The new album Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny has been reviewed on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. "The album lets you hear why the headliners get along," explains Fresh Air reviewer Kevin Whitehead: "the guitarist's approach to sound and melody and streaking long tones spoke to the trumpeter from the first." You can hear the complete review here. The Guardian gives the album four stars. "Metheny enters completely into the exploratory spirit," says Guardian's John Fordham, "and gives Vu's intriguing music a fresh dimension and creative support."

Brad Mehldau, following a tour with the Brad Mehldau Trio for the new album Blues and Ballads, out this Friday, embarks on a trio tour of a different sort: he reunites with drummer Mark Guiliana, with whom he paired up for the album Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, and guitarist John Scofield for a six-night residency at the Blue Note in NYC starting tonight. "The omnivorously eclectic trouble these three get into will be worth the price of admission," exclaims the New Yorker. The trio will tour the UK and Europe in July, including sets at the Love Supreme, Montreux, Vienna, Gent, and North Sea jazz festivals, and stops in France, Italy, Spain, Israel, Turkey, and Germany, and reunite in the US for the Detroit Free Jazz Festival in September.

Lake Street Dive resumes its US tour with shows in Vermont, upstate New York, and Maine this Memorial Day weekend. Over the next month, the band makes its way along the East Coast for shows in Delaware, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, and more, then heads west for shows in New Orleans and Texas. The tour picks up again in August with stops in the Midwest and West, including three dates with Dave Matthews Band, and culminates in Boston and NYC in October.

Allen Toussaint's performance of "Confessin' (That I Love You)," off his forthcoming album American Tunes, may now be heard here and downloaded with album pre-orders. The song, made known by Louis Armstrong, is one of the tracks on the album recorded with a band that includes Jay Bellerose, Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz, Charles Lloyd, and David Piltch. The Joe Henry–produced album, Toussaint's final recording, also includes a set of solo piano performances like "Big Chief," which is also available now with pre-orders.

Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields are currently working on a new album, 50 Song Memoir, for future release on Nonesuch Records. The band will perform music from the album live starting at the end of 2016 and throughout 2017. Three shows have been announced thus far: Brooklyn Academy of Music on December 2 and 3, 2016; Royce Hall in LA on April 27 and 28, 2017; and Moore Theatre in Seattle on May 6 and 7.

Kronos Quartet and Brad Mehldau's performances at Koerner Hall in Toronto this week, part of The Royal Conservatory's 21C Music Festival, will stream live at rcmusic.ca/livestream, this Wednesday, May 25, and Thursday, respectively, both at 8 PM ET. Kronos is joined by special guest Tanya Tagaq for the world premiere her new piece written for Kronos' Fifty for the Future project. Mehldau performs his Three Pieces After Bach, of the Guardian exclaimed: "A dense and dazzling recital of Bach’s classics and the compositions and improvisations inspired by them makes this a powerful, thought-provoking gig."

Lake Street Dive, following sold-out shows in London and Dublin this spring, and performances on both BBC Two's Later… with Jools Holland and RTÉ's The Late Late Show, will return to Europe this autumn for a tour of the UK and Ireland. The November run includes dates in Gateshead, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Belfast, Dublin, and Cork, and a London show at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on November 10. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, May 26. The band resumes its US tour on Friday, May 27.

The Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA) has announced its 2016–17 season, and featured among the artists performing this season are several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Pat Metheny, Kronos Quartet, and The Magnetic Fields. The season also includes a dance performance set to music by Laurie Anderson and more.

American Tunes, the final recording from legendary New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint, is due out June 10, 2016, on Nonesuch Records. It was produced by Joe Henry and features both solo piano recordings and others made with musicians including Bill Frisell and special guest Rhiannon Giddens. In this article, writer Michael Hill examines the story behind the album and presents reflections on Toussaint and his legacy from fellow musicians Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Irma Thomas, and Aaron Neville; author Tom Piazza; and the album's producer, Joe Henry.

In memory of Guy Clark, the title track to his 1992 Nonesuch album, Boats to Build

Laurie Anderson's new film, Heart of a Dog, which opens in cinemas in the UK and Ireland this Friday, was shown in select screenings last week: one at the Brighton Festival, of which she is guest director, and two in London, including one for a very special audience of dogs (and their human companions). The Guardian was at that last event and has published a video taking a look behind the scenes. You can watch it here.

Sleeping In A Car, a three-song EP from the English trio The Staves, is out now. The EP was recorded in Eau Claire, WI, at Justin Vernon's April Base studio and also at Urchin Studios in London. Physical CDs of the EP will be available exclusively on the Staves' North American tour, which begins June 3. The sisters said of the EP: "These songs reflect the transient nature of travelling. Fleeting moments, like a slide show—reflections in car windows, streetlights passing in rhythm, stolen phone calls, late nights. Feelings of displacement and a disconnect—living in some sort of alternate state of reality. But underneath it all is the feeling of adventure and making your own rules and how dizzying and freeing that can be." You can watch a video for the title track here.