TONIGHT

The second week of JVC launches with two comparatively intimate events and a film. At Merkin Hall, there’s a twopiano team-up between a pair of the most outgoing keyboardists around, Cyrus Chestnut and John Hicks. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra does its customary Monday night mini-concert in the world’s most famous basement, but this time its most illustrious of alumni, the mighty Joe Lovano, is fronting the ensemble. At a venue new to me called In Person, there is the premiere of a newly released film of Miles Davis and one of his early electric bands performing at the Isle of Wight in 1970.

JUNE 21

On Tuesday, great ladies take over. At the Kaye Playhouse, there’s a celebritypacked salute to Barbara Carroll (it wouldn’t be polite to disclose her age – let’s just say she’s younger than Clark Terry). She will be feted by several contemporaries (Marian McPartland, Peter Appleyard, George Wein, Dr. Billy Taylor, Joe Wilder) and all manner of pianists who’ve learned a thing or two about how to play and sing a standard from her: Ann Hampton Callaway, Bill Charlap, Ted Rosenthal, and Daryl Sherman, plus her great long-standing trio of Joe Cocuzzo (drums) and Jay Leonhart (bass), who also produces. Maria Schneider and her Jazz Orchestra perform for free at a concert at the World Financial Center Plaza, co-presented by the Hudson River Festival. Staying on the Lower West Side, the Vanguard launches “Don Byron: Almost Complete,” six nights of different bands and conceptions from the clarinetist. For the first night in the series, he brings out his Latin-tinged sextet, Music for Six Musicians, with the fine trumpeter James Zollar.

JUNE 22

On Wednesday there are two concerts built around stars of the 1970s: Keith Jarrett (very much alive) and Jaco Pastorius (not so much). Mr. Jarrett remains steadfastly acoustic and Pastorious remains unsurpassed on the electric bass, yet these two shows are going for pretty much the same audience. Mr. Jarrett’s trio, with Jack De-Johnette (drums) and Gary Peacock (bass), is so powerful that a full twohour set by him is almost too much. The Pastorius show at the Beacon opens with fusioneers Steps Ahead (with Michael Brecker, Mike Mainieri, Steve Smith, Mike Stern, and Richard Bona) and a newly assembled big band playing Pastorius’s large-scale music. At the Vanguard, Don Byron is also leading a big band.

JUNE 23

Carnegie hosts a double bill with two exciting contemporary trios: The electrified threesome of Stanley Clarke, Bela Fleck, and Jean-Luc Ponty performs, as does the acoustic one of Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, and Joe Lovano. The latter, one of the great ensembles of our time, plays annually at the Vanguard, and it will be interesting to see what they bring to Carnegie. Meanwhile, at the Vanguard, the usual haunt of the Motian Trio, Don Byron leads his 12-piece Adventurers Orchestra.

JUNE 24

The slate at Carnegie, appropriately titled “Always Welcome,” promises to be vastly entertaining: John Pizzarelli’s quartet (Ray Kennedy, Martin Pizzarelli, and Tony Tedesco) and a barrage of special guests, including his wife, the charming vocaliste Jessica Molaskey, and the butt-kicking tenor Harry Allen. Especially welcome is Dave Brubeck’s quartet, featuring exciting altoist Bobby Militello (along with Randy Jones and Michael Moore) – the best band that the venerable pianist has led since the Paul Desmond days. I only wish this show were being done at Rose Hall, where it’s possible to hear what’s happening, rather than at Carnegie, where you never know what you’ll get. Don Byron leads his Ivey Divey Trio downtown at the Vanguard in memory of Lester “Prez” Young and Nat King Cole, with Jason Moran and Billy Hart and guests Lonnie Plaxico and Ralph Alessi. Israeli pianist Anat Fort plays at Symphony Space with her trio.

JUNE 25

The climactic night of JVC poses me with a dilemma: I am always in the mood for a good salsa band, and there are none better than those of Eddie Palmieri and Ray Barretto, especially with two heavyweight guest soloists in Randy Brecker and Ronnie Cuber, appearing at Carnegie in “Salsa Meets Jazz” (named after the long running series of Monday shows at the Old Village Gate). Downtown, however, the Knitting Factory is mounting a blowout that includes nearly every good downtown styleband there is: Ben Allison’s Kush Trio, the Jamie Baum Septet, pianist Michael Bellar/As-Is Ensemble, Tim Berne’s Hard Cell, Marty Ehrlich Sextet, Jean-Michel Pilc Trio, Gary Lucas & Jozef Van Wissem, Rudresh Mahanthappa Quartet, Kurt Rosenwinkel Quartet, violinist Jenny Scheinman, and something called Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra. (Incidentally, Branford Marsalis is also appearing at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, but with Harry Connick Jr.) What to do? Best solution: Wait until I get salsa’ed out at Carnegie, then OD on downtown music, and rest on Sunday as the Good Lord intended. Otherwise it’s wait ’til next year.