Friday Happenings

Breath, Hammers

-- Evan Parker is a British jazz saxophonist whose unusual tongueings and circular breathing techniques create an eerie, polyphonic music that is more texture than melody. As a part of the European jazz avant-garde in the sixties, he played with ferocity, an unrelenting radical who would sometimes find his saxophone dripping with blood. His style has been tempered by age, mellowed by forty years, but his performances continue to challenge and reward the listener. Tonight, he is joined by pianist Marilyn Crispell, who has done stints alongside Anthony Braxton and Reggie Workman. A graduate of the New England conservatory, her improvisations have a visceral beauty. Parker and Crispell will each perform a solo set, followed by a duet. Part of the New Music Now series. Institute for Contemporary Art, South Boston, 7:30 p.m. $25/$20.

Oud Dudes

-- Simon Shaheen, who performs on both violin and oud, spins a jazz-Arabic fusion that manages to be as haunting as it is playful. Performing in a trio. Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 7:30 p.m. $25/$20.

Overlooked, Underpaid

-- Lil Dap has turned in A+ rhymes since the early nineties when, as half of the duo Group Home, he hooked up with the Gang Starr Foundation. (If you've never heard Group Home, you might have heard Dap's verses on the 1992 Gang Starr cut "I'm the Man.") Dap is on his own now; his album I.A.DAP dropped in August. Underground Hip Hop Dot Com, 234 Huntington Ave., 6 p.m. Free.

Lute Liberation

-- Dutch experimental lute performer Jozef Van Wissem joins guitarist Glenn Jones (of Cul de Sac) for an evening of improvisation on strings. The performance will be followed by Van Wissem's lecture "The Liberation of the Lute," in which he will discuss his plans to free the Renaissance instrument from obscurity. Presented by Non-Event. Swedenbourg Chapel, 50 Quincy St., Cambridge. 7 p.m. $10.

Image of Evan Parker from Wikipedia.