Listen up, there's lots to do
--By Rick Massimo

Before Newport, after Newport, along with Newport, instead of Newport — there’s plenty to go hear. This is one of the busiest and best musical weekends of the year, so let’s hack away at it in roughly chronological order:

The Rhode Island Rhythm and Blues Preservation Society Band plays at the Concert Under the Elms, on the grounds of the John Brown House, 52 Power St., Providence, tonight at 6:30. Professor Ed Coates (who also plays in the band) and the society are on a worthy and determined quest to preserve the history and the heritage not only of the music but the Rhode Island (mostly Providence) black community that produced it.

Sit down and listen to him talk about his work and you get virtually an alternate history of the state, viewed through the music. And the society won a victory this year when the State of Rhode Island proclaimed August Rhythm and Blues Heritage Month (Coates says we’re the only state in the nation with a permanent monthly celebration of R&B).

“That’s why I’m here,” he said in a recent interview. “So people know that this stuff lived. . . . Blood, guts and soul were involved.”

Admission is $8, $5 for RIRBPS members; children under 12 are admitted free. They say to get there at 5:30 to find a place to park and they’re not wrong.

The Killer! Jerry Lee Lewis can still play a thunderstorm on the piano, and last year’s Last Man Standing: The Duets pairs him with fellow legends such as Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Rod Stewart, Ringo Starr, Jimmy Page, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Willie Nelson and more on his signature blend of early rock with hillbilly power.

It’ll just be Lewis at the Zeiterion Theatre, 684 Purchase St., New Bedford, tomorrow night at 8. But that should be more than enough. Tickets are $88; call (508) 994-2900 or go to www.zeiterion.org.

The annual ballroom swing dance sponsored by auto impresario Bob Tasca and curated by drummer and bandleader Duke Bellaire will bring the Glenn Miller Orchestra to Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet tonight at 7. Most “ghost bands” — big bands that retain the names of the decades-gone jazz legends who founded them — are franchise names with a few core players that pick up locals from whatever city they’re playing in to fill out the group. Not so with the Miller band, says Bellaire — “They’re really the only band that’s on the road all the time.” And the time they spend together shows. I haven’t seen them in years, but they were tight and powerful.

Rhodes is off Broad Street in Cranston. Free tickets are available at Tasca dealerships — “if they can’t get there, come anyway; I’ll let them in,” Bellaire says — and a canned-food donation is requested.

The Jonas Brothers, teenage dominators of Radio Disney with singles such as “Year 3000,” “Mandy” and “Hold On,” roll into Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, 79 Washington St., Providence, tomorrow night in advance of their new album release next week. The show is at 7 and tickets are $25; call (401) 331-5876 or go to www.etix.com.

Vieux Farka Toure, son of Malian legend Ali Farka Toure, keeps alive the “desert blues” of his father and adds contemporary touches as well — his first album was recently remixed for the dance floor (and titled UFOs Over Bamako) by geniuses such as DJ Cheb I Shabba and Nickodemus, adding another layer of new over the traditional.

He’s at Waterplace Park tomorrow night at 7:30, and it’s free.

Put saxophonist Dan Moretti and singer-guitarist Peter Calo together and you’ve got a combined resume that includes Ray Charles, Carly Simon, Duke Robillard, Peter Wolf, Gary Burton and more. They’re at Chan’s, 267 Main St., Woonsocket, on Saturday for an 8 p.m. show. Tickets are $12; call (401) 765-1900.