Joshua Redman performs music from his new album, Walking Shadows, with its core ensemble, Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, and Brian Blade, along with the orchestra The Knights, at The Town Hall in NYC on Tuesday. "Melody is always paramount for the saxophonist Joshua Redman, to a degree that sets him apart from his postbop peers," says the New York Times. "Still, there hasn’t been a more sublimely lyrical gesture in his 20-year recording career than Walking Shadows, an album that sets his tenor and soprano against a string orchestra, in tremulous but thoughtful new arrangements." London's Wigmore Hall has announced the 2013-14 season of its jazz series curated by Redman, who performs in two of the four concerts. 

Sam Amidon kicks off a three-week tour of the US featuring music from his recently released Nonesuch debut album, Bright Sunny South. The tour begins at the Sunset Tavern in Seattle tonight and continues on the West Coast with performances in Portland, San Francisco, and LA, followed by stops along the East Coast including Philadelphia, Cambridge, and Portland (Maine), as well as his home town of Brattleboro and a set at the Solid Sound Festival curated by Wilco at MASS MoCA. Amidon was recently listed atop NPR's list of Five Musicians Who Make Borrowing Sound Original.

Devendra Banhart, who is currently touring North America performing songs from his recently released Nonesuch Records debut album, Mala, was featured on Morning Becomes Eclectic out of KCRW in Santa Monica, CA, last Friday. The session, which was recording during the California leg of the tour earlier in May, includes intimate in-studio performances by Banhart and his band of a number of songs from the new album. Watch the set here. The tour continues into Montreal, Toronto, Boston, DC, and Philadelphia, before concluding at The Town Hall in New York City on June 12.

While touring the US East Coast last month, Iron and Wine's Sam Beam stopped by the Boston Public Library to discuss his songwriting with WBUR's Off the Record and perform a couple of songs off the new album Ghost on Ghost. Watch the solo, acoustic performances of the album tracks "Caught in the Briars" and "Grace for Saints and Ramblers" and listen to the interview here. The Guardian gave four stars to last week's London show, saying "Beam writes with an artist’s eye, his songs alive with place and time ... [His] easy charm dazzles."

Audra McDonald, who is featured on NPR's Tell Me More today, has announced a number of new tour dates across the US for this summer and fall featuring music from her new album, Go Back Home. The tour includes performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, San Francisco Symphony's Opening Night, shows in Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Kansas City, and much more. In a new video, McDonald says of Go Back Home: "If there were a Broadway show that were written about my life, especially the last seven years," she says of the album in the video, "this would be the soundtrack." Watch the video here.

Audra McDonald brought the music of her new album, Go Back Home, to homes across the US when PBS broadcast "Audra McDonald In Concert: Go Back Home" on Live From Lincoln Center on Friday. You can now watch the show online and watch three web-exclusive bonus performances here. McDonald recently stopped by WNYC's Soundcheck to discuss and perform a few songs from Go Back Home; listen to the show here.

Audra McDonald performs songs from her new album and more on "Audra McDonald In Concert: Go Back Home," airing on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center tonight. The show presents McDonald's May 9 at performance in New York City for Lincoln Center's spring gala, which the New York Times called "absolutely thrilling." USA Today, in recommending tonight's show, says: "McDonald has one of the warmest, most glorious singing voices on the planet." McDonald discusses her inclusion of Adam Gwon's "I'll Be There" on the album and concert in a new video clip you can watch here.

Tuareg guitarist, singer, and songwriter Bombino kicks off the first US leg of his tour featuring music from his new album, Nomad. The month-long tour begins with a set at the Sasquatch! Festival in Washington on Saturday, followed by additional stops out West, down South, across the Midwest, and into the Northeast, including headline shows, supporting slots with Gogol Bordello, festival sets at Wakarusa, Bonnaroo, and Celebrate Brooklyn, and more. Bombino and the band return to North America for the next leg of the tour in July.

Audra McDonald marked the release of her new album, Go Back Home, with an appearance on PBS's Charlie Rose. The two discuss the personal nature of the new album, her career in theater and on television, and the upcoming broadcast of "Audra McDonald In Concert: Go Back Home," on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center this Friday, May 24, featuring her recent performance in concert at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall. 

Pat Metheny’s recording of John Zorn’s Tap: The Book of Angels, Vol. 20 from Zorn’s Masada Book Two was released yesterday on Nonesuch Records and Tzadik. The album was featured on NPR's All Things Considered last night. "Metheny takes what's on the page and goes to work conjuring," says NPR's Tom Moon. "The result is an ornate, stunningly vivid sound world that neither artist would have found on his own." Listen to the complete All Things Considered review here.

Sam Amidon, who is currently touring Europe in support of his new album, Bright Sunny South, has performed the album track "As I Roved Out," for The Line of Best Fit. On the new album, Amidon delves "further in compelling expressions that draw jazz and folk influences together to an entirely unique place," says the site. Watch that performance and his recent set for ABC Radio in Australia, which has named Bright Sunny South its Album of the Week. The Daily Telegraph and Irish Times give the album four stars.

Björk has brought her live Biophilia show back to North America, starting with the first of three shows outside San Francisco tonight, followed by two at the Hollywood Palladium where the venues have been set to her original Biophilia specifications as audio-visual shows in an intimate, in-the-round setting. In addition to her Biophilia performances, Björk will also appear at the Hollywood Bowl and at Echo Beach in Toronto along with three festival appearances: Pitchfork Festival, Bonnaroo, and the RBC Bluesfest in Ottawa.