8:15pm Pop Music

5pm Jazz

Pianist Marcus Roberts brings his multifaceted style to Cal State Northridge in the first of the school’s “Jazz at 5” concert series. Roberts, a frequent collaborator of Wynton Marsalis, travels the paths of legendary jazz pianists, but in a style all his own. His latest CD, “Cole After Midnight,” for instance, revisits the music of Nat King Cole.

Marcus Roberts Trio, Performing Arts Center, Cal State Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., 5 p.m. $15 to $30. (818) 677-2488.

*

8:15pm Pop Music

The “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack was last year’s pop music Cinderella story. The album of traditional Southern music and originals in that mold has sold nearly 4 million copies and restored folk music to a place of prominence. Music producer T Bone Burnett leads a cast of the soundtrack’s musicians in the concert staging of the music, called “Down From the Mountain.” Among the participants are Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris and the legendary Ralph Stanley.

“Down From the Mountain,” Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 8:15 p.m. $35 to $80. (818) 622-4440.

*

all day Art

An estimated one in nine South Africans has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, a fact that casts a shadow over even the crafts created there. The colorful baskets and banners in “Break the Silence: Art and HIV/AIDS in South Africa,” opening Sunday at the UCLA Fowler Museum, were created in women’s workshops in South Africa’s Kwa-Zulu-Natal Province. Works such as beaded dolls, letters and panels and inscribed telephone wire baskets, or imbenge, demonstrate how art can address urgent social issues.

“Break the Silence: Art and HIV/AIDS in South Africa,” UCLA Fowler Museum, UCLA campus, Westwood. Wednesdays to Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, noon to 8 p.m. Adults, $5; seniors and students, $3; UCLA students, $1. (310) 825-4361.

*

5pm Movies

The infamous Internet site of populist movie critic Harry Knowles (www.aintitcoolnews.com)

--best-known for his screeds and raves of not-yet-released films--is a natural partner for the American Cinematheque to collaborate with on a new Ain’t It Cool News/American Cinematheque Sneak Preview Series. The initial offering in the series of upcoming movies is “The Salton Sea,” a new crime film starring Val Kilmer, followed by a Q&A; with director D.J. Caruso and producer Frank Darabont.

Ain’t It Cool News/American Cinematheque Sneak Preview Series, Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, 5 p.m. $8. (323) 466-3456.