It was about 40 years ago that guitar god Carlos Santana (www.santana.com) first laid his psychedelic riffs on top of Cuban rhythms. This Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. he is at the Borgata (www.theborgata.com) in Atlantic City, showing he can still cast a spell on you, baby.

At the other end of the state, more virtuoso musical improv with Preservation Hall Jazz Band (www.preservationhall.com), dedicated to keeping alive the traditional New Orleans jazz exemplified by original band members Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong. The concert is at the Mayo Center for the Performing Arts in Morristown (www.mayoarts.org), tonight at 8 p.m.

That’s the evenings. During the daytime this early spring weekend — can we please get outdoors? Weather permitting (April showers and all that) you can check out the cherry blossoms at Branch Brook Park in Newark. The week-long festival organized by NJ My Way friends Branch Book Park Alliance (www.branchbrookpark.org) begins Sunday with a 10K race, and culminates next weekend with Blossomfest.

Or take a hike to look for signs of spring at the New Jersey Audubon Society’s Plainsboro Preserve (www.njaudubon.org/Centers/Plainsboro/Index.htm). An NJAS naturalist leads the walk Saturday starting at 3:30 p.m.

If history is your thing, Saturday and Sunday there is a reenactment of the Revolutionary War Battle of Bound Brook. Soldiers’ encampment opens to the public at 9 a.m. both days this weekend, outside historic Abraham Staats House (www.staatshouse.com), built around 1740.

Back indoors, they’re looking at the outdoors at the Shore Institute of Contemporary Arts in Long Branch (www.sica.org). Sunday at 3 p.m. is the opening reception for an art show featuring work in various media “investigating our ever changing relationship with the Oceans and Shores,” say the curators.

And more art: The Zimmerli Museum at Rutgers (www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu) opens an exhibit starting Saturday (it runs through July 31) that illustrates why India is one of the emerging giants not just in technology, but also in art. The “New Narratives” show connects contemporary Indian artists to the art works of their ancient civilization.

Make the most of the weekend, inside and out!