Pat Metheny Unity Band, James Farm, and Brad Mehldau Trio headline the BMW Jazz Festival in Brazil ... Sam Amidon plays in LA ... Devendra Banhart tours East Coast ... Björk concludes LA Biophilia residency ... Bombino tours Midwest .. Jeremy Denk performs in Slovenia ... Adam Guettel tours Australia ... Emmylou Harris hosts Woofstock benefit in Nashville ... Gidon Kremer concludes China tour ... Audra McDonald performs in Michigan, presents at the Tony Awards ... and more ...

Joshua Redman performed songs from his new album, Walking Shadows, at New York's Town Hall on Tuesday with the album's core ensemble—Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, Brian Blade—and the chamber orchestra The Knights. The New York Times' Nate Chinen says the event "was, objectively speaking, a special night," exclaiming: "Mr. Redman has always been a fluid technician, but the inner glow in his tone throughout the night, along with the grace and clarity of his ideas, suggested new levels of prowess." 

Joshua Redman performs music from his new album, Walking Shadows, with its core ensemble, Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, and Brian Blade, along with the orchestra The Knights, at The Town Hall in NYC on Tuesday. "Melody is always paramount for the saxophonist Joshua Redman, to a degree that sets him apart from his postbop peers," says the New York Times. "Still, there hasn’t been a more sublimely lyrical gesture in his 20-year recording career than Walking Shadows, an album that sets his tenor and soprano against a string orchestra, in tremulous but thoughtful new arrangements." London's Wigmore Hall has announced the 2013-14 season of its jazz series curated by Redman, who performs in two of the four concerts. 

Sam Amidon kicks off a three-week tour of the US featuring music from his recently released Nonesuch debut album, Bright Sunny South. The tour begins at the Sunset Tavern in Seattle tonight and continues on the West Coast with performances in Portland, San Francisco, and LA, followed by stops along the East Coast including Philadelphia, Cambridge, and Portland (Maine), as well as his home town of Brattleboro and a set at the Solid Sound Festival curated by Wilco at MASS MoCA. Amidon was recently listed atop NPR's list of Five Musicians Who Make Borrowing Sound Original.

Devendra Banhart, who is currently touring North America performing songs from his recently released Nonesuch Records debut album, Mala, was featured on Morning Becomes Eclectic out of KCRW in Santa Monica, CA, last Friday. The session, which was recording during the California leg of the tour earlier in May, includes intimate in-studio performances by Banhart and his band of a number of songs from the new album. Watch the set here. The tour continues into Montreal, Toronto, Boston, DC, and Philadelphia, before concluding at The Town Hall in New York City on June 12.

Devendra Banhart continues the Midwestern leg of his tour with shows in Chicago and Detroit and performs on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic ... John Adams conducts the NSO and Jeremy Denk at The Kennedy Center ... Björk brings Biophilia to LA ... Bombino plays two sets at Wakarusa Festival ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play festivals in Ohio and Virginia ... Richard Goode plays Beethoven in London ... Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell close out European tour in Hamburg ... Iron and Wine continues its European tour ... Gidon Kremer tours China ... Natalie Merchant headlines benefit concert for victims of domestic violence in upstate NY ... and more ...

Audra McDonald, who is featured on NPR's Tell Me More today, has announced a number of new tour dates across the US for this summer and fall featuring music from her new album, Go Back Home. The tour includes performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, San Francisco Symphony's Opening Night, shows in Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Kansas City, and much more. In a new video, McDonald says of Go Back Home: "If there were a Broadway show that were written about my life, especially the last seven years," she says of the album in the video, "this would be the soundtrack." Watch the video here.

This Memorial Day weekend, John Adams concludes his week-long residency at the Library of Congress in DC with two concerts ... Sam Amidon closes out UK tour ... Devendra Banhart, Bombino play Sasquatch! ... Björk brings Biophilia to Bay Area ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play two festivals ... Nataly Dawn, Joshua Redman give gigs in Germany ... Richard Goode performs Beethoven in Belgium ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell sing in Scandinavia ... Pat Metheny Unity Band has sold-out Tokyo residency ... Punch Brothers perform at Spoleto ... Rokia Traoré closes out UK tour ... 

Tuareg guitarist, singer, and songwriter Bombino kicks off the first US leg of his tour featuring music from his new album, Nomad. The month-long tour begins with a set at the Sasquatch! Festival in Washington on Saturday, followed by additional stops out West, down South, across the Midwest, and into the Northeast, including headline shows, supporting slots with Gogol Bordello, festival sets at Wakarusa, Bonnaroo, and Celebrate Brooklyn, and more. Bombino and the band return to North America for the next leg of the tour in July.

Björk has brought her live Biophilia show back to North America, starting with the first of three shows outside San Francisco tonight, followed by two at the Hollywood Palladium where the venues have been set to her original Biophilia specifications as audio-visual shows in an intimate, in-the-round setting. In addition to her Biophilia performances, Björk will also appear at the Hollywood Bowl and at Echo Beach in Toronto along with three festival appearances: Pitchfork Festival, Bonnaroo, and the RBC Bluesfest in Ottawa.

Stephen Sondheim's latest musical, Road Show, begins a six-week run at the Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, Texas, tonight, marking its first regional theatre production. The Guardian has described Road Show as "an intimate epic that, while giving enormous pleasure, aspires to be nothing less than a state-of-the-nation musical." Variety calls it "an alluring odyssey ... [N]obody who cares about musical theater should miss it." Nonesuch Records and PS Classics released the original cast recording of Road Show in 2009.

Iron and Wine closes out East Coast tour in Boston, Portland, and upstate New York ... Sam Amidon launches Europe tour with two Dutch festivals ... Devendra Banhart is in Santa Cruz ... The Black Keys headline KROQ Weenie Roast ... Bombino closes out European tour in Portugal ... Carolina Chocolate Drops join Dave Matthews Band in Texas ... Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter play Mountain Stage ... Nataly Dawn tours UK with Lord Huron ... Dawn Upshaw gives NY premiere of Donnacha Dennehy's That the Night Come at Carnegie Hall ... Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell tour Netherlands ... Audra McDonald makes New Orleans debut ... HBO airs Randy Newman's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ...  Joshua Redman is in France ... Sara Watkins concludes West Coast tour ... and more ...