E-Mail This Article to a Friend All ears Jazz springs forth . . . BY JON GARELICK

What you don’t play is more important than what you do play, someone must have said. (Miles? Monk? Fats Waller? Benjamin Franklin?) In that regard, trumpeter/trailblazer Wadada Leo Smith is one of the signal musicians of the past half-century. Born in Leland, Mississippi, he collaborated with Anthony Braxton in Chicago’s AACM avant-garde collective and contributed the title tune to Braxton’s Silence (1969), "as radical an incorporation of blank space into sound construction as any post-free player has made" according to writer John Corbett in the redoubtable Jazz: The Rough Guide. An important theoretician and teacher in the New Haven area for years, Smith has recently made wonderful acoustic small-group records with pianist (and Yalie) Anthony Davis and a couple of albums under the title rubric Yo Miles! with guitarist Henry Kaiser that understand and extend the ideas of Miles’s electric band better than just about anything else out there. On April 30, the Boston Creative Music Alliance in conjunction with the Boston CyberArts Festival brings Smith in duo with lap-top sound manipulator Ikue Mori to the ICA.

Also at the ICA, on April 2, the BCMA is presenting the Boston debut of the All Ears sextet, with trumpeter Herb Robertson, saxophonists Frank Gratowski and Frans Vermeerssen, and the Dutch rhythm section of pianist Michael Braam, bassist Wilbert de Joode, and drummer Michael Vatcher. The ICA is as 955 Boylston Street; call (617) 354-6898.

The Regattabar in the Charles Hotel (1 Bennett Street in Harvard Square; 617-661-5000) continues its ambitious programming. There’s pianist Donal Fox’s "Monk and Bach" program with Boston MVP bassist John Lockwood and the great drummer Al Foster April 15 and 16; brunch with the Harlem Gospel Choir April 17 and 24; the phenomenal Dave Holland Big Band featuring the great young tenor-saxophonist Chris Potter April 21 through 23; Potter and his own quartet April 29 and 30; R&B legend Ruth Brown May 5 through 7; and the McCoy Tyner trio with bassist Charnett Moffett, drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt, and special guests Gary Bartz and Ravi Coltrane on saxophones and Terell Stafford on trumpet May 18 through 20.

Fenton Hollander’s Water Music/Mainstage group kicks off the season with a bang: the SFJAZZ Collective, a product of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, under the leadership of its artistic director, Joshua Redman, with vibist Bobby Hutcherson, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, trombonist Isaac Smith, pianist Renee Rosnes, alto-saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland on April 3 at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. Water Music follow that with the fine young flamenco guitarist Juanito Pascual and his quartet April 8 at the Real Deal Jazz Club, in the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second Street in East Cambridge; the Branford Marsalis Quartet April 17 at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street in Harvard Square; New England jump-blues specialists Roomful of Blues April 22 at the Real Deal; the terrific young vocalist/songwriter Marta Gómez with her group April 23 at the Real Deal; Sonny Rollins May 7 at Berklee; Sergio Brandão and Manga Rosa with vocalist Anita Coelho May 14 at the Real Deal; and the Dave Brubeck Quartet May 21 at Berklee and May 22 at Sanders. And yours truly will moderate a panel discussion at the Real Deal on April 14, "Jazz Criticism and How It Affects Audience Development," with panelists Howard Mandell, Michelle Mercer, and Dan Morgenstern. For all Water Music/Mainstage events, call (617) 876-7777.

Scullers in the DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel (400 Soldiers Field Road at the Mass Pike; 617-562-4111) begins with John Pizzarelli April 1 and 2, a fine jazz guitarist and singer, despite the impression of his gambling-casino TV ad; the charismatic saxophonist Charles Lloyd April 14 and 15; young vocalist Karrin Allyson April 16; guitar savant Stanley Jordan May 4; fusion supergroup the Yellowjackets May 13 and 14; vocal group New York Voices May 20 and 21; and Cuban trumpet wizard Arturo Sandoval May 25 through 27.

Ryles (212 Hampshire Street in Inman Square; 617-876-9330) has become, among other things, de facto headquarters for the local Latin jazz scene. It brings in Teresa Inês and her terrific Brazilian jazz group April 9; Grupo Shekere April 13; the Pedro Ito Group April 20; Boston Latin-jazz mainstays El Eco April 22; vocal group Syncopation April 28; Maynard Ferguson trumpeter Carl Fischer with his Organic Groove Ensemble April 29; vocalist Anna Borges May 4; and the Ramona Borthwick Quintet with the leader on piano, trumpeter Phil Grenadier, guitarist Noel Borthwick, bassist Fernando Huergo, and drummer Ziv Ravitz May 11.

Zeitgeist Gallery (1353 Cambridge Street in Inman Square; 617-876-6060) brings reedman and microtonal wizard Joe Maneri in a duet with pianist David Haas April 2 and, later that night, guitarist Jeff Platz’s excellent Skull Session band with Joe Morris on bass, Timo Shanko on sax, and Luther Gray on drums; the Fringe’s George Garzone in duet with pianist Lello Molinari April 3; and the Fringe themselves every Monday night.