Legendary AfroBeat drummer Tony Allen will be the guest on WNYC's Soundcheck today. He will talk with the show's host, John Schaefer, and perform songs from his album Secret Agent. "The great Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti had a not-so-secret weapon when he was creating the funk-infused style known as Afrobeat in the 1970s," says WNYC. "That weapon was drummer Tony Allen. A legend among drummers of all styles, Allen is still going strong." Allen launches a North American tour this week with special guest Amp Fiddler.

The official music video for The Low Anthem's "Boeing 737," off the band's new album, Smart Flesh, has premiered on SPIN. In the video, the band goes "1800s retro," says SPIN's Dan Jackson, "as members of an oddball circus, who battle a group of high-wire walkers. It's totally weird yet totally poignant." The new video was directed by End of the Road Pictures, which created the beautiful animated video for The Low Anthem's "Charlie Darwin." Tickets are now on sale for the band's spring and summer tour.

The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2, on which Newman takes a fresh look at both classic and more recent work in new solo recordings of his celebrated songs, is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with a limited-edition poster, a number of which will be signed by Newman. The poster features the original cover art from Newman's 1968 self-titled debut album, which marks the starting point of the new album's repertoire.

Pat Metheny is featured in the Guardian's series 50 Great Moments in Jazz History, which examines Metheny's many contributions to his craft through his virtuosic playing, genre-defying collaborations, high-tech experimentation, and more. "Metheny is that rare jazz musician who combines a pop-composer's instinct for an anthemic melody with a virtuoso ability to play extended spontaneous solos without repeating himself," says the Guardian. "More than any other jazz guitarist of the post-bop era, Pat Metheny has given the instrument as natural and prominent a place in jazz as a trumpet or a saxophone."

The Brad Mehldau Trio is on tour in the Midwest this week and heads to the West Coast for shows in Seattle and Los Angeles next week. "It's a rare musician who shines in a solo performance," says Minnesota Public Radio of Mehldau's new 2CD/DVD solo album, Live in Marciac. But he "does so remarkably on a diverse collection of tunes that include his original compositions, jazz standards and rock tunes ... In a virtuoso performance, Mehldau builds on architecture and melody, delivering intimate, complex and intense interpretations of each song."

Emmylou Harris and Ben Folds will be among the performers at the Chicago stop on the Dave Matthew Band Caravan, a series of three-day, multi-artist festivals taking place in four US cities this summer. The event will take place July 8–10 at Lakeside, on Chicago's south shore of Lake Michigan. Today's announcement follows last month's unveiling of the first stop on the Dave Matthews Band Caravan, June 24–26, in Atlantic City, which, will feature performances from the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Punch Brothers.

Pat Metheny will tour the US this fall with bassist Larry Grenadier, starting in Portland, Oregon, and set to run through a week's residency at the Blue Note in New York in October. The concerts, taking place in intimate venues across the country, precede a previously announced European tour of the Pat Metheny Trio, featuring Grenadier and Bill Stewart, and follow the five-day workshop Metheny will lead in August. He will be a featured presenter at the EG Conference tomorrow in Monterey, California, where he will discuss his Orchestrion project.

Next week, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, in partnership with The Bard College Conservatory of Music, will present a Professional Training Workshop led by Dawn Upshaw and composer Donnacha Dennehy, who will mentor four composers and ten singers in creating new vocal music. The participants will premiere their new works in Zankel Hall, led by conductor Alan Pierson. Nonesuch releases its first recording of music by Dennehy, Grá agus Bás, on May 3, featuring the title piece and the song cycle That the Night Come, the latter sung by Upshaw. This week, she performs three concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center.

John Adams will receive an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Juilliard School at the conservatory's 106th Commencement Ceremony on May 20. Adams will also deliver this year's commencement address. Also receiving honorary doctoral degrees are Herbie Hancock, Derek Jacobi, and Twyla Tharp. Adams’s latest Nonesuch album, Son of Chamber Symphony / String Quartet, is due out on May 31 and is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

The musical influence of Steve Reich and his compositions are the focus of a marathon weekend at the Barbican in London on May 7 and 8. Following the previous announcement of the Reverberations weekend, further details of the program have now been confirmed. The weekend celebrates Reich as a special guest in honor of his 75th birthday year during a packed weekend that explores his influence on generations of musicians, as well as his own work.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) has announced that Audra McDonald has been cast to play Bess in the A.R.T.'s new production of Porgy and Bess. Also in the cast are Norm Lewis as Porgy and David Alan Grier as Sportin' Life. Performances will begin August 17 at the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. McDonald will join Liev Schreiber to announce the nominations for the 56th Annual Drama Desk Awards on May 2.

Laurie Anderson is the subject of the cover story of Art Review magazine, which coincides with the Barbican exhibition featuring Anderson's work from 1970s New York. The article examines Anderson's explorations of sound and voice, from her early "tape-bow violin" experiments to her latest album, Homeland. Anderson will perform in the Concert for Japan in New York City this weekend and will read a short story by James Salter at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton the following weekend. Later this month, she will emcee a poetry event for the PEN World Voices Festival at the 92nd Street Y.