Camden Crawl, London
London's indie centre of gravity moved east some time ago. Camden Town, however, with its enduringly seedy air and historical rock associations continues to be a spiritual home for a certain strata of pub-based music. The Camden Crawl is a homage to a grassroots, word-of-mouth way of experiencing new music, where one ticket is your passport to Camden's many venues. Big turns, from ABC to Of Montrealare present, but it's more about the emerging artists: from the raw grime of Eyez, to the nursery-rhyme folk of Katie Kim, there's plenty to turn your head.
Various venues, NW1, Fri to 21 Jun
JR
Edwyn Collins, On tour
As bad as it would have been for anyone, the 2005 strokes that robbed Edwyn Collins of all but a couple of phrases seemed particularly cruel. Collins, after all, had to that point been among the most verbal songwriters of his generation. His A Girl Like You single of 1994 is his best-known work, but the tuneful, anti-rock feyness of his band Orange Juice, who aspired to fuse Chic with the Velvet Underground, offered a more profound statement of his originality. His lyrical selves, meanwhile – amusing, self-mythologising, slightly camp – had no peer till the arrival of the Smiths. Since his strokes, Collins's life and work have been about recovery (soon to be charted in a film documentary) and about exploring new ways to create. His lyrics are now perhaps more direct. But, as one of his remaining phrases had it nine years ago, with them, the possibilities are endless.
Oran Mór, Glasgow, Sun; The Deaf Institute, Manchester, Mon; Queen Elizabeth Hall, SE1, Tue
JR
Kings Of Leon, On tour
At sufficient altitude, even a small wobble will feel life-threatening, as the Kings Of Leon know all too well. A band whose rise was almost comically rapid, the "southern Strokes" quickly outstripped their New York counterparts and weathered accusations of inauthenticity, winning fans including, among millions of others, Bob Dylan. An accomplished good-time band, their current album Mechanical Bull is lean, focused and also introspective; dealing with recent personal troubles for the band. Life will knock you in the dirt is the message. All you can do is get up and try again.
Isle Of Wight festival, Newport, Sun; Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Tue; Phones4U Arena, Manchester, Wed; The SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Fri; touring to 22 Jun
JR
Russell Haswell: Earthquake Mass, Aldeburgh
Russell Haswell has been pushing the possibilities of harsh computer noise in art and music since the early 90s, from his early associations with the YBAs to his ferocious club-centric noise LP on Powell's Diagonal label earlier this year. Tonight, he relocates to Aldeburgh for the festival's experimental programme, Faster Than Sound, where he'll be reanimating the shadowy forms of Antoine Brumel's Et ecce terrae motus (Earthquake Mass). The 400-year-old piece is an unfinished composition; Haswell has been commissioned to complete it, working with the Exaudi experimental vocal ensemble and James Weeks for this one-off performance.
Britten Studio, Snape Maltings, Sat
JA
Wynton Marsalis, Harrogate
This opening gig of a UK tour for Marsalis and his famous Lincoln Center Orchestra sees the ensemble focusing their finesse and firepower in order to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Blue Note record label. Marsalis has long been one of jazz's legendary purists, but a midlife broadening of his tastes (and probably a little pragmatic attention to his band's international audience appeal) have occasioned some enterprising but uneven world-music experiments lately. This tour, however, is tailor-made for Marsalis's arranging skills, his own still-awesome trumpet power, and the talents of his soloists. The Blue Note catalogue took in the early bebop of Bud Powell and the genius of Thelonious Monk, all the way up to postbop/hip-hop star Robert Glasper today. You can bet Marsalis will make a rousing, fast-moving and personal show out of segueing it all.
The Royal Hall, Fri; touring to 2 Jul
JF
Royal Opera & Opéra De Rouen: Quartett, London
Though Luca Francesconi is now in his late 50s, and established as one of Italy's leading living composers, little of his music has been heard in Britain. Quartett, which John Fulljames is directing at Covent Garden's Linbury Studio this week, was first performed at La Scala, Milan, three years ago. The text is based upon the 1980 play of the same name by the great German writer Heiner Müller, who in turn used Laclos's famous epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses as his starting point. In Francesconi's opera it becomes a taut two-hander set in a bunker after world war three and during the French revolution, simultaneously.
Linbury Studio Theatre, WC2, Wed to 28 Jun
AC
