Kronos Quartet kicked off the fourth-annual MusicNow Festival last night with its first of two MusicNow performances at Cincinnati's Memorial Hall; the group performs again tonight with a program of music from Africa, Mexico, India, Greece, and the Middle East. Toumani Diabaté, who was scheduled to appear as well, has had to cancel due to an illness. The festival's organizers report that they are working to reschedule his performance for another day.

Kronos Quartet and Toumani Diabaté are set to headline the fourth-annual MusicNow festival in downtown Cincinnati's Memorial Hall, which runs tonight and tomorrow night. The festival is curated by Cincinnati native Bryce Dessner, of The National. For tonight's concert, Kronos will perform two new pieces commissioned for the festival, including one by Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry; opening are The Books. Tomorrow night, the Quartet will open the show with music from across the globe, before Diabaté takes the stage with songs from The Mandé Variations.

Dan Auerbach's US tour, featuring music from Keep It Hid, his recent Nonesuch solo debut, continues tonight at Wonder Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. The Portland Mercury says Dan's new record "uncovers new corners of his talents. It's an instant classic ..." and expects he'll "give us a rock 'n' roll show of the highest order." Willamette Week says the album "emits sincerity and genuineness" and says "Auerbach’s poignant, emotionally charged lyrics and precise guitar work shine ...'" Dan's recent interview and performance at Minnesota Public Radio's The Current is now available online.

On Tchamantché, Rokia Traoré's recently released album, the Malian-born singer-songwriter "strikes out in a new direction while staying true to her African roots," says Dusted magazine. "The results are strikingly creative," producing "Traoré’s best work so far, and absolutely not to be missed." She performed last night at Sydney's Enmore Theatre in what Australian Stage describes as "two solid hours of groundbreaking, extra-African music ... by turns, startling, beguiling, seductive, spellbinding, exquisite, refined, rocking, intimate, infectious, affecting and 'funktional.' But, most of all, exciting, stirring the blood, vigourously."

Amadou & Mariam are gearing up for Nonesuch's March 24 US release of their latest album, Welcome to Mali. They're also preparing for a US tour that will include a number of dates opening for Coldplay. Spinner says the pair will have no trouble rocking out for the arena crowds, citing Amadou's love of rockers like AC/DC and suggesting "this shouldn't surprise anyone who has followed the rise of the couple in recent years from obscurity to international sensations. There was always a broad rock and pop consciousness in even their most straightforward music." "People can get into our music because they can hear the rock in it, the pop in it," Amadou tells Spinner. "People can find things they know in it. Maybe that's why it touches them."

Rokia Traoré was the closing act at this year's WOMADelaide, the Adelaide, Australia, leg of the global World of Music and Dance festival, last night. The Australian says that with her "distinctive, soulful voice" in full effect, "Traoré rocked the park. Traoré has successfully forged her Malian roots with western blues, funk and jazz elements and at times the energy was electrifying ..." The paper's review of her new album, Tchamantché, calls it "the epitome of intelligent, minimalist music, with sparse accompaniment, thoughtful arrangements and subtle percussion."

Dan Auerbach keeps on with the Keep It Hid tour in Chicago and Minneapolis ... Adams's A Flowering Tree receives its Australian premiere in Perth; Doctor Atomic continues in London ... Afro-Cuban All Stars two-show Texas ... Glass brings Book of Longing to Taiwan ... Kronos caters to the younger set ... Brad Mehldau Trio plays Perth and Wellington festivals ... Fernando Otero joins Arturo O'Farrill in New York ... Mandy Patinkin teams up with Patti LuPone to tour ... Joshua Redman's Compass trio plays Italy and Poland ... Allen Toussaint turns the Keys to New Orleans in San Diego ... and more ...

Dan Auerbach brings the music from Keep It Hid, his recently released sol debut, back home to Ohio tonight for a concert at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland with Hacienda and Those Darlins. The Boston Globe reports from Sunday's show that "the sold-out crowd certainly got what it came to hear: 90 minutes of blissfully loud, fiercely focused rock 'n' roll with heart and soul." Dan's "guitar solos were compact, penetrating bursts of roughed-up chords that chopped predictable blues-rock cliches to ribbons. And while easy to overlook, [his] voice proved an invaluable asset."

Steve Reich, Glenn Kotche and Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Alarm Will Sound help celebrate the opening of Lincoln Center's spectacularly revamped Alice Tully Hall Starr Theater with a marathon evening of performances titled New York, New Music, New Hall tonight. Kotche and Bang on a Can give the New York premiere of his piece Mobile, and Steve Reich & Musicians with Synergy Vocals perform Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. It's all part of the Center's two-week Opening Nights Festival to inaugurate the new space.

Dan Auerbach plays the second of two New York area shows tonight at the Bowery Ballroom in downtown Manhattan, with openers Hacienda, which will also form his backing band, and Those Darlins. They performed last night at the Williamsburg Hall of Music in Brooklyn and the night before at Boston's Paradise Club. There, the Boston Herald says, he took "the ragged, groovy, electrified vibe of a classic Fillmore set" and fit it "with a post-grunge, post-punk, post-Black Sabbath fury," to create "original, jagged, fire-spitting guitar workouts fit for today."

David Byrne, fresh off two stellar performances at New York's Radio City Music Hall this past weekend, stopped by the Colbert Report last night to chat and perform live in the studio. "You've always been sort of an innovator," offered Stephen Colbert. "When is being on the cutting edge, being innovative and fresh and new and interesting gonna get stale? Because, wouldn't it be more surprising if David Byrne did something ordinary?" Vanity Fair reports from Radio City that it's not likely to be any time soon. Staying "tuned in" is the key to his success, and "If it keeps David Byrne young, just think what it can do for you."

Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe have announced an intimate, three-week tour of Europe to begin with three nights at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in mid-June. Cooder and Lowe’s working relationship began in the late 1980s, and following two benefit performances together at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco last year—featuring a selection of work from both their celebrated careers—the pair have decided to take their show on the road. They will be joined by Flaco Jimenez on accordion, Joachim Cooder on drums, and vocalist Juliette Commagere.