dd/mm/yyyy, On tour
You say "Day month year" ? but that's really as simple as it gets with this Canadian band. Reminiscent of someone like Battles in their speed and intensity, the group's keyword is probably "hyperactive" ? they're tight, but they need to be, their many rhythmic changes and stops and starts forming elaborate structures. This is music once generally conducted at a far easier tempo, but such intricacy is very much par for the course for today's post/math-rock band, as they explore every possible path out of the post-hardcore rut. Signed to Invada, the label run by Portishead's Geoff Barrow, their new EP is split with Barrow's post-rock group BEAK>.
Croft, Bristol, Mon; Prince Albert, Brighton, Tue; Nation Of Shopkeepers, Leeds, Wed; Captain's Rest, Glasgow, Thu; Shacklewell Arms, E8, Fri
John Robinson
Truck Festival, Steventon
One of the first festivals to step off the grid and write its own script for outdoor summer entertainment, Truck began as something like a church fete, only to have evolved into an unshowy, pleasant alternative to mainstream events. It might not have the biggest bands, but it can certainly boast some of their members, and their interesting side projects. Graham Coxon plays a set comprising both his incarnations as confused power-popper and as leaf-raking bucolic. Radiohead drummer Philip Selway brings his faintly melancholic and acoustic material. Best of the bunch, though, is Super Furries frontman Gruff Rhys, a solo performer of enormous charisma, wit and initiative.
Hill Farm, Fri to 24 Jul
JR
Rufus Wainwright, London
Recession? What recession? For Rufus Wainwright, excess forms an intrinsic part of everything he does. This goes for his songs ? the best of them being swooning, self-dramatising tales of his chemical and romantic indulgences ? and also for his current activity. Not for him a poxy MP3 bundle: his latest release is a red velvet box called House Of Rufus filled to bursting with 20 discs-worth of unreleased material. And so it is with this series of shows. Guided by the principle "There's no such thing as too much Rufus Wainwright", this week finds him performing in a number of different iterations. At the piano. Supported by his sister, Martha. Supported by his dad, Loudon. And fronting his homage to Judy Garland's Carnegie Hall performance Rufus Does Judy ? all at the Royal Opera House, the venue that might be thought to best encapsulate his understated nature.
Royal Opera House, SW7, Mon & Fri (Judy), Tue (with Martha Wainwright), Thu (w ith Loudon Wainwright)
JR
James Carter, London
Detroit-raised sax man James Carter is one of the most high-profile of contemporary jazz artists, and one characterising our era of musical cross-pollination. Recent album Caribbean Rhapsody is a large-scale orchestral venture, the result of 10 years' work with Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra ? but these two London shows operate at the opposite end of the scale, with the classic jazz-funk lineup of a sax-led Hammond organ trio. Carter first emerged under the wing of the late Lester Bowie, an avant-funk trumpeter with an all-music-is-one message. In 2000, he demonstrated his commitment to that by releasing gypsy-jazz and free-funk albums simultaneously, while in 2005 and 2009 he extended the organ-combo approach in partnership with legendary keys groover John Medeski. These shows feature a fellow-musician from Carter's hometown in Hammond B3 specialist Gerard Gibbs.
Ronnie Scott's, W1, Thu, Fri
John Fordham
Evan Parker, London
A four-part July series of Purcell Room concerts acclaiming very different pioneers of British jazz and improvisation (including Soweto Kinch, the Jazz Warriors and the late Sir John Dankworth) appropriately begins with the most uncompromisingly radical of musical adventurers ? the improv saxophone innovator Evan Parker. Parker has been rewriting the book on the sounds that can be made with a sax for over 40 years, developing a remarkable post-Coltrane technique that has allowed him to play counterpoint on what was designed as a single-line instrument, generate electronics-like textures acoustically, and build a personal soundscape that avoids conventional tunes but has its own arresting lyricism. This show features partners such as violinist Phil Wachsmann and bass powerhouse John Edwards, but also a versatile newcomer in young trumpeter Percy Pursglove. The latter also joins Parker at his Vortex residency on Thursday.
Purcell Room, SE1, Tue; Vortex Jazz Club, N16, Thu
JF
William Tell & Gothic Symphony, London
The new Proms season gets into its stride spectacularly this weekend. First up is William Tell, Rossini's final and by some distance longest stage work, a panoramic and highly romanticised sweep through the history of medieval Switzerland, and its struggle against rule. Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra Of The Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome. Tomorrow, the Albert Hall clears the decks for Havergal Brian's First Symphony, The Gothic, notorious not only for being the longest symphony ever written but for the vastness of the forces required, which include two orchestras and a whole roster of choirs (nine in this performance). Martyn Brabbins takes on this mammoth conducting challenge.
Royal Albert Hall, SW7, Sat (William Tell), Sun (Gothic Symphony)
Andrew Clements
Bridget Moynahan Noureen DeWulf Nicollette Sheridan Amber Heard Veronica Kay
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