Devendra Banhart recently spoke with France’s arts and culture website PUREchannel about his forthcoming album, Mala, and performed intimate, solo acoustic takes of two songs off the album, “Golden Girls” and "Never Seen Such Good Things." You can watch the PUREchannel interview and two song performance videos here. Banhart is set to perform at KCRW's Official SXSW Day Showcase in Austin on March 13. 

Nonesuch Records returns to Powell Hall in St. Louis this weekend to record the St. Louis Symphony's performances of John Adams's City Noir, February 15 and 16. John Adams will be in attendance for the recording. The Saturday evening performance will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio, 90.7-KWMU, streaming at stlpublicradio.org. Nonesuch will be back in Powell Hall in October to record a new John Adams concerto written for saxophone. The concerto and City Noir will combined and released by Nonesuch Records at a future date.

Brad Mehldau launches a ten-day, seven-city European tour with fellow pianist and longtime friend Kevin Hays, featuring music from Modern Music, their 2011 collaborative album with composer Patrick Zimmerli, in Manchester, England, tonight. The tour includes stops in Vienna, Zagreb, Zurich, Birmingham, Paris, and Porto. In March, Mehldau is joined by drummer Mark Guiliana for a month-long tour of their duo project, Mehliana, then returns to the US for a run of duo dates with Chris Thile in April. 

Nataly Dawn makes her Nonesuch debut with today's release of her solo album How I Knew Her. She has also unveiled a video for the title track, which you can watch here. The album comprises 12 autobiographical, introspective songs by Dawn, one half of Pomplamoose, and was produced by her longtime partner Jack Conte. "While she retains a lot of the whimsy and charm of Pomplamoose," says NPR's All Things Considered, "the music here reveals a whole different side of Nataly Dawn that Pomplamoose fans might not have known was there ... It's funny, and it's challenging. It's poignant, spiritual." Listen to her recent performance on Portland's KINK FM here.

Pat Metheny, who won his 20th Grammy Award this week for Unity Band, releases his latest album, The Orchestrion Project, today. Recorded at a church in Brooklyn, the album showcases the full evolution of the Orchestrion as documented at the end of a sprawling world tour. The two-disc set features all five tunes from Metheny's Orchestrion—“a soaring five-movement suite featuring some of the most intricate music he's ever created" (Boston Globe)—plus eight additional Metheny compositions, which he plays on his phalanx of remarkable, custom-made instruments via solenoid switches and pneumatics. Q and Mojo give the album four stars, as does the Observer which calls it "fresh, elegant and surprising."

Congratulations to k.d. lang, the 2013 inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. She will be honored at the 42nd Annual Juno Awards, which will be broadcast live on CTV from the Brandt Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan, on Sunday, April 21, 2013. "I am deeply honored to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame," says lang. "To be included in the lineage of Canadian artists who have formed my musical DNA and who remain my mentors, is beyond humbling." k.d. lang made her Nonesuch debut with the 2004 release of Hymns of the 49th Parallel, a highly personal "Canadian Songbook," followed by Watershed, Recollection, and Sing it Loud.

Congratulations to all of the Nonesuch artists who were presented with Grammy Awards at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles last night: The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach, Dr. John, Pat Metheny, and Björk. Together, these artists earned a total of seven awards, including three for The Black Keys. And congratulations to all of the Nonesuch artists who were nominated for Grammy Awards this year, including Amadou & Mariam, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ry Cooder, and Brad Mehldau. To celebrate, MP3 and FLAC editions of all this year's nominated albums are discounted this week.

Devendra Banhart has unveiled "Mi Negrita," a third track off his forthcoming Nonesuch debut album, Mala, due out March 12. The song premiered on Venezuela's Cochinopop, a fitting launch for the Spanish-language song, which Banhart conjured up while envisioning himself on the set of the Venezuelan variety show Super Sabado Sensacional, a program he’d watch as a child growing up in Caracas in the ’80s. Listen to "Mi Negrita" here.

Fatoumata Diawara has announced a month-long US tour starting at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, California, on March 30. The 12-city tour, featuring music from her critically acclaimed debut album, Fatou, includes a two-night run in Seattle; shows in Chicago, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, El Paso, New Orleans; and sets at the Houston and Louisiana International Festivals. Diawara has become an outspoken advocate for peace in her home country of Mali; she has gathered over 40 of Mali’s most renowned musicians to record a song and video, "Mali-ko (Peace / La Paix)," calling for peace.

Composer/lyricist Adam Guettel will return to the New York stage for a five-night, seven-set residency at 54 Below, starting Tuesday, February 19. The program will include both new songs and favorites from throughout Guettel's career. He will be joined by band leader Kim Grigsby and singers Steven Pasquale and Whitney Bashor. Guettel has released three recordings on Nonesuch Records: The Light in the Piazza, Myths and Hymns, and Floyd Collins. 

Lianne La Havas will make her first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno with a performance of the title track to her debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, on NBC tonight at 11:35 PM ET. She is in LA this week to perform at the Grammy Foundation's Play It Forward concert and to be fêted along with Solange Knowles at the Essence Black Women in Music event; she performs live on KCSN, 88.5 FM, Friday morning. La Havas will return to North America to tour starting March 17 in Dallas, with stops in LA, San Francisco, Seattle, NYC, Montreal, and more.

Sara Watkins, who closes out her tour of the UK and Ireland this week, has announced a three-week US tour for March. The 15-city tour starts in Duluth, Georgia, and includes stops in Louisville, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and more. Additionally, Watkins will join her brother Sean and special guests for the latest installment of the Watkins Family Hour at Largo in Los Angeles on February 28.