TANGLEWOOD JAZZ: In his second year helming the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, you can see venerable promoter Fred Taylor getting his ducks in a row. The heavy cats (did we say ducks?) are here: Ÿber-legend Dave Brubeck, mega-superstar Diana Krall, pianists Marian McPartland and Sir Roland Hanna, ageless drumming phenom Roy Haynes (with his Birds of a Feather band including Roy Hargrove, Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride, and Dave Kikoski), Roy Hargrove Quintet, Arturo Sandoval, Nester Torres, vocalist Roberta Gamborini, and an "Organ Summit" with Joey DeFrancesco, Jimmy McGriff, and David "Fathead" Newman. That’s Labor Day weekend, August 30–September 1, at Tanglewood in Lenox. Call (617) 266-1200.

PROMISES, PROMISES: Don’t ask us to define emo, but we know it when we hear it. Our don’t-use-the-"e"-word detectors told us the last album by the Promise Ring, Very Emergency (Jade Tree), was the one where they turned the corner from emo’s sugar-glazed post-punk into classic power pop. And if their new Water/Wood — their first for Epitaph’s Anti- imprint, home to Merle Haggard — is any indication, they ain’t going back. Having "put the power to the pop" on Emergency, they repaired to the English countryside with the Cure’s producer and took the power back out — it’s their gentlest yet, an album that’s about as naturalistic as you can get without unplugging. Earplugs are optional, then, when the Promise Ring hit the Paradise, 969 Comm Ave, on May 20. Tickets are $14; call (617) 423-NEXT.

NEXT WEEKEND:

NEMO

It’s a measure of how far the Boston Music Awards have come in the event’s 15-year history that this year’s performers (at the Orpheum next Thursday, April 11) include both Godsmack and Mission of Burma, a pair of bands who could be said to represent the opposing ends of the Boston rock spectrum: the critically maligned, populist hard-rock band with a pair of platinum albums and the critically revered art-punk martyrs whose cult popularity manifested itself long after they had called it a day. It was Godsmack who finally gave the BMAs a measure of commercial legitimacy several years ago by playing the event in the wake of their chart-topping homonymous debut album. And the addition of Burma to this year’s line-up gives the event its first real taste of indie-rock cred. For the past six years, the BMAs have introduced the NEMO showcase and conference. The showcase, a two-night marathon featuring some 250 bands at 25 clubs next Friday and Saturday, April 12 and 13, has yet to achieve the starpower or the indie buzz of the awards show, or of such events as Austin’s South by Southwest. But we find our list of recommendations gets (slightly) longer every year.

Before Godsmack, the group who embraced the BMAs most fervently were New Kids on the Block; these days, the ex–New Kids need NEMO even more than NEMO needs new kids. But NEMO has done right by Joey McIntyre, who hosts the BMAs and presents his solo material in "A One Man Show with Two People" at the Big Easy (One Boylston Place; 617-351-7000) next Friday night at 8. The other big Friday-night draw will be young new-metal grrrls Kittie with Louisville’s Flaw at Karma (9 Lansdowne Street; 617-421-9595) at 6:30 p.m. A&R reps who’re bummed they didn’t sign Howie Day might want to check out the young singer/songwriter Bowman at 9 at the Paradise (969 Comm Ave; 617-562-8800), or the indie-rock one-man-show Soltero, who plays at the same time just a few blocks away at Beckett’s Pub (1098 Comm Ave; 617-713-3914). Later Friday night, Emm Gryner — who sings with both David Bowie and Rob Zombie — returns for another trip through her Girl Versions (Dead Daisy Records), a covers album (Nick Cave, Fugazi, Ozzy, Def Leppard) that we liked better than Tori Amos’s. She’s at the Kendall CafŽ (233 Cardinal Medeiros Way in Cambridge; 617-661-0993) at 11:45. After midnight, local pop heroes the Sheila Divine are at the Paradise; and one-hit-wonder Tracy Bonham is at the Lizard Lounge (1667 Mass Ave in Cambridge; 617-547-0759). Also on Friday night, the Middle East (480 Mass Ave in Central Square; 617-864-EAST) hosts a hip-hop showcase with the up-and-coming Kabir (recently name-checked in Spin), D-Tension, Illin’ P, and REKS. And we highly recommend checking out former Grand Royal signees Nullset at Somerville’s Good Time Emporium (30 Assembly Square Drive; 617-628-5559), if only for the venue itself: cheap beer, priceless ambiance.

On Saturday, the music starts early at Club Passim (47 Palmer Street Harvard Square; 617-492-7679), where you can catch song circles featuring Bill Morrissey (noon) and Ellis Paul (1:30). Art-rockers Araby kick off a showcase by the local label Curve of the Earth at 9 p.m. at the Middle East. Former Letters to Cleo/Josie & the Pussycats singer Kay Hanley does her solo thing at 10:40 p.m. at T.T. the Bear’s Place (10 Brookline Street in Central Square; 617-492-BEAR). Sinners & Saints, a group of local hardcore superstars playing raucous hard rock, are at the Paradise at 10:50, with punk legends the Freeze following after midnight. Punk-pop hopefuls the Jaded Salingers are at Bill’s Bar (5 Lansdowne Street; 617-421-9678) at 11 p.m.; and the Medea Connection, Boston’s answer to the Melvins and Cheap Trick, are at Beckett’s Pub at midnight.

The Boston Music Awards take place next Thursday, April 11, at the Orpheum, One Hamilton Place. Tickets are $15 to $50; call (617) 931-2000. For complete NEMO schedule info, visit www.nemoboston.com, or call (781) 306-0441.

BY CARLY CARIOLI