AfroCubism is currently on tour in Europe, where this group of Malian and Cuban greats played a sold-out show at the Barbican in London on Sunday. The Arts Desk called it "one of the most transporting and life-affirming gigs of the year." The Evening Standard gave it a perfect five stars, saying: "The musical links are real and there’s a clear physical delight in throwing round the exuberant solos." Band member Toumani Diabaté gave the BBC World Service a brief tutorial on the kora and how this traditional Malian instrument worked so well with the sounds of Cuba on AfroCubism.

The nominations are in for the fRoots Critics Poll of Best New Album of 2010, and among them are the Carolina Chocolate Drops and several artists on the World Circuit/Nonesuch roster: AfroCubism, Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté, and Cheikh Lô. This year marks the 25th annual fRoots Critics Poll. The winners will be announced in BBC Radio 3's World on 3 on December 3.

The Barbican in London has revealed the complete program for Reverberations: The Influence of Steve Reich, a two-day celebration of his music and his influence on generations of musicians, May 7 and 8. Highlights include performances of all the new music he has written since the Barbican celebrated his 70th birthday in October 2006, including Double Sextet, 2x5, and WTC 9/11, performed by Kronos Quartet. Carnegie Hall presents those works in Music of Steve Reich at the end of April.

Ben Folds continues his Lonely Avenue tour stops in Montclair, New Jersey, Charlotte, and Atlanta. The New York Times describes him as "a witty, engaging songwriter possessing both chops and humor, a rare combination." The Londonist, looking forward to February's UK tour, says his "live performances are full of energy, bite, irony and good humour." Folds spoke with Nashville Public Television about his upcoming benefit concert with the Nashville Symphony in a video you can watch here, along with a preview of the upcoming season of NBC's The Sing-Off.

Dawn Upshaw joined violinist Geoff Nutall for the European premiere of Kurtág's Kafka Fragments at the Barbican in London last week, directed by Peter Sellars. The Guardian gave it four stars, citing "Upshaw's emotional honesty and gripping presentation of music that tests a soprano's technique." She joins another Sellars collaborator, John Adams, in performances of Adams's El Niño with the San Francisco Symphony, led by the composer, in early December.

Punch Brothers continue the Southern swing of their US tour, following last night's show in Knoxville and a live Mountain Stage set that led the Charleston Gazette to say the band "can flat-out play music." Chris Thile spoke with Birmingham magazine's Carla Jean Whitley, who tells him: "Perhaps I'm reading too much in, but it just sounds like you're five guys having a great time creating music with friends." The band has just added new dates to their tour schedule in January.

Philip Selway will be the guest on NPR's World Cafe today. Tune in on NPR stations across the United States or listen in online at xpn.org to hear Selway talk with the show's host, David Dye, and perform songs from his solo debut album, Familial. Selway recently selected the winner in the search for collaborators to remix the album track "Beyond Reason," which you can download at Spinner.

On February 22, The Low Anthem will release Smart Flesh, the self-produced follow-up to their critically lauded 2009 release, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, on Nonesuch. The majority of Smart Flesh's 11 tracks were recorded in a cavernous, vacant pasta sauce factory in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The eclectic array of instruments used on the album include jaw harp, musical saw, stylophone, three antique pump organs (restored by the band), and oversized drum kits.

Martin Scorsese has selected 15 films by fellow Academy Award-winning director Elia Kazan for the Elia Kazan Film Collection, a new, 18-disc box set, capturing what NPR's Fresh Air recently described as "some of the most mythic performances in film history." Included are three films whose scores were recorded for the Nonesuch Film Series: A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata!, and East of Eden.

Congratulations to Fernando Otero, winner of the 2010 Latin Grammy Award for Best Classical Album. Otero picked up the Grammy at the 11th annual Latin Grammy Award ceremonies in Las Vegas for his latest album, Vital (World Village), the follow-up to his 2008 Nonesuch release, Pagina de Buenos Aires. He and his band perform in New York this week, at the Nublu Jazz Festival and at Zinc Bar for the New Dimensions in Latin Jazz series.

"The three string quartets Henryk Górecki wrote for Kronos are a totally unique body of work," writes Kronos Quartet Artistic Director David Harrington of the composer, who passed away earlier today. "With Already it is Dusk, Quasi una fantasia, and ...songs are sung, Górecki extended a tradition that includes Bach and Beethoven, among many others." Read Harrington's personal remembrances here and see photos of Kronos and the composer.

Nonesuch Records was saddened to learn of the death of composer Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, who died at the age of 76 today in Katowice, Poland, after a long illness. Górecki reached a worldwide audience in the 1990s with his Symphony No.3, which reached the top of the classical charts in the US and UK. He wrote three string quartets for Kronos Quartet, whose Artistic Director David Harrington says: "There is no one who can replace Henryk Górecki in the world of music. Many others have created beautiful, passionate, even exalted music. But Henryk found a way forward and beyond, through thickets of styles and fashions, that resonates of the single human being in communion with the power of the Universe. I miss him immensely."