Nonesuch Records releases saxophonist Joshua Redman’s Walking Shadows on May 7, 2013. The album, comprising 12 ballads, is Redman’s first recording to include an orchestral ensemble, which plays on many of the tracks. It was produced by Redman’s friend and frequent collaborator Brad Mehldau. The record's core ensemble is a quartet featuring Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, and Brian Blade. Walking Shadows includes original tunes from both Redman and Mehldau along with works by a wide range of composers like John Mayer and Pino Palladino, Kern and Hammerstein, and Lennon and McCartney. Walking Shadows is now available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of the Redman-penned track “Final Hour."

The line-up for the 2013 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, aka Jazz Fest, has been announced, and among this year's performers are four artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: The Black Keys, Joshua Redman, and New Orleans legends and hometown heroes Dr. John and Allen Toussaint. Jazz Fest runs across two weekends, April 26–28 and May 2–5. The opening weekend includes sets from the Joshua Redman Quartet, Dr. John, and Toussaint; The Black Keys help close out the entire festival on Sunday, May 5.

James Farm—the collaborative band featuring saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland—launch a 13-city tour of Europe at the JazzOnze+ Festival in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Saturday, followed by tour stops throughout Germany, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Austria, and Poland in the coming weeks. Redman kicks off the season's Wigmore Hall Jazz Series, which he curated, joining the Axis Saxophone Quartet in London tonight.

Joshua Redman and his Trio, featuring Reuben Rogers and Gregory Hutchinson, launch their Irish tour with a concert at The Button Factory in Dublin tonight. The five-day, five-city tour includes stops in Limerick, Cork, Dún Laoghaire, as well as a show at The Mac in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Redman returns to Europe in November for the first in his curated concerts at London's Wigmore Hall and a three-week European tour with James Farm.

Joshua Redman, who is currently touring Europe as the special guest of The Bad Plus, is set to make his Irish debut when the Joshua Redman Trio, featuring Reuben Rogers and Gregory Hutchinson, tours Ireland this September. The autumn also marks the start of the Wigmore Hall Jazz Series curated by Redman, who succeeds Brad Mehldau as the Hall’s Jazz Series curator. Tickets for the Trio tour and Wigmore series are on sale now.

The North Sea Jazz Festival takes place this weekend in Rotterdam, Netherlands, featuring a diverse array of artists, including several familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Joshua Redman, James Farm, Pat Metheny, Brad Mehldau Trio, Punch Brothers, Lianne La Havas, Fatoumata Diawara, and Oumou Sangare. Redman, in fact, is this year's North Sea Jazz Artist in Residence and as such performs on each festival day with varied musical projects.

Joshua Redman is the focus of a four-night, multi-concert Domaine Privé at the venues of Cité de la Musique in Paris starting Friday that will showcase some of the different combinations of musicians the saxophone player has explored: Axis Saxophone Quartet on Friday, a duo set with Brad Mehldau on Saturday, a double trio as heard on Redman's album Compass on Sunday, and the trio of Elastic Band Revisited, featuring Sam Yahel and Brian Blade, on Monday.

The Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, formerly UCLA Live, has announced its inaugural season, marking the curatorial debut of its Executive and Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds, and featured among the artists performing as part of its 2012–13 season of events at Royce Hall are several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Emmylou Harris, Laurie Anderson, Allen Toussaint, the Brad Mehldau Trio, and Joshua Redman. The new season also includes events celebrating Kate McGarrigle and Ali Farka Touré.

The Joshua Redman Trio, featuring bassist Matt Penman, a member with Redman of the band James Farm, and drummer Gregory Hutchinson, kick off a week’s residency at the Village Vanguard in New York City tonight. "Joshua Redman has lately put his tenor and soprano saxophone to work in the context of James Farm, a superarticulate postbop quartet, with strong direction from all four of its members," says the New York Times. "He returns to a more ostensibly hierarchical trio format here ... The results should be sleek and full of silvery digression." James Farm has a four-night run at the Blue Note in Tokyo next month. Redman and Brad Mehldau conclude their own duo tour next week.

James Farm—a collaborative band featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland—released its self-titled debut album on Nonesuch almost exactly one year ago, on April 26, 2011. Last September, the band performed in the Opening Night concert of the BeanTown Jazz Festival at Boston's Berklee Performance Center. Now, on this week's episode of NPR's JazzSet, host Dee Dee Bridgewater broadcasts that performance, recorded by NPR member station WGBH in Boston.

Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau head out for a duo tour of North America, beginning with a concert at Orchestra Hall in Detroit tonight. From there, the two make stops in Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Ontario, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Amidst the duo tour dates, Redman and his Trio have a week’s residency at NYC's Village Vanguard, April 17–22. The Brad Mehldau Trio tours the US starting next month with a Denver concert featuring Timothy Andres.

James Farm, the self-titled debut album from the collaborative band featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland, has made NPR Music's list of the ten Best Jazz Albums of 2011. "All contribute songs to the group's repertoire, and in doing so, they've clearly soaked up grooves and chord progressions from today's pop music without ever forcing the issue," says NPR's Patrick Jarenwattananon. "Then they worked out these textures and tunes on the road for a while before pressing record. The harvest feels unlike an all-star collective, and more like a homegrown band."