Bob Wills' Texas Playboys play Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing.
127 E. 23rd St. (212-307-7171)—July 2: The Australian proto-punk collective Radio Birdman was formed in 1974 by an uprooted Michigan native named Deniz Tek. Practicing the same sort of double-barrelled rock as Michigan's favorite sons the MC5 and the Stooges, Radio Birdman became a favorite of the Aussie punk scene, and their albums became prized Stateside by unshaven record geeks in ill-fitting Ramones T-shirts. Three decades later, the band has reformed, much to the delight of its fans.
Prospect Park Band Shell, Prospect Park W. at 9th St. (718-855-7882, ext. 45)—June 26-27: Manu Chao performs a benefit concert. Born in Paris to Spanish parents, Chao sings in the tongues of his birthplace and his ancestors, as well as in English and other languages. His hyperactively rhythmic music is an enticing mesh of multicultural influences. June 29: The JVC Jazz Festival presents Groove Collective, Ravi Coltrane, and Craig Harris. June 30: A taste of the Montreal rock scene, with the Stills, the Sam Roberts Band, and Malajube.
Rumsey Playfield, mid-Park at 72nd St. (212-360-2777)—June 28: Levon Helm, the former Band drummer and vocalist, sometime actor ("Coal Miner's Daughter"), and throat-cancer survivor, plays a benefit show. June 30: Ozomatli, the extra-large Latin-funk collective from L.A. July 1: The highly versatile Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela.
Wantagh, N.Y. (212-307-7171)—June 29: Bob Dylan, the most accessible music legend in America, is on a seemingly never-ending tour. He's coming off three of the very best albums of his career, and the reports are that he's out from behind the keyboards and is roaming the stage with the electric guitar again. July 2: Rush may be the punch line of virtually every joke about Canadian rock, but the group itself is laughing all the way to the bank. Having gradually evolved over the course of nearly two dozen studio albums, from three Zepplinesque players prone to excess into a strenuously accomplished and versatile unit, Rush unites metalheads, computer geeks, and po-faced Ayn Rand fans in adoration of its erudite and burly rock.
Seventh Ave. at 33rd St. (212-307-7171)—June 30: Morrissey's wan visage and plangent voice, coupled with his sexually ambiguous lyrics, helped make the Smiths one of the more original and beloved bands of the post-punk era. Since the band's acrimonious schism toward the end of the eighties, the patron saint of effete British melancholy has been dogged by pleas to reunite with his estranged comrades. Such a resumption of duty seems out of the question, and Morrissey has pursued a solo career fraught with hills and valleys.
22-25 Jackson Ave., at 46th Ave., Long Island City (718-784-2084)—This outdoor dance party, which takes place every Saturday through Sept. 1, gets under way on June 30 at 3 as the dance-rock label DFA plays host to a number of its acts, including Invisible Conga People, Tim & Tim, and the Juan Maclean. The music and dancing takes place in the museum's courtyard, which is outfitted each year by specially chosen young architects. This summer, the Los Angeles firm Ball-Nogues has the honor. Its installation features canopies of tinted translucent Mylar panels and communal hammocks.
59 W. 44th St. (212-840-6800)—June 26-July 6: The vocalist Claire Martin, a celebrated figure in England. Her new album, "He Never Mentioned Love: Remembering Shirley Horn," is a tribute to the masterly singer.
315 W. 44th St. (212-581-3080)—June 26-30: The Italian alto-saxophonist wunderkind Francesco Cafiso, who is all of eighteen, and his quartet take on Charlie Parker's "Bird with Strings" recordings, with support from the I Soloisti di Perugia chamber orchestra.
Broadway at 60th St. (212-258-9595)—June 26-July 1: A band of nineteen-sixties contemporaries fronted by the saxophonist Sonny Fortune salutes the music of John Coltrane. The tenor saxophonist Billy Harper and the trumpeter Eddie Henderson are on board for the first three nights; the trumpeter Charles Sullivan sits in for the remainder of the run.
116 E. 27th St. (212-576-2232)—As part of the JVC Jazz Festival, this club is home to "World Jazz Nights" this week. June 27: The Israeli trumpeter Avishai Cohen leads a promising sextet featuring the guitarist Lionel Loueke and the pianist Jason Lindner. June 28-30: Roswell Rudd, the man who brought free jazz to the trombone four decades ago, now joins with African musicians in the Malicool septet.
178 Seventh Ave. S., at 11th St. (212-255-4037)— The frighteningly adept bassist Christian McBride has been known to wade into electric funk from time to time, yet to judge from the company he's keeping in his new Situation Vol. 4 band (June 26-July 1), hard-swinging mainstream jazz will be the order of the day. His bandmates include the pianist Eric Reed and the saxophonist Steve Wilson.