Our guide to pop and rock shows and the best of live jazz.
Pop
JANE BIRKIN at Carnegie Hall (Feb. 1, 8 p.m.). Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg had one of the great romances of the 20th century, expressed through two decades’ worth of sly, decadent French love songs — from the succès de scandale of “Je T’Aime...Moi Non Plus” in 1969 through “Amours des Feintes,” released less than a year before Mr. Gainsbourg’s death in 1991. In recent years, Ms. Birkin has crisscrossed the world performing new orchestral arrangements of her late ex-lover’s music. “It’s a wonderful feeling, but equally sad, because the most beautiful songs were written when I left him,” she told The New York Times in November. At this Carnegie Hall show, she will be backed by the Wordless Music Orchestra, with a special guest appearance from Rufus Wainwright, one of Mr. Gainsbourg’s greatest stylistic heirs. It’s sure to be a night of bittersweet beauty and high wit.
212-247-7800, carnegiehall.org
JEN CLOHER at Rough Trade NYC (Jan. 30, 9 p.m.). The Australian songwriter Jen Cloher’s self-titled album was one of 2017’s finest rock releases, full of hard-won insights on matters personal (“Strong Woman”) and political (“Analysis Paralyisis”). The last time Ms. Cloher toured the United States, this past autumn, it was as an opening act for her partner, Courtney Barnett. This month, she’s back for a headlining run that hits Brooklyn on Tuesday night, fronting an exceptionally tight band whose members include Ms. Barnett on guitar.
888-929-7849, roughtrade.com/us
FLEETWOOD MAC at Radio City Music Hall (Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m.) and ELTON JOHN at the Theater at Madison Square Garden (Jan. 30, 8 p.m.). The Grammy Awards are in New York this weekend, for the first time since 2003 — which means that several platinum-dusted tributes organized by the Recording Academy are in town this week, too. The hottest ticket is a Radio City Music Hall gala for the five members of Fleetwood Mac, who are being collectively recognized as “Person of the Year” by the Grammy-run charity MusiCares; they will share the stage with Lorde, Harry Styles, Haim and other A-list fans. The second-hottest: “Elton John: I’m Still Standing — A Grammy Salute,” featuring performances by Kesha, Sam Smith, Miley Cyrus and Sir Elton himself at the relatively cozy Theater at Madison Square Garden. These shows aren’t cheap, but they will surely be memorable.
800-745-3000, msg.com
FRUIT & FLOWERS at Rough Trade NYC (Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m.). This Brooklyn psych-rock group was named one of 2016’s hardest-working local acts by one website after playing upward of 30 shows in the city that year. It recently earned the same honor for 2017. Even if such metrics do little to convince you of a band’s artistic merit, though, Fruit & Flowers are worth a listen: Their recent EP “Drug Tax” is full of dark little hooks that are easy to hum along with and harder to forget.
888-929-7849, roughtrade.com/us
KRAAK & SMAAK at C’mon Everybody (Jan. 26, 11 p.m.). Expert sculptors of smoothed-out digital soul, as heard on their 2016 album “Juicy Fruit,” the three Dutch producers who make up Kraak & Smaak are also skilled club D.J.’s. They will put the latter talent to use on Friday at this late-night set in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, spinning funk, disco and house records until the early hours of Jan. 27 — call it Saturday morning fever.
877-987-6487, cmoneverybody.com
NATHAN AND THE ZYDECO CHA-CHAS at Connolly’s Pub (Jan. 26, 8 p.m.). A key player in the zydeco revolution of the 1980s and 1990s, Nathan Williams remains one of the traditional Louisiana genre’s most spirited ambassadors. He and his band, whose zydeco comes with an R&B lean, will bring the party to this Times Square pub on Friday for a show marking the 25th anniversary of the local promoter Let’s Zydeco.
letszydeco.com
POPPY at Bowery Ballroom (Jan. 31, 9 p.m.). Who, or what, is Poppy? A post-ironic internet phenomenon, for one thing (witness her eerily deadpan YouTube presence); a performer of very catchy synth-pop songs, for another. She is quite popular in both arenas — her online videos regularly attract viewcounts in the millions, and her Jan. 30 show at Bowery Ballroom sold out swiftly enough for the space to add this encore on the 31st. It’s as good a chance as any to sort out the truth about Poppy, or to enjoy the artful ambiguity.
