The Grammy Award–winning Carolina Chocolate Drops bid farewell to founding member Dom Flemons who is starting a solo career after a special December US tour to commemorate his time with the band. Led by co-founder Rhiannon Giddens, the band will tour throughout 2014 with Hubby Jenkins and two new musicians, cellist Malcolm Parson and mulit-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett, who will join the group in the New Year.

Jeremy Denk, who has written an essay on Bach for the Guardian, continues his residency with the San Francisco Symphony ... Audra McDonald joins Louisville Orchestra ... Sam Amidon tours Spain ... Devendra Banhart kicks off Latin American tour ... Bombino tours France ... Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter conclude duo tour ... Richard Goode gives free concerts at Colgate ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell tour Canada ... Iron and Wine heads South ... Kronos Quartet tours Northeast ... Brad Mehldau concludes solo tour in Madrid ... Joshua Redman is in Boston & Philadelphia ... Steve Reich joins all-Reich concert in London ... Chris Thile plays sold-out London show ... Rokia Traoré tours UK ... and more ...

Devendra Banhart kicks off a three-week tour of Latin America featuring music from his Nonesuch debut album, Mala, with two shows at El Plaza Condesa in Mexico City, tonight (sold out) and Saturday. Banhart and the band—Noah Georgeson, Matthew Compton, Josiah Steinbrick, and Todd Dahlhoff, plus Rodrigo Amarante, who will join after this weekend’s shows—head next to four Brazilian cities, followed by shows in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. 

Joshua Redman and his Quartet kick off a cross-country tour of the United States with a performance at The Egg in Albany, New York, tonight, followed by stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Urbana, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. "As accolades from jazz critic and the public continue to rain down on Redman, he doesn't stand still," says the Times Union, previewing tonight's tour opener. "What fans will see is one of the world's great musical minds at work, in a setting that is sure to have moments that surprise even Redman."

The Savannah Music Festival has announced the line-up for its 25th anniversary season, to be held March 20–April 5, 2014, and among the artists scheduled to perform are several familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Punch Brothers; Chris Thile, in a duo concert with fellow mandolinist Mike Marshall; and Fatoumata Diawara and Bombino sharing a double bill for two shows.

Rokia Traoré kicks off a six-date tour of the UK with a performance at the Brighton Corn Exchange tonight, followed by stops in Leeds, Edinburgh, Derry, and Manchester, before culminating in a show at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Traoré and her band then head to New York City to launch a two-week North American tour at Jazz at Lincoln Center for the White Light Festival. Songlines has just named Traoré's new album, Beautiful Africa, among the Best Albums of 2013.

Chris Thile closes out US solo tour with a sold-out show in Atlanta, then heads to Europe ... Timo Andres performs Pierrot Lunaire at the Met Museum ... Bombino tours UK ... Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter tour Midwest ... Richard Goode gives Amnesty benefit concert in NYC ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell perform in California; their Austin City Limits duo debut airs on PBS ... Iron and Wine continues West Coast tour ... Kronos Quartet is at Syracuse ... Audra McDonald sings in Arkansas ... Natalie Merchant joins Louisville Orchestra ... and more ...

Iron and Wine kicks off the second leg of its North American fall tour at LA's Orpheum Theatre on Thursday, Halloween night. Sam Beam and the band perform up the West Coast, making stops in Oakland, Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle, with opening sets along the way from Laura Mvula. Iron and Wine then heads inland for shows in Missoula, Salt Lake City, Denver, Lincoln, and Kansas City, before landing in Nashville and Atlanta in mid-November, with support on those dates from Jesca Hoop. On December 10, Iron and Wine headlines the Holiday Cheer for FUV concert benefitting New York public radio station 90.7 FM WFUV. 

Bombino kicks off seven-city UK run at Southbank Centre in London tonight ... Sam Amidon plays London's LSO St. Luke's ... Dr. John performs in Amidon's home state of Vermont ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell celebrate Bucknell homecoming ... Kremerata Baltica plays Gidon Kremer’s hometown of Riga ... LA Opera presents Audra McDonald ... Brad Mehldau, Mark Guiliana conclude Mehliana US tour in Massachusetts ... Joshua Redman plays Central European festivals ... Chris Thile takes tour to Toronto ... Allen Toussaint headlines in Hawaii ... Rokia Traoré is in France ... and more ...

Chris Thile's solo tour brought him to Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Tuesday for an eclectic, sold-out set that featured music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, and much more. "The most impressive musicians are often versatile, but few match the breadth of the brilliant mandolinist Chris Thile," raves the New York Times's Vivien Schweitzer. Of his performing Bach violin works on the mandolin, Schweitzer writes, "in Mr. Thile’s virtuosic hands, the results are breathtaking ... a revelatory reading, poignant and exuberant by turns."

Chris Thile brings his solo tour, featuring music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, back home to New York City for a sold-out performance in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. The tour continues with stops in Philadelphia, Princeton, Toronto, and Albany before heading back down South, then on to Europe in November. Thile spoke with the New York Times about the tour and the music of Bach: "You can get me moving, and be playing some of the most profoundly well-organized music that humans could possibly imagine. It’s visceral, but everything’s in its right place."

Tune in to hear Sara Watkins on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor ... Bombino tours Benelux ... Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter head East ... Dr. John is in the South ... Iron and Wine plays upstate NY ... Kronos Quartet performs Philip Glass in Vancouver ... Audra McDonald tours Texas ... Brad Mehldau's Mehliana is at Largo in LA ... Natalie Merchant joins the Alabama Symphony Orchestra ... Randy Newman goes to Galveston ... Joshua Redman is in Rome ... Chris Thile brings Bach to Boston ... and more ...