There's still about a month to go before 2014 comes to a close, and already the music magazines have begun to weigh in on the year's best music. Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Uncut, Mojo, and Q have all published their lists of the Best Albums of the Year, and included among them are a number of Nonesuch releases: the latest from The Black Keys and Sam Amidon; the label debut albums from Robert Plant and Conor Oberst; and a special reissue from Emmylou Harris.

Audra McDonald launches her extensive 2014–15 concert season with a performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA tonight. The season includes shows in more than 30 cities in 18 different states across the US, among them five cities in California and five in Florida; three each in New Jersey and upstate New York; dates in Indianapolis, Charlotte, Boston, Chapel Hill, and Tucson; and a return to Carnegie Hall. McDonald won a record-breaking sixth Tony Award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill earlier this year and released her latest solo album, Go Back Home, in 2013.

Sam Amidon recently stopped by NPR with Bill Frisell and Shahzad Ismaily to give a Tiny Desk Concert. They perform two songs from Amidon's latest album, Lily-O, on which both perform and which Tiny Desk Concert host Bob Boilen calls "gorgeous"—"Blue Mountains" and "Pat Do This, Pat Do That"—as well as the song "Short Life" from his 2013 Nonesuch Records debut album, Bright Sunny South. Watch the Tiny Desk Concert here. Amidon opens for Wilco at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago this Saturday, then leads his own shows in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Toronto.

Today is the day after Thanksgiving in the US and that means, among other things, Record Store Day Black Friday, offering unique recordings from some of your favorite artists, including Conor Oberst. He releases a special, limited-edition 7" featuring two exclusive tracks recorded during the sessions for his new album, Upside Down Mountain, that are unavailable anywhere else: "Standing on the Outside Looking In" and "Sugar Street." To pick up a copy of the 7" while supplies last, head to a record store near you.

Nonesuch Records releases pianist Tigran Hamasyan's label debut album, Mockroot, on February 17, 2015, available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store. Mockroot features Hamasyan on piano, voice, keyboards, synths and sound effects, Sam Minaie on electric bass, and Arthur Hnatek on drums and live electronics. The album comprises new tracks written by Hamasyan, as well as his arrangements of traditional Armenian songs. Although trained as a classical and jazz musician, Tigran Hamasyan draws on a wide range of influences, including Armenian folk music, rock, electronica, poetry, and more.

Richard Linklater's Boyhood, which the Washington Post just named the #1 Best Movie of the Year, has been nominated for five Film Independent Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Best Director for Richard Linklater, Best Supporting Female for Patricia Arquette, Best Supporting Male for Ethan Hawke, and Best Editing for Sandra Adair. Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, which was not eligible for individual nominations this year, was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Winners of the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards will be announced on February 21 in a ceremony broadcast live on IFC. Nonesuch will have release the soundtracks to both films.

The recordings made by Abelardo Barroso with Orquesta Sensación in Havana during the 1950s represent one of the pinnacles of the golden age of Cuban music. Now, on the album Cha Cha Cha, World Circuit, the label behind Buena Vista Social Club, releases a re-mastered selection of 14 of their most irresistible recordings, in North America via Nonesuch Records. The Guardian gives Cha Cha Cha four stars, calling it both "another reminder of Cuba’s extraordinary musical history" and "almost uncannily contemporary."

A new, five-track digital EP is out now, featuring music from the recording sessions for the album Toumani & Sidiki, a rare father-and-son collaboration between kora master Toumani Diabaté and his son Sidiki, the instrument’s emerging star. The EP extends the collection and explores further what happens "when two geniuses bridge generations" (Los Angeles Times).

Composer Jacob Cooper's Nonesuch debut album, Silver Threads, will be featured in Best of 2014: New Music, an evening of live music and conversation presented by Q2 Music at The Greene Space in New York City December 2. Soprano Mellissa Hughes, who performs on the album, will perform excerpts from its eponymous six-song cycle and will also talk with host Nadia Sirota, as will Cooper and the evening's other performers and composers of what Q2 calls the "riveting, jaw-droppingly gorgeous new recordings" being presented.

Congratulations to Caetano Veloso, who has won the 2014 Latin Grammy Award for Best Brazilian Song for "A Bossa Nova É Foda." The song is on his new release in Brazil, Multishow Ao Vivo Caetano Veloso Abraçaço, and appeared earlier on his latest studio album, Abraçaço, released this year in North America on Nonesuch Records. This is Veloso's 11th Latin Grammy Award, following last year's win for Best Singer-Songwriter Album for the South American release of Abraçaço. Additionally, Veloso was named the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year in 2012.

Robert Plant is the guest on the latest episode of WBEZ's Sound Opinions, discussing his new album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, which MOJO has just named one of the Best Albums of 2014. You can listen to the episode and watch the full interview here. Plant also spoke with The Quietus about the new album, which the site calls "his most fully realized solo album to date" and "a superb melting pot of influences ... Plant is forging ever forward while still retaining the exploratory vision that made his former alma mater such a unique proposition."

Conor Oberst and Alison Krauss are the latest performers announced as part of the lineup of artists taking part in The Life & Songs of Emmylou Harris: An All-Star Concert Celebration at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, on January 10, 2015. In addition to the newly announced performers, the lineup includes Harris, Rodney Crowell, Iron & Wine, Shawn Colvin, Sara Watkins, Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez, Sheryl Crow, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mavis Staples, Martina McBride, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Trampled By Turtles, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Shovels & Rope, and The Milk Carton Kids.