Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen and ngoni master Bassekou Kouyate will be the guests on today's episode of NPR's World Cafe. Allen made his World Circuit / Nonesuch debut with the release of Secret Agent earlier this year. Kouyate performs on the album AfroCubism, due out this Tuesday. The latter album is featured on AOL Spinner, which that traces its roots back to the recording sessions that launched Buena Vista Social Club.

After seven months at radio, “Tighten Up,” the first single from The Black Keys’ album Brothers, is #1 at Modern Rock radio. This is the duo’s first #1 hit as well as the first in Nonesuch’s 40-plus year history. On Black Friday, November 26, in honor of Record Store Day, The Black Keys will release a special, limited-edition numbered version, which includes the original Brothers album on double 45 RPM vinyl and CD plus a bonus 10” with six previously unreleased live recordings and a limited-edition poster.

The Low Anthem and Carolina Chocolate Drops have been selected to perform as part of Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook, which celebrates the diversity of American popular song, from the golden age of musical standards to today’s most dynamic songwriting. The Low Anthem perform on January 13, Carolina Chocolate Drops on February 2, in the Allen Room, overlooking Central Park. The two bands are set to tour together in December.

Stephen Sondheim: Finishing the Hat, the composer's first-ever collection of his lyrics, with personal anecdotes and behind-the-scenes photos, is out now in the US. The New York Times says: "If you’re a fan of the genre, how can you not feel privileged to eavesdrop on his dialogue with his own words?" Today also marks the first-ever DVD release of Sondheim's 1966 teleplay Evening Primrose; the Times credits the Nonesuch recording of the show, in part, with popularizing its signature song.

Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica launch their North American tour in Seattle this Friday. Their latest Nonesuch release, De Profundis, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered Sunday, among select albums for the fall. The album "plays through like a fascinating mix tape, with a surprise around every corner," says NPR classical producer Tom Huizenga. "It's fantastic ... a very heady but very listenable and terrific mix of music and politics."

Pat Metheny closed out his fall Orchestrion tour of North America with a final concert in Connecticut on Saturday. The Hartford Courant describes Metheny as "a visionary artist, as he displayed throughout Saturday's performance"; his "one-man orchestra proved to be an exciting and constantly creative endeavor." MassLive, reviewing Thursday's show in Northampton, says Metheny has "found a way to create world’s tightest jazz band."

Steve Reich is Composer of the Week this week at BBC Radio 3. Tune in all week to hear interviews with and music by Reich, including the British radio premiere of his 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet. The Detroit Free Press gives Reich's new Double Sextet / 2x5 album a perfect four stars in an article that looks at music chosen for the Pulitzer and finds that "recent juries have rewarded some terrific pieces worthy of the acclaim."

Ben Folds's fall tour, featuring music from Lonely Avenue, his new album with Nick Hornby, kicks off soon and now includes a New York City show December 14. That comes amidst the second season of NBC’s a cappella competition The Sing-Off. Folds returns as a judge on the successful series, which starts December 6 and will reward America’s best a cappella group with a professional recording contract and $100,000.

Philip Glass will receive the 2010 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Opera Honors Award at The Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, DC, tonight. The awards ceremony and concert will feature musical tributes from soloists joined by the Washington National Opera Orchestra. Also being honored tonight are soprano Martina Arroyo, general director David DiChiera, and music director Eve Queler.

Steve Reich is next week's BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week. Each day next week, the program will present interviews with Reich and music from throughout his career, from 1965's groundbreaking It's Gonna Rain to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet, featured on his latest Nonesuch album. "Just as composers like Beethoven, Shostakovich and Mahler captured their era in their compositions," says the BBC, "so Reich's music distills the pulsating rhythm and routine of 21st century urban life."

Laurie Anderson performs her newest work, Delusion, at UCLA's Royce Hall tonight, as part of her week-long tour of California. The Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed says of the piece: "To reveal too much would be to spoil amazement. A supreme dramatist, Anderson makes nearly every sentence a dramatic surprise, every visual image a bolt of wonderment." Nevertheless, he can say that Delusion is a "powerful, moving, incredibly rich work."

Brad Mehldau is set to launch his Highway Rider tour with the world premiere of the piece due at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis on November 5 and 6, followed by the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on November 9. The latter is the first event of Mehldau's tenure as holder of the Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall. As such, he has published the first in a series of blog posts on the Carnegie Hall website, offering insight on composition and improvisation.