ongoing -  Sun. May 4

JazzBoston's second annual Jazz Week  runs through Sunday May 4, playing anywhere from clubs, museums, and churches to libraries, universities, hotels, and community centers. Check the website below for a full schedule - and/or hit our "read more" button for some highlights - but we're going to key here on a rare jazz appearance (his second ever) by former U. S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. He'll duet with internationally renowned percussionist Rakalam Bob Moses, at Berklee Performance Center today, Saturday May 3. We asked Pinsky (in photo) about the relationship between poetry and jazz.  "For me," he said, "an essential character of poetry is speed: leaving out the ponderous in-between parts, the voice discovering new connections between images, sentences, sounds, feelings, ideas without a prosey arrangement."

 "The sound itself takes care of the arrangement. That speed or quickness of association is like improvisation. Where does a rhythm or a harmony lead? Both arts find joy in that question. Poetry is the most vocal and musical verbal art, short of actual song. And in American culture, poetry and jazz are kind of advance scouts, making discoveries and innovations that are incorporated into other forms, sometimes softened or diluted a little.I love the music of horn players I admired whn I was young and dreamed (hopelessly) of doing what they can: John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, James Moody, Sonny Rollins. When I hear the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Jazztet, the Davis period of Porgy and Bess and Kind of Blue, it's a feeling that can't be described: like home, but also like flashing back to an exciting adventure you once had."
What importance does JazzWeek have to Boston? "I dunno," Pinsky said. "But with such a large student population, plenty of live music, NEC, Berklee, etc. along with BU, MIT, Harvard, Emerson, Northeastern and the rest, you might expect it to attract a certain number of ambitious/knowledgable/curious people in their twenties, musicians and not. And on the other side there's the great history of jazz in Boston. (I believe that Rev. Michael Haynes, of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury is the brother of Roy Haynes." For more on this benefit concert and others, click "read more."
 Artists from Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, and the John Coltrane Memorial Concert (JCMC) Ensemble will perform at the benefit, proceeds of which will go to three jazz outreach programs in the Boston Public Schools: the JCMC Educational Outreach Program, based at Northeastern University, the New England Conservatory Community Performances and Partnerships Program, and the Berklee College of Music City Music Program. Young talent from the Berklee program will be front and center when the Berklee City Music All-Stars Quintet takes the stage. Special guests, including a quartet led by singer Marianne Solivan with guitarist Eric Hofbauer performing “Songs My Teachers Taught Me,” will also be part of the bill. Additional special guests are still to be announced.

More stuff: JazzBoston will once again present “Jazz Week at the Boston Public Library,” a series of free weekday and evening seminars covering a range of topics for audiences of all ages and backgrounds at the Main Library in Copley Square. This year’s topics include:
-- From the Savoy to Storyville: Boston in the ‘40s and ‘50s with Dick Vacca (Monday, April 28, 6 p.m., Mezzanine Conference Room).
-- The Worlds of Duke Ellington held on Duke Ellington’s birthday, with Mark Harvey (Tuesday, April 29, 6 p.m., Mezzanine Conference Room).
-- From Jazz to Hip-Hop and Beyond: Why Jazz Matters in the 21st Century with Emmett G. Price III (Wednesday, April 30, noon, Rabb Lecture Hall).
-- Boston Jazz’s Voices of Experience with Eric Jackson, Mae Arnett, Hy Lockhart, and Al Vega; coordinated by Leonard Brown (Thursday, May 1, 6 p.m., Mezzanine Conference Room).
-- The Future of Recording for Jazz and Improvised Music with Andrew Shrock (all-digital "ReRelease label of "Mass Jazz Underground" artists from the 1970s), Eric Hofbauer (Creative Nation label), and Russ Gershon (Accurate Records) (Friday, May 2, noon, Mezzanine Conference Room).
   -- How Jazz Happens, a special interactive family event featuring pianist Pierre Hurrel with a short film about Bill Evans, is scheduled for the Regattabar at 6 p.m., Monday Apr. 28.
Other events set so far for Jazz Week include:
-- Jason Palmer Collective, Apr. 26, May 2, Wally’s
-- Sheryl Bailey, Apr. 29; Eguie Castrillo & Orchestra, May 2,

Regattabar
-- Miguel Zenon, May 1, Center for Latino Arts
-- Rachel Price, May 1; Najee, May 2-3, Scullers
-- Grace Kelly Quartet, May 2, Jazz in the Square, Roslindale.
JazzBoston’s partnership with Borders continues this year with another “Jazz Week @ Borders” series of free after-work jazz concerts at the bookstore’s Copley Square location from April 28 to May 2. On Saturday May 3, Boston-based music journalist and author Bob Blumenthal will mark the release of his new book, Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America’s Music, with a special book-signing event at the Copley Square store.Jazz Week events will take place in a variety of venues, including the Real Deal Jazz Club and Café, Ryles, the Lily Pad, the Colonial Inn, Wally’s, the Regattabar, Matt Murphy’s Pub, Scullers, Wellesley College, Boston University, Boston College, and the Lizard Lounge.

Check website for set times and prices.

866-439-9396 www.jazzboston.org/jazzweek.