The Brad Mehldau Trio returns with Ode, out this week in the UK and this coming Tuesday in North America. Ode earns five-stars from the Daily Telegraph, which says it "shows his inventive powers are as fresh as ever," and the Financial Times, which calls it "benchmark piano-trio jazz." The BBC raves: "All three players are articulating a ceaseless stream of fresh ideas throughout this electrically energised session." MusicOMH calls it "an often scintillating and always joyful listen from beginning to end." Early US reviews agree. The New York Times finds "resonant lyricism, floating locomotion, a harmonic approach that brings depth to simple structures and sleekness to the more complex ones." The Chicago Tribune hears Mehldau "in prime form as composer, improviser and bandleader."

The new album featuring works by Krzysztof Penderecki paired with those they inspired by Jonny Greenwood is out now. MusicOMH says: "The four pieces here make an album that carries a powerful impact, as well as recognising the obvious talents of both composers in writing for the string orchestra." The music will be performed at London's Barbican Hall on March 22 by the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra, the artists on the recording, with Penderecki conducting his pieces and Marek Moś conducting Greenwood's, as on the album.

In 2004, Caetano Veloso curated a week of special concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall and invited his longtime friend and collaborator David Byrne to join him for the show heard on the new album Caetano Veloso and David Byrne: Live at Carnegie Hall, out now. The album earns four stars from Glide, the Guardian, and the Observer, which calls it "an entrancing showcase of their respective talents ... and even on disc a sense of joy and spontaneity is palpable." The Herald Scotland says the album "leaves the listener grinning from ear to ear." The New York Daily News includes it among the best new albums. The Seattle Times calls the concert "an absolute jewel."

Nonesuch Records will make a series of special releases available on Saturday, April 21, in honor of the fifth annual Record Store Day, a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA and hundreds of similar stores internationally. Included are a deluxe vinyl edition of The Black Keys' El Camino; Dr. John's new album, Locked Down, on vinyl; a 3CD/DVD set of Billy Bragg & Wilco's Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions; and limited-edition 7" vinyl singles of Sara Watkins covering The Everly Brothers and Carolina Chocolate Drops taking on Run-DMC.

The new album pairing works by Krzysztof Penderecki and the works they inspired by Jonny Greenwood is due out next week and is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "The results are ear-tingling," says NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas. "What we hear on this album is a meeting of two artistic visionaries connected in a real dialogue, the decades separating their work and their chronological ages all but collapsed and deflated."

Amadou & Mariam are set to release Folila, their first studio album since Welcome to Mali, on April 10. The new album, helmed by longtime producer Marc-Antoine Moreau, epitomizes the duo's embrace of collaboration, with contributions by Santigold, TV on the Radio, Nick Zinner, Theophilus London, Bassekou Kouyate, and others. It is now available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. Hear the album track "Dougou Badia" and watch the couple's performance of "Wily Kataso" for the Guardian here.

On the acclaimed Mermaid Avenue albums, Billy Bragg and Wilco put music to lyrics by folk legend Woody Guthrie for which he had not written music or made recordings. Tweedy and Bragg were "the perfect pair to conclude that Guthrie ... was a prophetic rock-and-roller with a whole lot to say," said the New York Times. On Record Store Day, April 21, Nonesuch will release Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, which includes the original two volumes of Mermaid Avenue (the second re-mastered); a third volume with 17 previously unreleased recordings from those sessions; the 1999 documentary on the sessions, Man in the Sand; and a 48-page booklet with new liner notes by Nora Guthrie, lyrics, archival photographs, and facsimiles of lyric sheets and sketches by Woody Guthrie. Pre-orders include an exclusive print of Guthrie’s lyric sheet for “Hoodoo Voodoo.”

Carolina Chocolate Drops’ new album, Leaving Eden, is out today. Rolling Stone, in a four-star review, says that the album “grows handsome fruit from a nation's tangled roots,” calling the record “a lesson in 21st-century American folk.” The  Los Angeles Times notes that “band spends much of this very fresh-sounding album aligning itself with traditional values.” USA Today notes that the group “may take their cues from 1920s string- and jug-band music, but they're simply a great band.”

Punch Brothers' new album, Who's Feeling Young Now?, is out now. To mark the occasion, the album is streaming in full via Spinner and MSN Music. MSN gives the album four stars and says: "This forward-thinking string band plies fresh ideas with traditional instruments, yielding a fusion as quirky yet accessible—and uniquely American—as Talking Heads." The A.V. Club gives the album an A-, saying their songs exist "both out of time and in the moment thanks to its youthful, gung-ho approach to timeless sounds." 

Locked Down, the forthcoming album from storied musician and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dr. John, due out April 3 on CD and April 21 on vinyl, is now available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. The new album, which marks a significant departure from his recent efforts, was produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and will be Dr. John's first for Nonesuch Records. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an exclusive print of Dr. John and Auerbach.

Dougou Badia, the new digital EP from Malian duo Amadou & Mariam, is out today. The four-song EP includes "Dougou Badia," the first song off Amadou & Mariam's forthcoming album, Folila, which is due out on April 2. Santigold, who co-wrote the song with Mariam, joins her on vocals. Also included are an alternate mix of the song by Danger Mouse cohort Kennie Takahashi; the album track “Oh Amadou” (with Bertrand Cantat); and a live version of “Wily Kataso” from Eclipse, a show staged in complete darkness at the 2011 Manchester International Festival.