East Bay Times

Alt-rock icon Bob Mould will perform a solo as part of the Noise Pop festival’s 30th anniversary season. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cara Levine’s evocative exhibit “To Survive I Need You to Survive” runs at the Contemporary Jewish Museum through July 30. COURTESY OF CARA LEVINE

This toy truck carving is part of Cara Levine’s project “This Is Not a Gun,” featuring reproductions of items police claim to have mistaken for a gun after a civilian shooting. CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM

Acclaimed pianist Olga Kern returns to the Bay Area for performances in Palo Alto and Walnut Creek. COURTESY OF OLGA KERN

Tessa Barbour and Ian Buchanan are among Smuin Contemporary Ballet dancers showing new works in the company’s “Choreography Showcase.” CHRIS HARDY — SMUIN CONTEMPORARY BALLET

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Drum maestro returns to SFJazz

Terri Lyne Carrington became one of the youngest musicians ever anointed as an NEA Jazz Master in 2021 on the strength of her drum set virtuosity, but her rhythmic prowess is only one tool in her expansive kit.

A Grammy Award-winning producer, composer, mentor and groundbreaking activist who founded the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, Carrington returns to SFJazz for a four-night run with a bevy of new projects, opening tonight with her Art of Living Quintet featuring pianist Kris Davis, bassist Devon Gates, Morgan Guerin on saxophone and various instruments, and rising Afro-Spanish trumpeter Milena Casado Fauquet.

Friday’s show focuses on music from 2022’s Grammy-winning CD “New Standards Vol. 1,” which features tunes by women composers and an all-star cast including pianist Kris Davis, bassist Linda May Han Oh and trumpeter Etienne Charles. The SFJazz engagement closes with two nights of “Seen/Unseen: Explorations, Interrogations and Resilience,” an ambitious multimedia suite featuring improvised visuals by renowned multidisciplinary artist Mickalene Thomas. Commissioned by MIT, the work explores the racial and social injustices faced by Black women set to Carrington’s orchestral score for all-star jazz septet, DJ Val Jeanty, the Del Sol String Quartet, a wind ensemble featuring students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Alonzo King Lines Ballet dancer Babatunji Johnson.

Details: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday; SFJazz Center, San Francisco; $25-$45; sfjazz.org.

— Andrew Gilbert, Correspondent

Noise Pop turns 30 with more coolness

Noise Pop is celebrating its 30th anniversary by hosting yet another festival that is jam-packed with intriguing artists and concerts. This year’s event runs through Sunday at numerous Bay Area venues, and features such acclaimed acts as Yo La Tengo, Boy Harsher, Duster, Covet, Fidlar and Tourist. For more information, go to noisepop.com.

Here are three shows worth checking out.

James Brandon Lewis Trio: He’s one of jazz’s true rising stars, even if it’s been well over a decade since he released his debut album, 2010’s “Moments.” The Buffalo artist’s career has really taken flight in the last few years, with his 2021 release “The Jesup Wagon” being named jazz album of the year by both Downbeat and JazzTimes. Details: 7 and 8:30 p.m. Friday at SFJazz Center; $25-$30.

Bob Mould: The first-tier alt-rock pioneer helped draw up the blueprint for the genre with his legendary ’80s act Hüsker Dü. He also fronted the short-lived ’90s act Sugar, responsible for the amazing debut record “Copper Blue” in 1992. And his excellent solo career includes 1989’s “Workbook,” 1996’s eponymous affair and 2008’s “District Line.” Details: 8 p.m. today at the Chapel, San Francisco; Mark Eitzel, of American Music Club, opens; $27.50-$30.

Zoh Amba: The young saxophonist-composer-flutist is hailed as “one of the brightest new stars in avant-garde jazz” by Stereogum. Amba, who studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, released her debut album — the John Zorn-produced “O, Sun” — in 2022. Details: 7 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday at SFJazz Center; $25-$30.

— Jim Harrington, Staff

An artist’s survival guide

The title of Cara Levine’s new exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum — “To Survive I Need You to Survive” — says a lot about the Los Angeles artist and her approach to her work. Her videos, installations and sculptures explore such hot-button issues as systemic racism and violence, climate change, even the COVID-19 pandemic, but she is also interested in pursuing avenues of grief and healing, empathy and communal gathering.

The title of the collection comes from an installation Levine created in response to mass shootings at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, and after being touched witnessing people at an interfaith healing service joining to sing gospel artist Hezekiah Walker’s song “I Need You to Survive.” The collection also includes a new site-specific work titled “Carve: The Mystic Is Nourished From This Sphere,” in which a hole is literally carved into the gallery space as a symbolic container for collective and individual grief; as well as portions of what is arguably her best-known work, “This Is Not a Gun” (begun in 2016 and still growing), which features sculptures and carvings of various items that police claim to have mistaken for a gun after a tragic civilian shooting.

Details: Through July 30; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays; 736 Mission St., San Francisco; $14-$16; www.thecjm.org.

— Bay Area News Foundation

Classical picks: Focus on women composers, artists

This weekend’s classical calendar features women composers and artists in performances throughout the region. Here are four events you won’t want to miss.

On the flute: Claire Chase, an extraordinary flutist and one of the San Francisco Symphony’s Collaborative Partners, returns to the symphony’s SoundBox series with a one-night-only performance of “Pan.” Composed for Chase, Marcos Balter’s musical drama depicts the legendary flutist of Greek mythology in a work for solo flute, electronics and chorus. Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday; SoundBox, 300 Franklin St., San Francisco; $40; sfsymphony.org.

“Notes from California”: That’s the title of Friday evening’s Oakland Symphony program, featuring Gabriella Smith’s “Tumblebird Contrails” and Reena Esmail’s “History of Red.” Vinay Parameswaran conducts the program, which also includes works by Debussy and Stravinsky. Details: 8 p.m. Friday; Paramount Theatre, Oakland; $25-$90; oaklandsymphony.org.

The return of Kern: Chamber Music San Francisco presents celebrated Russian pianist Olga Kern, a Van Cliburn gold medalist, in an all-Rachmaninoff solo recital with performances in Walnut Creek and Palo Alto. Details: 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; 7:30 p.m. Monday at Oshman Family Jewish Community Center, Palo Alto; $28-$55; chambermusicsf.org.

“Reflections on Love”: The San Jose Wind Symphony’s Sunday afternoon concert, conducted by David Vickerman, includes works by Florence Price, Leonard Bernstein, Arturo Marquez and others. Details: 3 p.m. Sunday; McAfee Center, Saratoga; $7-$22; www.sjws.org.

— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent

Smuin serves up in-house works

Smuin Contemporary Ballet is rightfully proud of its core of dancers. Not just at how well they dance but also at how well they create dances. Hence the annual “Choreography Showcase,” in which the company presents new works by company dancers in an intimate setting.

The program was the brainchild of legendary company founder Michael Smuin, though the showcase did not premiere until 2008, a year after his passing. Now it is one of the company’s favorite events. Smuin dancers who will unveil new works this year include Tessa Barbour, Ian Buchanan, Claire Buehler, Maggie Carey, Ricardo Dyer, Cassidy Isaacson, Yuri Rogers and Brennan Wall. The event runs through Sunday at the company’s studio/performance center. Select recitals will feature an audience Q&A with the dancers/choreographers following the performance. And some recitals will be available for livestreaming.

Details: 2 and 7 p.m. today and Saturday; 7 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Sunday; 1830 17th St., San Francisco; $35-$55; smuinballet.org.

— Randy McMullen, Staff