HERE & NOW

POP MUSIC

AMERICANA MUSIC FANS, meet John Jennings, one of Washington's true musical treasures. Oh, you probably know his work, even if you don't know him : Jennings is a gifted instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and singer who has recorded a bunch of hits (and toured) with the country songstress Mary Chapin Carpenter. He's also collaborated with the Indigo Girls, Iris DeMent, BeauSoleil, John Gorka and countless other artists popular with the Birchmere crowd. But Jennings's talent has always exceeded his profile: Despite critical acclaim and accolades (he's won numerous Washington Area Music Awards, for his singing, producing and playing), his fine solo work hasn't quite received the attention it deserves. So, pay attention Saturday when Jennings celebrates the release of his latest album, "More Noise From Nowhere," with a performance at the Barns at Wolf Trap.

-- J. Freedom du Lac

At the Barns of Wolf Trap. Saturday at 7:30 p.m. 1635 Trap Rd., Vienna. $20. Call 877-965-3872 or visithttp://www.wolftrap.org.

ART

THE NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART was one of the first municipal museums in the country to collect African art in depth. For one more week, a show called "Resonance From the Past," at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, will give us a look at some of its most important pieces. We're told that the New Orleans museum focused on aesthetics when it made its acquisitions. That's clear in objects like a gorgeous crested mask covered in blue beads from Cameroon, or in a leopard-head ornament immaculately cast a century or more ago by a Benin metalworker in what is now Nigeria. We're also told that in the 40 years since the collection was launched, scholars have worked to discover what the objects meant to the people who made them. That's clear in the informative texts that accompany the pieces.

-- Blake Gopnik

Through Jan. 28 at the National Museum of African Art, on the south side of the Mall at 10th Street SW. Open daily 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Free. Call 202-633-4600 or visithttp://africa.si.edu.

FILM

SOMETIMES THE QUIET LIFE of a film historian can yield the drama and excitement of a film noir gumshoe. In 2004, Mike Mashon, head of the moving image section of the Library of Congress's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, was engaged in a routine task: ordering a new print of the 1933 film "Baby Face" for a London film festival. As a matter of course he asked the manager of the nitrate film vault in Dayton, Ohio, to inspect the library's two prints of the film, which stars Barbara Stanwyck as a round-heeled woman who unapologetically sleeps her way to the top. After looking at both prints, vault manager George Willeman discovered something strange: One of them was longer, suggesting that it contained extra scenes. Indeed, what Mashon and Willeman had stumbled on was about five minutes of the racy film -- a singular example of Hollywood's "pre-code" films, which were nearly as frank as today's movies in dealing with sexuality -- that had been cut by Warner Bros. at the behest of the New York Board of Censors. The always lively and engaging Mashon will present the uncut version of "Baby Face" and answer questions about the film and his detective work at the American Film Institute.

-- Ann Hornaday

Saturday at 3 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. $6.75. Call 301-495-6700 or visithttp://www.afi.com/silver.

CLASSICAL

EXACTLY 30 YEARS AGO tonight, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson made their collective debut as the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. The setting could hardly have been grander: At the request of conductor Robert Shaw, the three played at the White House to celebrate the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter. Tonight at 7:30, about a mile to the west, the group will play works by Beethoven, Brahms and the American composer Richard Danielpour, the last a Washington premiere.

-- Tim Page

At the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, 2700 F St. NW. Tonight at 7:30. Tickets are $35. 202-467-4600 orhttp://www.kennedy-center.org.