Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté is currently on tour in the US, and performs in the Bay area on Wednesday, November 5. The San Francisco Bay-Guardian's music blog, Noise, recently posted about his music and his recent album, The Mandé Variations, describing Diabaté's "ability to incorporate disparate sounds from Western pop, Indian classical music, and blues while remaining grounded in his country's tradition."

Kronos continues its multi-year residency at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Center ... Cleveland Orchestra gives swing-state Ohio a short break from the campaign with Adams's Gnarly Buttons ... Laurie Anderson gives Netherlands premiere of "Amelia Earhart" ... David Byrne takes his "effortless artistic grace" (Montreal Gazette) to Boston and The Borgata ... Toumani Diabaté begins his two-week US tour in Boston ... Bill Frisell's Trio plays film music in Portugal ... k.d. lang beats Byrne to The Borgata ... Brad Mehldau Trio plays two nights in Austria ... Sam Phillips plays two sets at Yoshi's ... Joshua Redman Trio continues its tour of Europe ... Dawn Upshaw joins pianist Stephen Prutsman at Carnegie Hall ... Wilco's in Wisconsin, getting out the vote ... and more ...

Toumani Diabaté begins a two-week tour with music from his latest solo record, The Mandé Variations, this Saturday at the Somerville Theater outside Boston. On Sunday, he comes to New York's Skirball Center, where The New Yorker suggests the "deeply meditative compositions" of the new record "promise to be quite stirring" live. Leading to next week's concerts in California, the Mercury News calls him "an unsurpassed master of the kora" whose performance on Mandé Variations "is incantatory, as Diabaté creates a rolling, hypnotic vibe that gives the album the feel of an extended suite."

It is with great regret that Randy Newman has had to postpone his forthcoming European tour on doctor's orders, because of physical limitations and severe pain caused by stenosis in the lower back and neck. The 18-date tour had been due to start this Saturday, November 1, in Berlin. "I deeply regret not being able to come," says Randy. "I like it so much in Europe, and I've always been treated so well. I'll get there as soon as I can."

Last weekend, Wilco performed at the 22nd annual Bridge School benefit concert  organized by Neil Young, with whom the band will be heading out on the road a month from now for a tour of North America. But you don't have to wait that long to see the band play live. Tune in to The Colbert Report on Comedy Central tomorrow night, when Wilco will be the show's guest. On Saturday, members of the band will play a free Concert for Change on behalf of the Obama campaign at the Union Theater in Madison, Wisconsin.

Fresh off their performance at New York's historic Apollo Theater in Harlem last night, k.d. lang and her band head up to Connecticut tonight to perform at the Fairfield Theatre in Bridgeport. And tomorrow morning, fans across the US can tune in to ABC's Good Morning America to watch k.d. perform the song "Coming Home" from her latest Nonesuch release, Watershed.

Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile close out their cross-country tour of music from their eponymous debut duo album tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall, for which they will be joined by special guest, violinist Mark O'Connor. Tonight, the pair's penultimate performance takes place at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Before Meyer and Thile head down to Washington, they'll visit the WNYC studios in New York for a live performance this afternoon on Soundcheck, beginning at 2 PM ET.

Laurie Anderson gave two performances of Homeland this weekend in Berkeley, California. "Singing, reciting, teasing, exciting and playing electric violin with a dynamic trio," says the San Francisco Chronicle, "Anderson brought the large audience at Zellerbach Hall to its feet for a prolonged and well-deserved standing ovation." The review describes the piece as "Anderson working in top form, engaging, witty, thought provoking and musically inspired ... [with] new songs that rank with Anderson's best work."

The Magnetic Fields brought their fall tour to a close yesterday after a full weekend of performances that brought them from Columbus, Ohio, to Philadelphia to Washington, DC. Getting a head start to the weekend's gigs, the band played in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday night, leading The Star-Ledger to write: "As offbeat as he is, Merritt is also a pop purist. His songs were full of graceful melodic twists and clever turns of phrase. There is, simply, a poetry to his words that you rarely hear at a rock show."

Wilco plays Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit Concert ... Kronos Quartet gives John Adams piece its Swedish premiere ... Laurie Anderson speaks at UC Berkeley colloquium ... Sérgio and Odair Assad continue college tour with the Turtle Island Quartet ... David Byrne brings his "mind-blowing, booty-shaking music" to the Midwest ... Shawn Colvin performs there as well ... Bill Frisell's Trio is in Brazil ... k.d. lang plays the Ryman ... The Magnetic Fields close out their fall tour of "dizzyingly catchy songs" ... Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman play Europe together and with their trios ... Randy Newman finishes his North American tour ... Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Steve Reich Evening comes to Brooklyn ... Dawn Upshaw repeats "transfixing" performance in St. Paul ... and more ...

Before Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile take the stage at the University of Chicago's Mandel Hall tonight, the pair can be heard live on WFDU-FM's Lonesome Pine RFD this morning. The Washington Post says the duo's self-titled Nonesuch debut "represents the most substantial music Thile has recorded, for the give-and-take between the high-pitched mandolin and the deeply resounding bass is full of dark drama and rigorous musical architecture." The Kansas City Star says "the duo's world-class musicianship" along with "the highly intuitive communication that exists in the music itself ... provide the album's 12 compositions with heart, humor, precision and warmth."

Brad Mehldau takes a night away from his Trio tour to play a special duo set with label mate Joshua Redman tomorrow night at the Christuskirche in Mannheim, Germany. The Financial Times, in its review of the Trio's recent show at London's Barbican, says of Brad: "Mehldau creates gently undulating soundscapes of gradually gathering intensity. Starting with the simplest of motifs, he develops an intricate tapestry of melodic details, chordal voicings and dense cross-rhythms." The Guardian calls the Trio's concert take on Sufjan Stevens' "Holland" "a lambent, implausibly lovely improvisation."