877-987-6487, boweryballroom.com
SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON
Jazz
WAYNE ESCOFFERY QUARTET at Smoke (Jan. 26-28; 7, 9 and 10:30 p.m.). Mr. Escoffery, a tenor saxophonist of fluid and beaming power, is celebrating the release of “Vortex,” an album recorded with his longstanding quartet. That group — an impressive mainline jazz ensemble, with Dave Kikoski on piano, Ugonna Okegwo on bass and Ralph Peterson on drums — appears here, playing the Escoffery originals featured on the recording.
212-864-6662, smokejazz.com
ROBERTA GAMBARINI at Blue Note (Jan. 29-31, 8 and 10:30 p.m.). Ms. Gambarini, a vocalist, is all assiduous precision and formidable strength. She brings it to bear on jazz standards and classic Brazilian fare, always with the help of top-tier accompanists.
212-475-8592, bluenote.net
MARY HALVORSON at the Stone (Jan. 30-Feb. 4). Ms. Halvorson — whose crinkly, caustic sound makes her one of the most distinctive guitarists in improvised music — will begin her weeklong residency at the Stone with aa triplicate of duets. She’ll play with the drummer Randy Peterson on Tuesday, the guitarist Liberty Ellman on Wednesday and the guitarist Ben Monder on Thursday. On Feb. 2, she expands to a trio (with John Hébert on bass and Ches Smith on drums); over weekend she plays with a different quartet each night.
thestonenyc.com
JOHN HOLLENBECK LARGE ENSEMBLE at Le Poisson Rouge (Jan. 30, 8 p.m.). Mr. Hollenbeck, an idiosyncratic drummer and sonic architect, likes to let sounds float around and connect at various angles, misplacing and de-ordering things. In the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, the variety of textures involved is plainly remarkable. So is the range of emotional registers: His music can be dirge-like, ludic, abstracted — sometimes multiple things at once. Those are among the big joys of “All Can Work,” an arresting new album from the ensemble. Opening for the band at this concert is a duo featuring the vocalist Theo Bleckmann and the guitarist Ben Monder.
212-505-3474, lpr.com
MATTHEW SHIPP TRIO with Roscoe Mitchell at Zankel Hall (Jan. 27, 9 p.m.). As part of Carnegie Hall’s performance series “The ’60s: The Years that Changed America,” Mr. Shipp, a pianist, adds a special guest to his trio. Mr. Mitchell, a saxophonist and composer, helped found the seminal Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago in 1965. Since then, his seeking intellect and sensitive ear have led him to a multitude of projects and recordings. He has that prolificacy in common with Mr. Shipp, a rugged free improviser in his own right, and one of the more influential members of the New York jazz scene over the past 30 years.
212-247-7800, carnegiehall.org
‘ON THE CORNER OF BOURBON, MALECÓN & BROADWAY’ at Symphony Space (Jan. 26, 7 p.m., Jan. 27, 8 p.m.). Three esteemed artists come together here for a night of cross-pollination and exchange uniting the musical traditions of New York, New Orleans and Havana. The New Orleanian jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis will join Steven Bernstein, a stalwart trumpeter of New York’s downtown scene, and Arturo O’Farrill, the progressive Cuban-American pianist. Mr. Bernstein will be accompanied by the Hot 9, the band he co-leads with Henry Butler, another New Orleans pianist. Mr. O’Farrill will present his Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.
212-864-5400, symphonyspace.org
KEVIN SUN NEW TRIO at Jazz Gallery (Jan. 31, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). This may be the first you’ve heard of Mr. Sun, a tenor saxophonist, but that will soon change. He knows a lot about the past 20 years of contemporary jazz saxophone: the shoulder-hugging maneuvers of Mark Turner, the snaky melodicism of Chris Potter, the susurrating quiet of Chris Speed. But Mr. Sun reaches back farther. Sometimes you’ll hear a smoldering kernel of Albert Ayler; when he picks up the clarinet, the tonal gamesmanship of Jimmy Giuffre looms in. Boil it all together, and Mr. Sun’s playing develops an identity of its own, equal parts direct and discursive. That’s clear on his debut album, “Trio,” which features the rhythm section on hand at the Jazz Gallery: the bassist Walter Stinson and the drummer Matt Honor.
646-494-3625, jazzgallery.nyc
GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO