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.

Shawn Colvin is featured on the latest episode of eTown, her seventh time on the radio show. She performs "Change Is on the Way," from her new album, All Fall Down, and favorites "Polaroids" and "Diamond in the Rough." Watch those three performances here. She and fellow guest Mary Chapin Carpenter also perform the classic tune "That's the Way Love Goes" and close the show with a special take on The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" in tribute to the late Levon Helm.

NPR Music has named its 25 Favorite Albums of 2012 (So Far); among them are Dr. John's Locked Down and Jeremy Denk's Ligeti/Beethoven. "Locked Down is one of the best albums of his lengthy career," says NPR of Dr. John. "This isn't Disneyland-style New Orleans; this is the city filtered through vintage R&B and gritty funk, that spooky, swampy side of New Orleans music that drew so many to Dr. John early on." NPR says of Denk's pairing of Ligeti and Beethoven: "What makes the seemingly impossible a reality is Jeremy Denk's genius—his technical prowess, insight, wit and ardor have resulted in an album that people are going to be talking about for years to come." Amadou & Mariam's song "Dougou Badia" is among NPR's 50 Favorite Songs of 2012 (So Far).

Pat Metheny's new album, Unity Band, featuring Chris Potter on sax and bass clarinet, Antonio Sanchez on drums, and Ben Williams on bass, is out now. The Evening Standard and the Guardian give the album four stars. BBC Music calls it "arguably one of Metheny’s best releases in recent times." Guitarist gives it five stars, calling it "a sterling example of why Metheny is so relevant and respected today ... Most impressive." All About Jazz says the new album is "unequivocally one of Metheny's finest—an album that's sure to find its way to 'best of' lists for 2012." Watch the new Pat Metheny podcast, featuring music from the album and commentary from Metheny, here.

Punch Brothers make their third appearance on NPR's Mountain Stage with a set recorded on the campus of West Virginia University and airing on NPR stations across the US this week. The band performs five songs off their new album, Who's Feeling Young Now?. Also on NPR, the band can be heard on John Wesley Harding's Cabinet of Wonders. Watch Punch Brothers' performance of "Movement and Location" from last weekend's Bonnaroo and a "Backstage at Mountain Stage" interview with Chris Thile here.

John Adams's music has featured prominently in California concert calendars of late, with the recent world premiere of his new oratorio, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, by the LA Philharmonic, and last weekend's Bay Area premiere of his first opera, Nixon in China, by the San Francisco Opera. The Gospel "contains some of the strongest, most impassioned music of Adams’s career," raves The New Yorker. It is "an immensely potent work, one that may prove pivotal in the composer's output." The San Francisco Chronicle says the piece "finds Adams at his most evocative and inventive." Of Nixon in China, the Chronicle says it "has taken its rightful place as one of the great operas of the latter part of the 20th century. And Friday's performance came as a welcome reminder of how audacious and yet assured this work is."

Shawn Colvin's video for the title track to her new album, All Fall Down, has premiered on YouTube; watch it here. Colvin performs from the album and reads from her new memoir, Diamond in the Rough, at Barnes & Noble at The Grove in LA tonight and performs at the El Rey with Buddy Miller and Viktor Krauss on Tuesday. They performed on CBS This Morning on Saturday. Colvin is featured in the New York Times' Texas Report and in the Austin American-Statesman, which calls All Fall Down "superb."

"Jonny Greenwood shows a deft classical touch," says the Los Angeles Times. Greenwood "has something original to say," writes Times music critic Mark Swed. The performance of his Popcorn Superhet Receiver on the recent Nonesuch album is "dramatically gripping," says Swed, and on the film score to Norwegian Wood, "Greenwood's dreamy, haunting score has the brilliant ephemerality not heard on film since the great Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu died two decades ago." The New York Times, reviewing a recent Spoleto Festival concert with Greenwood's 48 Responses to Polymorphia, says the piece "moves from Vaughan Williams-like luxuriousness to a gently dissonant shimmer and, in its final section, an inventively rhythmic workout."

Congratulations to Audra McDonald, winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her performance as Bess in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. This marks her fifth Tony Award—tying the record held by Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris—and her first for Leading Actress, following four earlier Tony Awards for Featured roles. Watch her acceptance speech from last night here.

Shawn Colvin was the guest on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, discussing her new album, All Fall Down, and her memoir, Diamond in the Rough, and performing a few songs. "I kept working on the songwriting and then I finally figured it out," Colvin says of her early career. "I figured out my voice, my talent, things I wanted to say and, you know, I figured it out." She gives a free concert at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, broadcast live on WXPN, today at noon.

John Adams's first opera, Nixon in China, makes its San Francisco Opera debut tonight at the War Memorial Opera House, the opening night of the Opera's Summer Season and the first of seven performances of Adams's piece. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the landmark work and the 40th anniversary of Nixon's visit to China. Watch a preview video here. Also this weekend, Adams's latest opera, A Flowering Tree, will be performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the three principals who originated their roles.

Timothy Andres makes his London debut at Wigmore Hall tonight with a concert that marks the opening of the venue’s latest summer Late Night Series. The solo recital—a Time Out London Critics' Choice—includes Andres’s own music and works by Ted Hearne, Ingram Marshall, Brahms, and Schumann. He will discuss the concert and perform live on BBC Radio 3's In Tune this afternoon and was the subject of a Daily Telegraph "New Faces" piece.