Music critics' picks

Hip-hop

R&B crooner Anthony Hamilton has been putting out consistent material since his 1996 MCA debut, "XTC." Even before that, he was on the New Jack sound label Uptown. He's toured with D'Angelo and worked with Eve, Sunshine Anderson and Donell Jones.

Hamilton recorded with Angie Stone on her "Stone Love" LP, and with Jadakiss on the impressive "Kiss of Death" album. He's released two albums in 2005, "Soulife," and "Ain't Nobody Worryin'."

House of Blues, 801 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, 8 p.m. Wednesday, $27-$42, 609-236-BLUE, www.hob.com/atlanticcity.

- Damon C. Williams

Pop

Fifteen years have passed since the Brand New Heaviesfirst visited America, importing a fresh blend of R&B/soul and funk that would help ignite not one but two movements - acid jazz and neo-soul.

The cool, U.S.-based songstress N'Dea Davenport was the centerpiece of this otherwise British group on hits like "Never Stop," "Stay This Way, "Dream on Dreamer" and "Sometimes."

After time away as a solo act, Davenport is back in the spotlight on the Heavies' highly infectious (in a good way) comeback album "Get Used To It," just out on Delicious Vinyl. The hook-happy songs feature pulsing brass and strings-flecked arrangements (aped in concert on synthesizers), a nod to classic genres like the Philadelphia International sound and the Brill Building scene. Catch these heavyweights with an aptly matched rock/soul crossover act, Van Hunt, in the opening slot.

TLA, 334 South St., 9 tonight, $25, 215-336-2000, www.livenation.com.

- Jonathan Takiff

Jazz

Regina Belle has slowly stepped out of the R&B/pop realm and into jazz. The artistic success of her 2004, George Duke-produced album, "Lazy Afternoon," has allowed her to delve into jazz standards and Broadway tunes but still maintain an R&B pathos.

Referring to her R&B hits of the 1980s and early '90s, Belle has said, "Even 'Baby Come to Me' is not an R&B song. It has R&B inflections, but a lot of what I do, the jazz, the gospel... gets all clumped up as [one]."

Zanzibar Blue, Broad and Walnut streets, 7:45 and 10 tonight, $45, 215-732-4500, www.zanzibarblue.com.

- Al Hunter Jr.

Alternative

Carla Bozulich has a rather colorful musical history. She started making music at 15 with post-punk groups Neon Veins and Invisible Chains. She moved on to industrial dance-pop with Ethyl Meatplow, alt-country with the Geraldine Fibbers, and Scarnella, an experimental duo with GF bandmate Nels Cline.

Her solo career includes collaborations with Willie Nelson. Her latest album, "Evangelista," pairs her with Canadian experimentalists Godspeed You Black Emperor, A Silver Mount Zion and others. Her voice, somewhere between Patti Smith and Marlene Dietrich, always stops you dead in your tracks, no matter what she's singing. With Dead Science, Anni Rossi and Emma Zunz.

First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 8 p.m. Thursday, $10, all ages, 267-765-5210, www.r5productions.com.

- Sara Sherr

Classical

The Philadelphia Orchestra makes its third visit to Camden, this time at a new site. Many musicians make their home across the river, and some players, like cellist Robert Cafaro and Mann artistic director and Haddonfield Symphony conductor Rossen Milanov, have also shown their commitment to the area in ongoing Habitat for Humanity builds, the most recent last Friday.

Milanov will lead Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Borodin's "Polovtsian Dances," Beethoven's Overture to "Egmont" and Stravinsky's Suite from "The Firebird." The Camden Community Children's Choir and the Children's Choir of Settlement Music School will participate in two of Aaron Copland's "Old American Songs."

Wiggins Park, Mickle Boulevard and the Delaware River, Camden, 7 tonight, free, 215-893-1999, www.philorch.org.

Tom Di Nardo