la Turk.' Now bolstered by drummer Randy Jones, bassist Michael Moore and saxophonist Bobby Militello, Dave Brubeck will team up with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra along with his Jazz Fest appearance. Classic Brubeck charts such as 'Blue Rondo,' 'Three to Get Ready,' 'Lullaby' and 'Summer Music' are on the program, as well as Dave Brubeck's mass 'To Hope! A Celebration,' which features the LPO and Loyola University Chorale. Tickets start at $26. -- Natalie Brown

Frenchmen Fest/Block Party 10:30 p.m. until sunrise, Friday-Saturday, April 30-May 1 Cafe Brasil, 2100 Chartres St., 949-0851; Blue Nile, 534 Frenchmen St., 948-2583 During weekends and holidays when New Orleans parties hard, such as Mardi Gras and Halloween, Frenchmen Street parties hardest. During Jazz Fest, it hits fever pitch, as evidenced by blocks filled with nitrous balloons. Promoters from heady Boulder, Colo., are tapping into this zeitgeist all weekend, with two nights of block parties that look to saturate music-lovers until sunrise. On Friday at Cafe Brasil, Dan Darrah starts at 10:30 p.m., followed by Tea Leaf Green at 1 a.m. and ReBirth Brass Band at 3:30 a.m., with DJ Albino Red spinning between sets all night. On Saturday, Brasil hosts New Monsoon (10 p.m.), Vinyl (1:30 a.m.), and Addison Groove Project (4:20 a.m. -- ha!), with DJ Motion Potion filling the gaps. Blue Nile on Saturday features Soul of John Black (9:30 p.m.), Kermit Ruffins (11:30 p.m.), Tea Leaf Green (2 a.m.) and at 5 a.m. a 'Fantasyland Jam' of various players, including Papa Mali. Friday's tickets are $10 advance, $15 at the door, and include admission to Cafe Brasil; Saturday tickets are $15 advance, $20 at the door, and allow admission to both Blue Nile and Cafe Brasil. For tickets or more info, visit www.redunderground.com. -- Etheridge

"Full Circle: Journey Back to Gospel" 8 p.m. Friday, April 30 First Thessalonians Missionary Baptist Church, 840 Caffin Ave., 944-7111 New Orleans jazz vocalist Kim Prevost hosts a gospel summit featuring many of New Orleans' finest gospel singers along with musicians such as Fred Sanders, Walter Payton and world-renowned jazz organist Jimmy Smith. The show, which includes the Zion Harmonizers, Geraldine Wright-Washington, Leah Chase Kemata, and the Olde Tyme Religion Singers from Sacramento, Calif., will be filmed for a documentary on gospel roots to air on PBS. The show is sponsored by the Ringing Rocks Foundation, a nonprofit 'supporting global healing through wisdom' and will feature a performance by an elders' choir brought together just for the occasion with all members 80 or older. At 6 p.m., before the show starts, a soul food dinner will be served, accompanied by gospel storytelling. No cover. -- Rawls

The Rothschilds 8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 1 Shir Chadash Synagogue, 3737 W. Esplanade Ave., Metairie, 899-1144 In an ignorant Europe just a century removed from the Age of Enlightenment, Jewish residents were forced to live within walled-in ghettos and strive for freedom and prosperity in a system controlled by vengeful bigots. From this bleak cultural landscape emerged Mayer Rothschild, a Jew in Frankfurt, Germany. Rothschild possessed enough talent, faith and determination to beat the system and ultimately become the patriarch of a family which today is a symbol of power, prestige and freedom. The family shared the wealth, working to tear down ghetto walls and create opportunity for fellow Jews. The inspiring story was put into musical theater by Bernie Dean, who comes to the Shir Chadash Synagogue Saturday night to star in his original play, a blend of suspense, humor and warmth. Patron tickets for $26 include reserved seating and a reception with Dean; other tickets $15-$17 in advance, with $2 added at the door. -- Etheridge

The Sophisticats and the Sophistikittens, with Doctor A Go-Go 10 p.m. Saturday, May 1 735 Nightclub, 735 Bourbon St., 581-6740 The antithesis of the Jazz Fest 'comfort uber alles' aesthetic, this is an occasion to show off vintage finery and do the dances all the cool kids do. The Sophisticats bring back the '50s bump-and-grind joint with sleazy, soulful R&B and the Sophistikittens to shake and shimmy. Doctor A Go-Go's surf/garage rock has its roots in the '60s, but as a recent spring break gig at South Padre Island, Texas, showed, it fills a dance floor no matter how the dancers dress. New Orleans garage-rock veteran Jay Thomas has a gift for memorable organ riffs, and the interplay between his Farfisa and Ron Hotstream's guitar lines sets their songs apart. The show also includes burlesque artists from points as far-flung as Toronto, and in his only official Jazz Fest performance, Beatle Bob will be on hand to emcee and show off his own latest moves. $12 cover. -- Rawls

Herlin Riley 10:30 p.m. Saturday, May 1 Donna's Bar and Grill, 800 N. Rampart St., 596-6914 In the jazz world, Herlin Riley is a star, and he deserves to be. He grew up as a member of the Lastie family, one of the preeminent musical families in New Orleans. He was mentored by James Black before going out with pianist Ahmad Jamal and then getting hired by Wynton Marsalis. It is Herlin's sophisticated and soulful drums that have powered the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra for the past decade both live and on record. His solo record, 2000's Watch What You're Doing (Criss Cross), is a great collection of modern New Orleans jazz, and the CD-release party at Snug Harbor was one of the most riotous jazz concerts I've ever seen. His playing combines the artful seriousness of the post-swing players with the exuberance that has made New Orleans music and musicians the envy of the world. $10 cover. -- Kunian

St. Lawrence String Quartet 8 p.m. Monday, May 3 Tulane University, Dixon Hall Fiery and energetic, but tempered with maturity after 14 years of playing together, the St. Lawrence String Quartet brings its passionate music making to Tulane's Dixon Hall, courtesy of Friends of Music. Winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition, nominated for two Grammys and regularly seen at Spoleto USA and on tours that span all continents, the Canadian foursome leap enthusiastically from traditional favorites to modern works. One early audition tape featured Beethoven, followed by a modern Canadian piece that had the musicians screaming at the top of their lungs. There'll be no screaming at this concert, as the quartet tackles Haydn's 'Quartet in B-minor, Op. 64 No. 2,' R. Murray Schafer's 'Quartet No. 3' and Dvorak's 'Quartet in C-Major, Op. 61.' Tickets $18 at the door, $10 for students, and free for Tulane students with ID. Visit www.friendsofmusic.org or call 895-0690 for more information. -- Brown

South African Arts and Crafts Through May 2 South African Pavilion, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Fair Grounds, 522-4786 What does South Africa mean to you? Nelson Mandela? Miriam Makeba? Hugh Masekela? While Mandela probably qualifies for sainthood and Makeba and Masekela are eloquent recording angels, South Africa also has a very rich visual culture, as you might have gathered by now from Zwelethu Mthethwa's vibrant Congo Square poster. No less vibrant are the crafts on view at the South African Pavilion, where Zulu weavers create intricate telephone wire designs, Ndebele muralists challenge your sense of color, and Xhosa women display the arts of facial paint. An exhibit by acclaimed photographer Peter Magubane takes you to the heart of the country to illuminate the beauty and resiliency of the inhabitants. Many other artists and craftsmen working in various media round out a colorful tour of South Africa's dynamic cultures and peoples. -- D. Eric Bookhardt