Jazz breaks out all over the coming week with five first-class shows — three tonight alone.

Singer Judi Silvano pays tribute to Thelonious Monk tonight at Justin’s (301 Lark St., Albany), with pianist/singer Teri Roiger and bassist/singer John Menegon also on the bill. Expect Monk classics and fresh tunes from Silvano’s new “Cleome: Live Takes” album. Show time is 9:30 p.m. Admission is $5. Phone 436-7008 or visit www.justinsonlark.com.

Also tonight, A Place for Jazz (First Unitarian Society of Schenectady Whisperdome, 1221 Wendell Ave.) presents bassist Ben Allison and his band Man Size Safe (guitarist Steve Cardenas, trumpeter Ron Horton, saxophonist Michael Blake and drummer Michael Sarin). Allison has a new album, “Little Things Run the World,” and Man Size Safe — one of his handful of groups — plays on the cusp between jazz and Americana. They will also present a free clinic today at 1:45 p.m. at the Begley Building at Schenectady County Community College. Admission to the 8 p.m. concert is $15. Phone 393-4011 or visit www.aplaceforjazz.org.

Still more jazz tonight: Fieldwork (highly touted pianist Vijay Iyer, saxophonist Steve Lehman and drummer Tyshawn Sorey) plays at 8 p.m. at Studio 2 at EMPAC on the RPI campus. Hailed as #1 Rising Star Jazz Artist and #1 Rising Star composer in the 2006 and 2007 Downbeat critics’ poll, Iyer isn’t the only composer in this resourceful trio. Admission is free but tickets are required by phoning 276-3921 or e-mail at empacboxoffice@rpi.edu.

On Saturday, trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra into EMPAC, playing in its Concert Hall at 8 p.m. The touring version of the Orchestra — hailed by the Chicago Tribune recently as “the greatest large jazz ensemble working today — numbers 15: Marsalis plus three more trumpets, three trombones, five saxophones, piano, bass and drums.

That same rhythm section accompanies Marsalis, country singer Willie Nelson and Nelson’s longtime harmonica soloist Mickey Raphael on “Two Men With the Blues,” a suavely confident and utterly masterful CD, recorded live with almost faultless precision and completely faultless spirit. At the end, Nelson thanks Marsalis “and a great, great band” — and he’s right. As with the Fieldwork show, this one is free but tickets are required.

Don’t believe that “smooth jazz” rap on trumpeter Chris Botti: He can play and write with the best and most authentic artists on the scene, as he proves it on visits here at least once a year. After playing the Freihofer Jazz Festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in June, he returns here next Thursday to play at The Egg (Empire State Plaza) with pianist Peter Martin, bassist Robert Hurst, guitarist Mark Whitfield and drummer Billy Kilson.

Show time is 8 p.m. Admission is $48, $38 and $34. Phone 473-1845 or visit www.theegg.org.

More jazz news

Also, on the jazz front, two events of note:

-- Saxophonist Al Gallodoro has died, something I somehow never thought would happen despite his age: 95 when he passed in Oneonta recently.

When he played Caffe Lena or Justin’s, he seemed bulletproof, durable, permanent, playing with impressive emotional generosity, melodic grace and polish. Unlike, say, the Rolling Stones, whose every show bears the poignant possibility of being the last time we’ll see them, Gallodoro displayed such command of his instruments and his material, and such twinkly-eyed glee in playing, that I always expected there would be a next time. Sadly, not anymore.

-- Also, new owners the McDonald brothers — who already operate the Stockade Inn and Pinhead Susan’s — promise to reopen the much-missed Van Dyck, where multitudes of mighty jazz masters have played ince 1948. Good luck to them, and here’s hoping they bring back music-making to this venerable venue.

Good rockin’

The Black Crowes have gone further faster than almost any band around. So it’s not surprising they’re coming around again with their Euphoria or Bust tour, playing the Palace Theater (19 Clinton Ave. at N. Pearl St., Albany) on Saturday with Howlin Rain opening.

They started off with a silly name (Mr. Crowe’s Garden), playing serious 1970s-style blues rock and hitting the road. They performed at the late lamented QE2 in Albany, even before releasing their first album, the triple-platinum “Shake Your Money Maker,” in 1990. Soon, they were touring with ZZ Top, but got fired for ridiculing the tour’s sponsorship by Miller Beer. Now, that’s rock ’n’ roll, insulting a sponsor that would have kept them in free brew for decades.

Their follow-up, “The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion,” topped the charts in 1992. But then came almost continuous personnel changes, break-ups, make-ups, the marriage of main singer/writer Chris Robinson to movie star Kate Hudson, a divorce, some solo albums and a reunion or two.

Through all that, they’ve never played a bad show here, and three shows at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center — the H.O.R.D.E. tour in 1997, the Furthur Festival in 1997 and a 2006 set opening for Tom Petty — reached near-legendary status.

Now they’re back near the top of the charts with a new album “Warpaint,” their first release of new material in seven years. And they’re back onstage where they belong, featuring singer Chris Robinson, guitarists Rich Robinson and Luther Dickinson (the latter on loan from the North Mississippi All-Stars), drummer Steve Gorman, bassist Sven Pipien and keyboardist Adam MacDougall. Show time is 8 p.m. Admission is $42. Phone 465-3334 or visit www.palacealbany.com.

Funk and soul

Local funk ’n’ soul band Solid Smoke — bassist James Scott, guitarist Mike Wooten, singer and percussionist Decky Lawson and drummer Myron Thomas — will launch a string of shows to celebrate its new self-titled live CD with a showcase on Saturday at Daisy Baker’s (33 Second St., Troy). Show time is 10 p.m. Admission is $5. Phone 266-9200.

The dance floor will be open and, judging by the hot, funky grooves on the CD, the band’s fans will need it. Solid Smoke plays better than it sings, and it plays really well, like some late-night hybrid of Funkadelic, the Meters and James Brown’s J.B.’s. It tackles tunes from the rawest R&B to the smoothest soul. If you miss Solid Smoke on Saturday, don’t worry — the band will be at Red Square on Oct. 25, at Jacksons Chatham House on Oct. 31, back at Daisy Baker’s on Nov. 1, at Club 388 in Saratoga Springs on Nov. 7 and Dec. 5, at the Lighthouse in Albany on Dec. 6, Daisy Baker’s again on Dec. 13 and at the Arc in Watervliet on Dec. 20.