Dawn Upshaw joins the San Francisco Symphony and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas tonight for the premiere of an all-Bernstein program that will make its way to Carnegie Hall's Opening Night Gala next week. On the program tonight at Davies Symphony Hall and continuing there Thursday and Friday nights are Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Scenes from A Quiet Place, Meditation No. 1 from Mass, Danzón from Fancy Free, and songs from West Side Story, On the Town, Songfest, and Trouble in Tahiti, some of which were featured on the 1996 Nonesuch release Leonard Bernstein's New York.

Sam Phillips is on the road with songs from her latest release, Don't Do Anything, as well as past favorites. The BBC says Sam makes "smokey, sassy, sultry, smart-as-a-whip" music, and the new album is "an album to get deliriously lost within." All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen introduced last night's live NPR.org concert broadcast from the tour by calling her songs "miniature pop jewels." The Albany Times Union, reviewing the previous show, says Sam's vocals make "her probing, intelligent lyrics and her vibrant melodies all the more powerful." Previewing tonight's show, the Philadelphia Inquirer describes Sam's sound as "a sophisticated confluence of Kurt Weill, Tom Waits and late-period Marianne Faithfull, without any florid excesses."

Laurie Anderson's Homeland returned to the States with a performance at the Lied Center on the Kansas University, Lawrence. The Lawrence Journal-World & News says it was "an extraordinary concert ... of hard-hitting cultural and political commentaries." Anderson offered these insights "with wit as well as with a broad and penetrating sense of wisdom," providing "an open-ended common ground upon which to construct a perhaps more thoughtful political discourse ..."

Emmylou Harris closed out the UK leg of her European tour this past weekend with stops in Manchester and London. Saturday's performance at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall led the Manchester Evening News to write: "Legend is a term hastily applied in these latter days of talent show revivalism. Emmylou Harris has quietly earned the right to bear the title ... Her clear voice has lost none of its beguiling power—varying from whisper to country power yodel." Following her London show at the Hammersmith Apollo, The Times (UK) described her as "a regal presence" who "sang like an angel."

Randy Newman's tune "A Piece of the Pie," from Harps and Angels, has made its way onto the Boston Globe's list of "The 1 Thing You Must Do, See, or Hear This Week" as "The 1 Great Election-Season Lyric." Calling the record "savagely patriotic," the paper states: "We could go on and on about Randy Newman's rapier wit, but his words speak for themselves." Randy hits the road this week, with a free in-store performance at New York's Apple Store SoHo and a show at Carnegie Hall. The New Yorker calls the new album "a welcome, witty throwback to the days when his songs were snide, ironic, edgy, controversial, and, oh yeah, really funny."

Bill Frisell played the closing sets last night in his two-week residency at New York's Village Vanguard, with Paul Motion and Joe Lovano. This week, Bill heads to Pennsylvania for two shows with Tony Scherr and Rudy Royston. All About Jazz reviews History, Mystery, the latest release from this master of the "haunting, twang-inflected telecaster," comparing to Miles Davis his ability to take the familiar in ever new directions. One reason: "his brilliant orchestrations and ability to streamline what could be an unwieldy ensemble."

Sam Phillips's tour continues with stops in the Northeast this weekend, including a special, free in-store performance at the Newbury Comics store in Harvard Square, Cambridge, celebrating the retailer's 30th anniversary. As the tour continues, Sam's Monday night show in Annapolis, Maryland, will be broadcast live from NPR, for All Songs Considered's online concert series, at npr.org. "Of all of Sam Phillips' roles as a musician," says NPR, "her latest incarnation is the most alluring."

Toumani Diabaté has just announced dates for a tour across the US, with music from his latest release, The Mandé Variations. Paste magazine says that with the new record, "Mali’s reigning musical magician uncorks another genie from his bottle ... Diabaté’s magic hands coax an amazing array of voices from his instrument." The Boston Globe calls Diabaté "the uncontested master of the 21-string lute called kora" who "presents his virtuosity in a whole different light" on the new record and tour.

Emmylou Harris's European tour began this past Tuesday with a concert at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall. The Independent finds her voice in "mint condition," admiring "her stately mastery of her art," and noting that Emmylou's obvious pride in her latest album, All I Intended to Be, "is justified, because many of the show's best moments stem from this record." The Herald calls it "a splendid album" and reports that Emmylou is "sounding, and looking, as good as she has ever done."

Sam Phillips's tour with the music of her latest release, Don't Do Anything, continues at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern tonight in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Free Times's Michael David Toth describes Sam's work as "a spectacular body of sophisticated, shadowy pop albums," at once "progressively modern" and reflective of inspirations from the Beatles to Tin Pan Alley. Her 2004 album, A Boot and a Shoe, "stands as one of this decade's most criminally overlooked recorded masterpieces," he asserts. "With any luck, her follow-up, Don't Do Anything, will get the acclaim it deserves."

Emmylou Harris began her monthlong European tour last night at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall and brings the show to Newcastle's City Hall tonight. "The honeyed voice; the high cheekbones; the flowing silver hair: it can only be Emmylou Harris," says Metro UK. "Her recently released 26th album, All I Intended to Be, illustrates just how far Harris has come since her early days working as a waitress to support her New York coffee-house gigs."

Nicholas Payton makes his way down to Brazil this week for the Tudo É Jazz Festival in Ouro Preto, where he'll perform on Saturday night. The event follows last week's five-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard with bassist Christian McBride and guitarist Mark Whitfield. The New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen says the trio members "have a number of things in common: complete rhythmic assurance, for one, and an intrepid approach within the modern jazz mainstream."