Top 12 NJ Arts Events of Week: Exit Zero Jazz Festival, Under Cover Music Fest, Peter Asher, more

JEREMY LOCK

Arturo Sandoval will perform at the Exit Zero Jazz Festival, May 15 at 5:50 p.m.

Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through May 19.

MUSIC

• The spring 2022 edition of the biannual Exit Zero Jazz Festival takes place May 13-15, with both outdoor and indoor sets at various Cape May locations. Artists will include four-time Grammy-winning trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, Marcus Miller, Artemis, Cécile McLorin Salvant, the Mingus Big Band, Charles Lloyd, the Keyon Harrold Quintet, the Emmet Cohen Trio, Conjunto Philly, Brassville and more.

In conjunction with the festival, dinner-and-show benefits for the Cape May Jazz Festival Foundation will take place at the Yacht Club of Cape May, May 14 at 6 and 8 p.m., with the Houston Person Quartet.

• Peter Asher has had a unique career. After being part of the hit-making duo Peter & Gordon (“A World Without Love,” “True Love Ways,” “Lady Godiva”) in the ’60s, he became a manager and producer with long, fruitful associations with artists such as Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. He’ll present a show titled “A Musical Memoir of the ’60s and Beyond,” May 13 at 8 p.m. at The Vogel at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.

• The free Under Cover Music Fest, taking place at the Sloan Street parking lot in South Orange, May 14, will feature tributes to various artists with the following schedule: The Deadful Greats covering The Grateful Dead at 4 p.m.; Karl Latham’s Big Fun(k) covering Herbie Hancock at 5 p.m.; Vivienne Frederick and Mark Murphy’s Music Faculty Band covering Stevie Wonder at 6 p.m.; Autumn Jones covering Lauryn Hill at 7 p.m.; Dustin Kaufman covering Phil Collins at 8 p.m.; and Charlie Pollock and Friends covering Led Zeppelin at 9 p.m. Food and a beer garden will be available.

Felicia Moore and John Brancy.

• The APEX Ensemble (formerly the Montclair Orchestra) concludes its 2021-22 season with an “Emerging Voices” program at the Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair, May 15 at 4 p.m., featuring Juilliard Vocal Arts Program alumni Felicia Moore, soprano, and John Brancy, baritone. The concert will feature Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor ; Gustav Mahler’s “Songs of a Wayfarer”; Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder; and Franz Liszt’s Les Preludes. APEX’s music director, David Chan, will conduct.

• The Morris Choral Society will present a program titled “Americana,” May 15 at 3 p.m. at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Morris Plains. The program will include Randall Thompson’s “Frostiana: Seven Country Songs,” based on the poetry of Robert Frost; Thompson’s “The Testament of Freedom,” which draws on the writings of Thomas Jefferson; Aaron Copland’s “At the River”; the folk song “Shenandoah”; and more. Baritone Jonathan R. Green and the all-male ensemble, Express Male, will be featured. The concert will also include the Ukrainian national anthem, in tribute to the people of Ukraine.

• Stormin’ Norman Seldin, a pianist with deep roots in the Asbury Park music scene, has previously presented “Dueling Pianos” shows with pianist Ryan Gregg and a big band, but will try something new — a piano duet show, featuring just him and Gregg — May 14 from 1 to 4 p.m. at RBAR in Asbury Park. He promises “some very rare material, Mississippi/New Orleans Stride/Blues Piano, classics, and a wide range of New Orleans stuff.” There will be no cover charge.

BRITTON RENE-COLLINS

• Percussionist Britton-René Collins will perform at the Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum in Morris Township, May 15 at 2 p.m. The concert will feature a new work on the theme of time, commissioned by the musem, along with other material.

Tickets will include admission to the museum itself, and children younger than 18 will be admitted free.

The concert is part of a two-show series, “On Time,” which will also include a May 29 concert by the Brooklyn-based string quartet, The Rhythm Method. That show will also feature a work commissioned by the museum’s Live Arts program, by composer Kailyn Williams.

FILM

• Among the films that will be shown at the New Jersey Documentary Film Festival, taking place May 13-15 at the Sparta Avenue Stage, will be “Charlie Loves Our Band,” a documentary about the New Jersey roots-rock band, From Good Homes. The 8:15 p.m. May 13 screening is sold out but a screening has been added, May 13 at 6:30 p.m.

• Continuing its tradition of screening the 1980 horror classic “Friday the 13th” — filmed in and around Blairstown — every time the 13th of the month falls on a Friday, Roy’s Hall in Blairstown will show the movie, May 13 at 7 and 9 p.m. Tickets from the postponed August 2021 screening will be honored.

VISUAL ART

• “Art in Bloom” — a pop-up exhibition that will be at the Montclair Art Museum, May 18-22 — will feature garden clubs and individual designers presenting floral designs and arrangements inspired by the art in the museum’s galleries.

ULF HOBERG

LENNY KAYE

BOOKS

• Lenny Kaye, best known as a member of Patti Smith’s band since the ’70s, will sign copies of his book, “Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll,” May 18 at 7 p.m. at Little City Books in Hoboken. Kaye will be interviewed by musician James Mastro and possibly perform a song or two. In “Lightning Striking,” Kaye writes about 10 music scenes that had a huge impact on the history of rock, including Memphis in 1954, Liverpool in 1962, San Francisco in 1967, New York in 1975 and Seattle in 1991.

REVIEWS

“The Burdens” at Mile Square Theatre, Hoboken. (Through May 22)

“The Giant Void in My Soul” at Luna Stage, West Orange. (Through May 22)

“Curse of the Starving Class” at Hudson Theatre Works, Weehawken. (Through May 22)

“Revival: Post-Pandemic Visions” at the 1978 Maplewood Arts Center. (Through May 22)

“Theda Sandiford: Joyful Resistance” at Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster. (Through June 4)

“Tenacity & Resilience: The Art of Jerry Pinkney” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through June 26)