What the World Needs Now is Jackie DeShannon Back on StageAnd Some Free Live Jazz Courtesy of Joshua Redman

by Tomm Carroll

Friday, March 23-Thursday, March 29--Free Joshua Redman! No, the great tenor sax man has not been incarcerated. But he is highlighting this week of music on the Westside with an absolutely FREE performance at Borders in Westwood this

Tuesday at 12 noon. Promoting his latest album with his quartet Passage of Time (Warner Bros.), which hits the store that day, the 32-year-old virtuoso and son of tenor legend Dewey Redman, will perform tracks from the new disc and more. His only bona fide gigs are in Orange County next weekend, so now’s your opportunity to catch this master musician close to home.

Another jazz innovator comes to town this week as well when clarinetist and all-around experimentalist Don Byron settles into the Jazz Bakery in Culver City for a six-night stand beginning Tuesday. Equally at home performing straight-ahead jazz, Schumann sonatas or klezmer music, Byron is one uncategorizable cat. For these gigs, he’s joined by pianist Edward Simon, bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Ralph Peterson.

Other jazz shows this week include singer/actress Andrea Marcovicci giving the cabaret treatment to pop songs from 1965-85 (including the works of the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder and others) at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus in Westwood Saturday evening, and Monika Brand and her trio performing at Century City’s jazz joint, Lunaria, Thursday night.

Composer, arranger and Brian Wilson cohort, musical maestro Van Dyke Parks performs a rare show at the Williams Auditorium of the Getty Center above Brentwood Friday evening. The show is free, but the tickets are long gone, so you’ll have to try your luck on the waiting list queue. Still gathering no moss, Rolling Stones clone band Sticky Fingers makes a return trip to the stage at 14 Below in Santa Monica Saturday night to do its tribute to Mick and the boys. Millhouse and Kid Monday are also on the bill. Friday at 14 Below finds the New Breed Orchestra, led by the rascally Reverend Carl Roberts, exercising its Celtic soul, with support from Crooked Tom and Grapegun.

Billy’s back! And Rusty’s got him once again. R&B aficionado, and a singer-songwriter-rocker himself, Billy Vera returns to Rusty’s Surf Ranch on the Santa Monica Pier with his band The Beaters for a pair of shows Saturday night, 8 and 10 p.m.. On Friday, Rusty’s features the triple bill of Madhouse 7, Jenny Alpert and The Day. Goth-rockers Written in Ashes headline Club Antiquity at the Gig in West L.A. Friday night. On the folky side, Banjo Dan and Paul Arnoldi team up for evening of entertainment at Boulevard Music in Culver City.

Reggae act Mongoose gets a lot of exposure this week. Aside from its regular Wednesday night gig at the West End in Santa Monica, the band also participates in an evening of Rub-a-Dub with Wozani at Santa Monica’s Temple Bar Saturday night. On Sunday, Temple Bar brings back the hip-hop orchestra known as Dakah. On the blues circuit, South Central headlines Harvelle’s in Santa Monica Saturday night and will feature a special guest appearance by Guitar Shorty. The following evening, Harvelle’s welcomes the Blistering Blues Band.

JACKIE DeSHANNON McCABE’S GUITAR SHOP 8 P.M. FRIDAY, MARCH 23 & SATURDAY, MARCH 24 Put a little love in your heart this weekend -- and a lot of great old songs in your ears -- as Sixties songbird Jackie DeShannon precedes her performance at Cleveland’s Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame next Wednesday with a couple of intimate shows at our own Folk Hall of Fame, McCabe’s Guitar Shop.

Known for penning -- and often singing -- such hits as "Needles and Pins," "When You Walk into the Room" and "Bette Davis Eyes," as well as covering such classics as Bacharach-David’s "What the World Needs Now" and The Band’s "The Weight," the veteran performer had opened for the Beatles on their first U.S. tour an even wrote songs with then-sessionman Jimmy Page.