TODAYJAZZReady to push that envelopeNew Orleans-based trumpeter...

TODAY

JAZZ

Ready to push that envelope

New Orleans-based trumpeter Maurice Brown brings his quintet back to the Jazz Bakery. The last time the 25-year-old appeared there, The Times’ Don Heckman raved about Brown’s playing, which included driving bebop and envelope-stretching free jazz, but he was less enthusiastic about Brown’s forays into more pop-oriented material. Brown’s 2004 debut album, “Hip to Bop,” contains some of both. Brown will work this weekend with saxophonist Derek Douget, drummer Ocie Davis, pianist Anthony Wonsey and bassist Jayson Stewart.

Maurice Brown Quintet, Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. 8 and 9:30 tonight. $25. (310) 271-9039.

* Also: 8 and 9:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

FRIDAY

ART

East, West influences

Paintings by Yumiko Kayukawa of seductive young women having a good time constitute her solo show “I’m From Japan. My Father Is Ninja. My Mother Is Geisha.” The exhibition features large-scale paintings that reference Kayukawa’s affinity for American pop culture and traditional Japanese print influences.

Yumiko Kayukawa: “I’m From Japan. My Father Is Ninja. My Mother Is Geisha,” La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. Opens Friday. (323) 666-7667

* Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; noon to 6 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 30.

THEATER

Summer of the Bard

The Old Globe Theatre’s “2006 Summer Shakespeare Festival” continues with “Othello,” the tragedy of true love destroyed by jealousy, and with the blood-soaked history play “Titus Andronicus.” The festival lightens up with fairy mischief and a forest frolic in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which opened Wednesday. The three plays, performed in the Globe’s outdoor amphitheater, run in repertory.

“2006 Summer Shakespeare Festival,” Old Globe Theatre, Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego. “Othello”: Opens 8 p.m. Friday. Contact theater for full performance schedule. Ends Oct. 1. $19 to $59. (619) 234-5623. www.theoldglobe.org.* “Titus Andronicus” opens 8 p.m. Sunday.

EVENTS

Flower power lives

The theme of the 2006 Orange County Fair is “Flower Power” -- the year of the garden. Appropriately enough, many of the artists slated to perform at the adjunct Pacific Amphitheatre concert series -- Linda Ronstadt, Richie Furay, Paul Simon, Steve Miller, John Kay and Steppenwolf, and the Moody Blues -- will probably play some of their hits from the “flower power” days of the 1960s. But the eclectic concert lineup also includes Bill Cosby, Velvet Revolver, the Scorpions, Dokken, Chris Isaak, Maldita Vecindad, Julieta Venegas, Hawthorne Heights, Anberlin, Michael Bolton, X and Seal. In addition to those concerts, there will be live music at the fair itself along with carnival rides, games, community entertainment, agricultural competitions and other attractions.

Orange County Fair, Orange County Fairgrounds, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. Opens noon Friday. $4 to $8; 5 and younger, free. Pacific Amphitheatre concerts have separate tickets $19.99 to $79.50. (714) 708-FAIR; www.ocfair.com.

* Hours: 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday and Sunday; noon to midnight Tuesday through Friday. Ends July 30.

MOVIES

Brothers in a hot seat

It’s big, it’s purple and it’s ugly. It’s “The Puffy Chair.” The debut feature from the brothers Duplass -- Jay directs, Mark produces, they both write. Mark stars as Josh, a once wannabe NYC indie rocker who buys a 1985 recliner on EBay as a gift for his father but must travel cross-country with his girlfriend, Emily (Kathryn Aselton), to retrieve it. Along the way, they stop at Josh’s younger brother Rhett’s (Rhett Wilkins) place, and he ends up coming along for the ride. Sibling anarchy ensues.

“The Puffy Chair,” rated R for language, opens Friday at the Landmark Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A. (310) 281-8223.

SATURDAY

WORDS

Producer in author’s sights

British-born Toby Young is a bungler for the ages -- prone to head-smackingly embarrassing mishaps with women, drugs, doormen and, of course, his wing-haired former boss Graydon Carter, who unceremoniously fired the writer from Vanity Fair. Young skewers the Conde Nast clan, celebrity culture and Manhattan socialites in his 2002 memoir, “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People,” but unlike “The Devil Wears Prada” or your average revenge-fest, he reserves his most potent words for his own human failings. On Saturday he reads from his second memoir, “The Sound of No Hands Clapping,” concerning Young’s dealings with a fat-cat Hollywood producer.

Toby Young, Book Soup, 8818 W. Sunset Blvd., L.A. 5 p.m. Saturday. (310) 659-3110.

MUSEUMS

The sounds of ceramics

The earliest percussion instruments are thought to have come from household clay pots, as any child who has pounded on pots and pans would know. “Musical Mud” is a look at ceramic instruments from cultures around the world. The exhibition features ancient and contemporary pieces, including pre-Columbian whistling jars, Middle Eastern percussion instruments and African rattles and drums.

“Musical Mud,” American Museum of Ceramic Art, 340 S. Garey Ave., Pomona. $2 and $3; 12 and younger, free. Opens Saturday. (909) 865-3146.

* Hours: noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Ends Sept. 2.

SUNDAY

THEATER

Torn in ‘Pyrenees’

A man is faced with a choice between a lost past and an uncertain future

in Scottish playwright David Greig’s seriocomic play “Pyrenees,” set on the balcony of a remote hotel in the French mountains. This American premiere, presented by Center Theatre Group, is directed by Neel Keller.

“Pyrenees,” Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Opens 4 p.m. Sunday. $20 to $40. (213) 628-2772. www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.

* Runs 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Ends July 30.

OPERA

Dishing up Puccini

It’s opera night at the Hollywood Bowl when John Mauceri conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Puccini’s “Tosca.” Patricia Racette sings the title role of the tempestuous, jealous diva. Frank Porretta is her revolutionary-spirited lover, Cavaradossi. James Morris will portray the Baron Scarpia, Rome’s sadistic chief of police. Mauceri doubtless will lay out the plot in comments from the podium, a practice that has endeared him to so many Hollywood Bowl regulars.

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Sunday. $5 to $111. (323) 850-2000; www.HollywoodBowl.com.

MUSIC

Percussion virtuoso

Israeli percussionist Chen Zimbalista, who uses his hands, feet and voice to play a wide range of instruments, will make his West Coast orchestral debut playing Hadas Goldschmidt-Halfon’s “Knock on Wood,” a concerto for marimba, percussion and chamber orchestra written for him in 2002. Noreen Green, who founded the orchestra in 1994, also will conduct Hanoch Jacoby’s “King David’s Lyre,” three movements from Lev Kogan’s “Hassidic Suite ‘Chabad,’ ” Lazlo Rooth’s “Variations on a Sephardic-Jewish Romance” and Yehezkel Braun’s Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra. Alon Reuven will be the horn soloist.

Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, L.A. 7:30 p.m. Sunday. $25 and $36. (323) 461-3673; www.FordAmphitheatre.org.

POP MUSIC

A fresh perspective

Eddie Vedder has popped up at various benefits and festivals in L.A. during the Pearl Jam hiatus that spanned several years, so it will be good to see the singer in his natural setting when the Seattle band hits the area for the first time since 2003. More important, Vedder and company have their first new album in four years to give them some fresh purpose and inspiration.

Pearl Jam, with Sonic Youth, the Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. 7:30 p.m. Sunday. $51. (310) 419-3100.

* Also: 7:30 p.m. Monday.