Christina Courtin's hometown tour-closer in Buffalo on Friday saw the return of "a local woman who’s done well," says the Buffalo News. In a performance that alternated between "delicate lures and rocking out," Christina proved her versatility and "crooned and modulated her voice to fit whatever the music of Western civilization can throw at her."

The Black Keys were in New Orleans on Friday for a very rainy Voodoo Music Experience. The duo "rewarded the hearty souls who stood in the rain with a ferocious set," says the Times-Picayune. Creative Loafing concurs that "the Keys definitely heated it up for their hour-long set," calling it "the highlight of the day." Dan Auerbach begins a 14-day tour this Thursday.

Steve Reich leads all-Reich program at London's Royal Festival Hall ... Leila Josefowicz, Baltimore Symphony play Adams's Violin Concerto ... Laurie Anderson opens NYU's Halloween Wonder Cabinet ... The Black Keys go Voodoo in New Orleans ... Christina Courtin plays her hometown ... Bill Frisell is in Italy ... The Low Anthem brings tour to Baton Rouge ... Brad Mehldau Trio plays Portugal ... Nicholas Payton, Don Byron, Iva Bittová convene for SFJAZZ Sacred Space ... Sara Watkins closes out tour in Indiana ... and more ...

During Punch Brothers recent tour, the Albany Times Union, declared: "Chris Thile is more than just a mandolinist. He's a musician." Thile puts that musicianship to good use in a concert with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra of works by Bach, Bartók, and Radiohead and his own Mandolin Concerto tonight. "I don't acknowledge that there are anything but superficial differences between various types of good music," Thile tells the Birmingham News. "Music is music is music."

The Low Anthem continues its cross-country tour with Blind Pilot at The Parish in Austin, Texas, tonight, as news is in that Q magazine has named Oh My God, Charlie Darwin one of the year's Top 50 albums. The Dallas Observer says the album, "quite simply, is a remarkably beautiful record, an album deserving of all the critical kudos." Magnet magazine is offering the band's take on Bob Dylan's "Dignity" as a free download.

Wilco begins its European tour next week in the UK, where Q magazine has just named Wilco (the album) among the year's best, and where Channel 4 is broadcasting Ashes of American Flags, the documentary film about the band's 2008 tour, tonight. Following the final show on Wilco's recent US tour, JamBase said the band was "clearly having a blast." You can read Nels Cline's take on it all in Paste magazine.

John Adams gives the first of two Tanner Lectures on Human Values this afternoon at Yale University this afternoon, with the second to follow tomorrow afternoon. "Perhaps the most celebrated living American composer," writes the New Haven Advocate, "John Adams is nearly as adept with the English language as he is with musical notation." What's more, "Adams has created some of the most essential classical music of our age."

Byrne concludes bike panel tour ... Alarm Will Sound plays Adams in Hamburg ... Courtin concludes Elizabeth & the Catapult tour ... Frisell's 858 Quartet is in Italy and Innsbruck ... Glass gives Dallas debut of Dracula Live! ... Harris, Buddy Miller move Midwest ... Kronos premieres new work at benefit event ... Low Anthem tours West with Blind Pilot ... Mehldau Trio plays Skopje Jazz Fest ... Portuondo has rare show in LA ... Joshua Redman has several sets at NY's Jazz Standard ... Sondheim talks about his career ... Toussaint reopens the Roosevelt Hotel ... Upshaw makes Strathmore debut ... Watkins heads South ... and more ...

Stephen Sondheim continues his series of on-stage conversations about his life and career, following last year's inaugural event with Frank Rich in San Francisco, which the San Francisco Chronicle called "a dazzling evening." Sondheim spoke with that paper and the Houston Chronicle in advance of coming events in those areas, and says humbly: "You keep writing what you like and you hope other people will like it."

Earlier this year, "Charlie Darwin," the opening track to The Low Anthem's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, was named one of the best songs of the year by NPR. Now, the band's moving music and lyrics have been set to beautiful images in a new video by Glenn Taunton and Simon Taffe, which premieres today on Stereogum. "The solemn, solitary pathos in Glenn Taunton's animated video for Low Anthem's 'Charlie Darwin' adds another layer of melancholia to the track," says Stereogum, "offering an affecting visual counterpart to Ben Knox Miller's fragile falsetto."

The Low Anthem played its first-ever West Coast show this past weekend at Chop Suey in Seattle, meeting up with Blind Pilot on Monday to start a three-week tour together. While in Seattle, the trio stopped by KEXP to perform a four-song session; tune in tonight at 9 PM PST to hear it. Leading to this Friday's show in LA, Jeff Prystowsky spoke with LAist, which describes the new album as "chocked full of intelligent lyrics inspired by America's past and present laid gently on top of harmonies that make your heart ache."

Joshua Redman and his trio begin a five-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard tonight. The New York Times says to expect "plenty of dynamism in the exchange" from the trio; the Village Voice says that "Redman's authoritative these days, and he's taught his team how to keep lots of balls in the air at once." The Guardian gives four stars to the saxophonist's recent concert with Brad Mehldau in London and the Mehldau Trio's own show there, citing the pianist's "remarkable contrapuntal improvising style and incisive musical intelligence."