As part of Kronos: Five Decades, the year-long celebration of Kronos Quartet’s 50th anniversary, the group is publishing five decade-spanning playlists curated by its founder and violinist David Harrington. The first, featuring music Kronos performed in its first decade, 1973–1982, is out now. It includes works the quartet would later record on Nonesuch by George Crumb, Ken Benshoof, Terry Riley, Anton Webern, Peter Sculthorpe, Dmitri Shostakovich, Jimi Hendrix, Aulis Sallinen, Alban Berg, Witold Lutosławski, and Samuel Barber. You can hear it here.

Rhiannon Giddens is collaborating with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project on a fundraising initiative and a powerful music video for her song "Another Wasted Life,” out today, the 10th annual Wrongful Conviction Day. The video, directed by Daniel Madoff, features 22 wrongfully convicted people, clients of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, who collectively spent more than 500 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. It aims to raise awareness for the stories and voices of those who have experienced the injustices of the criminal legal system. You can watch it here. Giddens' song was inspired by the tragic story of Kalief Browder, a young man wrongfully incarcerated at NYC's Rikers Island for three years, where he was subjected to nearly two years of solitary confinement.

Congratulations to Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, who won three IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards at the ceremony hosted by Tuttle and Ketch Secor in Raleigh, North Carolina, last night. Tuttle and the band took home the Album of the Year Award for their debut album, Crooked Tree (which won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album), and Song of the Year for that album’s title track, written by Tuttle and Melody Walker, and Tuttle was named Female Vocalist of the Year, which she won last year as well. Tuttle and the band perform at IBMA World of Bluegrass on Saturday.

Arielle Jacobs, who stars as Imelda Marcos in the first-ever Broadway production of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s musical Here Lies Love, was joined by her cast mates on Good Morning America to perform two songs from the show: the title track and “Eleven Days.” Jacobs was also joined by Conrad Ricamora, who stars as Ninoy Aquino, on GMA3 to perform “Opposite Attraction.” You can watch the performances here.

“This new recording is just extraordinary. It’s so engaging,” saxophonist David Sanborn says of Mélusine, the new album from Cécile McLorin Salvant, the guest on his new WBGO podcast, As We Speak. “I think the gravitational pull of the way you ordered the music and how you paced it was really powerful,” he tells Salvant. “And then when I read the story of Mélusine and how that was the organizing principle for all of it, it made it even more astounding to me … Just brilliant.” You can hear their conversation here.

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, whose musical Here Lies Love is now on Broadway, were on ABC’s Nightline to discuss the show, which host Juju Chang calls an “immersive and electrifying telling” of the rise and fall of the Philippines’ notorious Imelda Marcos and the People Power Revolution, and the importance of the historic all-Filipino cast. You can watch it here.

Congratulations to Cécile McLorin Salvant, who has won the Edison Jazz Award in the Netherlands for International Vocalist for her new album, Mélusine. Salvant won the same award last year for her Nonesuch debut album, Ghost Song. Her label mate Julia Bullock won the Edison Klassiek Award for Solo Vocalist earlier this month for her Nonesuch debut album, Walking in the Dark. The ceremony for both awards takes place on October 9 in Leusden, Netherlands.

“‘Dawning’ has multiple meanings for me,” composer/guitarist Yasmin Williams says of her first song on Nonesuch, out today, which features Aoife O’Donovan on vocals, Kafari on rhythm bones, and Nic Gareiss’ percussive dancing and provides an early peek at her new album, which the label will release in early 2024: “the dawning of my professional music career and a new love in my personal life, the dawning sky that appeared when I first started writing this song, and me smiling to myself with dawning recognition that I get to create music that I love for a living and share it with the world. This song represents a major shift in how I approach my music and expands the possibilities of what my songs can be.”

Rhiannon Giddens was on BBC Radio 3’s Private Passions to talk with host Michael Berkeley about and share music from Bach, Dvořák, Mahalia Jackson, Duke Ellington, Stephen Sondheim, and more. You can hear their conversation and Giddens’ selections here.

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society perform Dynamic Maximum Tension at The Jazz Gallery in NYC. Rhiannon Giddens brings her new album, You’re the One, to the Ryman in Nashville and Athenaeum in Chicago. The Black Keys headline Bourbon & Beyond in Louisville. Jeremy Denk joins Danish String Quartet at Wigmore Hall in London. Brad Mehldau performs new solo piano piece at Dublin's National Concert Hall. Chris Thile performs new song cycle with Louisville Orchestra. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway play Pickin’ in the Pines in Flagstaff. Vagabon is in Brussels and Berlin with Arlo Parks.

The Staves release “You Held It All,” their first new music since the release of their 2021 album, Good Woman, today. It is also the group’s first recording as the duo of Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor, following their sister and bandmate Emily’s stepping back after the birth of her children. Produced by John Congleton in Los Angeles, “‘You Held It All’ is a song about understanding, and the knots we tie ourselves in when we don’t express our truth,” The Staves say, “and how much power and freedom there can be when we do.”

Natalie Merchant was on The Sound of Success to talk with host Nic Harcourt about her life and musical career, including her new album, Keep Your Courage, and the tour for it she resumes next week on the US West Coast. She shares what Brian Eno and Roxy Music meant to her in her youth (on 8-track!), the impact of David Byrne’s early music videos, her musical guilty pleasure, and much more.