WED
MUSIC
EVAN PARKER, ALEX VON SCHLIPPENBACH, & PAUL LYTTON
Parker is one of the gods of European improvised music. His fractured, fluttering, multiphonic way with the saxophone is like an abstract antithesis to the impassioned, impetuous line-drawing of Bird, Trane, and the jazz sax tradition. Thirty years after he rose to prominence, his reputation has not dimmed nor his performances slackened, and his concert tonight with two other giants of the European scenedrummer/electronicist Lytton (above, right) and pianist Von Schlippenbach (seen at left)is irreplaceable listening for anyone with even a passing interest in exploratory sound. 8 p.m. Wed., May 14. $12. Seattle Asian Art Museum, Volunteer Park. 206-329-4224. MARK D. FEFER
THURS
CLASSICAL
VIVA LA MÚSICA
“How would Jesus live and act in Latin America?” is the question that inspired Osvaldo Golijov’s St. Mark Passion. Through the story of Christ’s death, Golijov evokes both his Jewish roots and the Argentine music of his childhood, with Latin percussion, guitars, raucous “untrained” choral singing, and flamenco and capoeira dancers. As part of their Viva la Música festival, the Seattle Symphony’s offering three arias from the work, including the heart-stoppingly beautiful “Lua Descolorida,” with its soprano line floating freely like birdsong over the lightest passing wisps of string sound. Luciana Souza (pictured, who sang in the Passion‘s 2000 Stuttgart premiere) and Terri Richter are the soloists. If only the SSO were doing the whole piece . . . 7:30 p.m. Thurs., May 15. $16-$55. Benaroya Hall, Third Avenue and Union Street, 206-215-4747. GAVIN BORCHERT
FRI
COMEDY
MIKE EPPS
After Chris Tucker said no to reprising his ghetto superstar-making role in Ice Cube’s 1995 Friday movie, Def Comedy Jam vet Mike Epps gamely assumed Tucker’s shrill, rubbery, wanna-be-playa persona for two ineffectual Friday sequels. In those (and the harder-edged Miami shoot-’em-up, All About the Benjamins), Cube’s increasingly parched pen didn’t do much to distinguish Epps’ interchangeable, weed-happy chatterboxes. But the man excels at digging around an audience’s throat and expediently throttling them into submission with ribald hood farce. Doing stand-up tonight with-out a pesky plot to distract him, he should be golden. 8 p.m. Fri., May 16. $33.50-$42.50. Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., 206-682-1414. ANDREW BONAZELLI
FRI
PHOTOGRAPHY
SUBHANKAR BANERJEE
Talk about luck. Talk about publicity. The Bellevue Boeing-engineer-turned-wildlife-photographer is suddenly bigger than Art Wolfe and more topical than the Dixie Chicks. And Seattle’s Mountaineers Books has a runaway success on its hands. Banerjee’s photos of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, captured while he spent two years in Alaska and collected in the book Seasons of Life and Land, became a hot topic when Sen. Barbara Boxer referred to them on the Senate floor during a debate about opening ANWR to oil drilling. Then the Smithsonian, which was scheduled to display Banerjee’s photos this month, suddenly relegated the exhibit to the basement. Now Banerjee’s story is all over NPR and The New York Times, and Sen. Durbin of Illinois is launching an investigation! Banerjee will show slides, talk about the brouhaha, and sign his bookwhile copies last. 7:30 p.m. Fri., May 16. Elliott Bay Books, 101 S. Main St., 206-624-6600. BRIAN MILLER
FRI-SUN
FILM
FILMS BY JEFF KRULIK
Even if you don’t recognize his name, chances are you’ve seenor at least heard friends rave aboutKrulik’s Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986). Watching rabid Judas Priest fans congregate outside a West Virginia arena to drink, toke, scream, and flash devil’s-horn salutes provides for some easy snickering, but Krulik is oddly affectionate and nonjudgmental toward his dim-witted subjects. That film anchors the 9 p.m. package of shorts. In the 7 p.m. program is Hitler’s Hat, a big step forward for Krulik, which relates how a Jewish GI found a notorious top hat in 1945. In their 2000 army reunion, Richard Marowitz (pictured) and his former foxhole buddies trade recollections that are alternately hilarious and sad. Krulik is scheduled to attend the screenings. 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Fri., May 16-Sun., May 18. $7. Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave. E., 206-675-2055. BRIAN MILLER
