Country music's first-ever supergroup Alabama plans to make a stop in our neck of the woods on their 2003-'04 "Farewell Tour." After 24 years in the recording industry, the southern quartet, comprised of Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry, Jeff Cook and Mark Herndon, has decided at last to make a graceful departure from the stage. They do not do so, however, without their share of accolades. Throughout the last two decades, they have received eight "Entertainer of the Year" awards, two Grammys, two People's Choice awards and the RIAA award for "Country Group of the Century" in 1999. Don't miss your last chance to see them live. (Thurs., 7:30 p.m., Worcester Centrum. Tickets can be purchased through www.ticketmaster.com, price range from $29.50 to $1000.)
The second annual Five College Jazz Festival will be held this Saturday. The festival will include performances by student musicians from Amherst, Hampshire and Smith Colleges, as well as several guest ensembles from Williams College and the Northampton Community Music Center. Coming off the wild success of last year's festival, expectations this year are, to say the least, very high. A post-show informal jam session featuring artists of all genres is also in the works. (Sat., 7 p.m., Sweeney Concert Hall, Smith College and Sun., 2 p.m., Campus Center Room 208.)
Since many of you drove up there last weekend to watch the men's basketball games, why not return to have a gander at Williams College Museum of Art's dual presentation of "Mostly Photography" and "Signs and Signals"? "Mostly Photography" gathers together approximately 30 works, providing an overview of the diverse paths artists have taken to explore this relatively young medium. Artists represented include Kiki Smith, John O'Reilly, Boyd Webb and Robert Parke Harrison. "Signs and Signals," on the other hand, offers a counterpoint to "Mostly Photography," attesting to the continued vitality of contemporary art that relies on gesture, signs, brushstroke and modeling. Artists represented in this exhibit include Willem De Kooning, Michael Singer and John Walker. The complementary nature of the two exhibits showcases the diversity of art and artistic media in the past two decades. (Open through April 25, Williams College Museum of Art.)
About as far on the opposite end of the spectrum from Mel Gibson's newest release "The Passion of the Christ" is Steve Holland's "One Crazy Summer," a loosely-structured teen comedy about a wanna-be cartoonist struggling to help the girl he likes to save her house from developers. Relying less on plot structure and tension, and more on the development of unforgettably unique (and often shamelessly unrealistic) characters, teen comedy was epitomized by the affecting and supremely talented actor John Cusack, who stars in "One Crazy Summer." Here, Cusack teams up with co-star brat-packer Demi Moore and is once again without rival.