Kronos Quartet gives the NY premiere of Awakening: A Musical Meditation on the Anniversary of 9/11 for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)'s 2011 Next Wave Festival, with four consecutive nights of performances starting tonight. Congratulations to Kronos fan Ross Burlingame, winner of the Nonesuch ticket giveaway to tonight's show. Kronos Quartet gave a preview of the show when they performed live on WNYC's Soundcheck earlier this week. Listen to the performances and interview here.

Modern Music, a collaboration between pianists Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays and composer/arranger Patrick Zimmerli is out this week. The album features pieces written by each of the three musicians as well as works by Reich, Coleman, and Glass, performed by the two pianists in arrangements by Zimmerli. The New York Times says the pianists bring "a high sheen to some choice material." The Financial Times gives the album a perfect five stars. MusicOMH calls it "another fascinating and technically remarkable addition to Mehldau’s body of work." The Guardian, reviewing Mehldau's live show with Chris Thile in London on Friday, says their "musicality and sympathy for each other's emerging ideas made it an unexpected tour de force."

Joshua Redman joins James Farm at Monterey Jazz Fest, where he's artist-in-residence ... Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, John Zorn help open Roulette in Brooklyn ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in Dallas ... Ben Folds teams up with the Minnesota Orchestra ... Kronos Quartet premiere new piece in Maryland ... k.d. lang is in Alaska ... The Low Anthem, Jessica Lea Mayfield head South ... Brad Mehldau, Chris Thile join up in London ... Pat Metheny kicks off US tour ... Randy Newman, Wanda Jackson perform at Austin City Limits Music Festival ... Allen Toussaint plays hometown Ponderosa Stomp ... and more ...

Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile have spent the past week in Europe on separate solo tours. The two come together for a special duo show at Wigmore Hall in London tonight, as part of the pianist's curatorship of the venue's Jazz Series. "Mehldau often applies his hypnotic improv approach to Broadway standards, bebop, folk-pop classics or the music of Radiohead," says the Guardian, "and Thile's fast-flowing long lines, and cherishing of catchy themes within the loosest spontaneous flights fit that very compatibly." Also in the Guardian, Mehldau has written an article on wisdom in music.

Pat Metheny launches a month-long, 20-city tour of the United States this weekend, joined by bassist Larry Grenadier. The concerts will take place in intimate settings throughout the US and include songs from Metheny's new solo album, What's It All About, along with new material and favorites from throughout his rich catalog. The tour closes with a special week's engagement at the Blue Note in New York City. Following the US tour, Metheny, Grenadier, and drummer Bill Stewart launch a European tour.

Jessica Lea Mayfield, who is currently touring the United States in support of her Nonesuch debut album, Tell Me, has just added a new set of US tour dates to follow in November, with stops across the South and up to Brooklyn, NY. Mayfield's current schedule also include several festival stops and previously announced dates with John Prine, the Avett Brothers, and the Drive-By Truckers. The deadline to enter the animated music video contest for the Tell Me album track "Blue Skies Again" is Thursday, September 22; the prize includes $500, the album on CD and vinyl, a t-shirt, and concert tickets.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang head back on the road tonight to resume their North American tour, performing music from their new album, Sing it Loud, plus favorites from throughout lang's career. lang and the band kick off the fall leg of their tour in the farthest Northwest, with three nights in Alaska, then swing east for shows from Maine to Florida, before heading west through Texas, Arizona, and Nevada, and back to California. Teddy Thompson supports.

James Farm—the collaborative band featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland—released its self-titled debut album earlier this year on Nonesuch, followed by several live performances that included a four-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard. As James Farm hits the road again, launching the next leg of its tour this Friday at the Monterey Jazz Festival, where Redman is artist-in-residence, the band has unveiled three videos from the Jazz Standard residency. Watch them here.

The Low Anthem launches its fall headlining tour of North America with a concert at Philadelphia's World Cafe Live tonight. After over 400 shows since the initial release of their album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, the band is going to take a break from the road to create some new sounds following the tour, so this is the last run of shows in support of their latest album, Smart Flesh. In celebration of these songs and shows, Nonesuch and the band have teamed up with Paste magazine to give away a pair of tickets, a signed poster, and a Smart Flesh CD to one lucky winner for every upcoming concert listed here.

Randy Newman is set to take the stage in Austin's Zilker Park as a headliner at the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend. The Austin American-Statesman calls him "a friend to anyone who appreciates impeccably crafted songs." Newman will stay in town for another day to record his performance on PBS's Austin City Limits, which will air for the show's full hour on Saturday, November 12.

Chris Thile launches his solo tour of the UK and Ireland with a concert at Borderline in London tonight. The tour includes songs from Thile's duo album with guitarist Michael Daves, Sleep with One Eye Open. Today also marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe, whose songs are featured on Sleep with One Eye Open; Thile spoke with NPR's All Things Considered for a piece celebrating the occasion. NPR counts Thile and Daves "among the hot young pickers" carrying on the tradition set by the Monroe Brothers.

Natalie Merchant will perform two shows in upstate New York next month as part of Radio Woodstock's 13th annual Pink October Fundraiser, benefiting breast cancer research at the Dyson Center for Cancer Care at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie. Merchant will also join the Nashville Symphony in concert in November and will be honored as a 2011 New York Public Library Lion, along with Jonathan Franzen, Ian McEwan, Tony Kushner, Stacy Schiff, and Isabel Wilkerson.