John Adams and Kronos Quartet return to Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles tonight for another concert in West Coast, Left Coast, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's music festival curated by Adams. Tonight, they'll join the LA Phil for the world premiere of Thomas Newman's new piece, It Got Dark. An encore performance will be given at the Hall tomorrow night.

The Magnetic Fields will head off to Europe for a short string of shows in March following their previously announced US dates. The European tour begins in the UK and makes its way through Sweden, Norway, and Germany, before coming to a close in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, tickets for many of the US and Canada shows—including two shows at New York City's Town Hall—are still on sale.

Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau will perform together at the official National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Washington, DC, this evening starting at 5 PM EST, joining fellow performers Sheryl Crow, Common, Jordan Sparks, and Ray LaMontagne, as well as President Obama and his family. The whole ceremony will be streamed live online and will be broadcast on PBS stations across the country tomorrow night.

Ry Cooder's monthlong tour with Nick Lowe through Japan, New Zealand, and Australia came to a close last night in Perth. The Age, in its review of the Melbourne show, describes Cooder as "the slide-guitar messiah." The Sydney Morning Herald reports from the Sydney set that his "guitar playing was of subtle beauty and effortlessness. Elegance and class all round on stage, actually." Cooder performs next as a guest of The Chieftans at Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival in January.

West Coast, Left Coast, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's festival curated by John Adams, continues tonight with the composer and Kronos Quartet performing California-inspired music at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Adams will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group in performances of Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes and selections from Frank Zappa's Yellow Shark; Kronos performs Harry Partch's U.S. Highball.

When Joshua Redman joined Brad Mehldau for a duo set at London's Wigmore Hall last month, the Guardian said that with "the eloquent saxophonist" Redman, "Mehldau was often able to let his partner's built-in swing release his most whimsical side." The two perform together again for a very festive occasion: the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Washington, DC, on December 3, with a PBS broadcast the following night.

Bill Frisell unveiled a new piece with Mike Gibbs and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in London last Friday. The London Jazz Festival performance will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Afternoon on 3 today. "Each year, the London Jazz Festival marshals orchestral resources for landmark special events," writes the Financial Times in a five-star review. "This year’s centrepiece was a platform for Bill Frisell." The Guardian gives it four stars, saying "the graceful balance of order and open jamming in Gibbs's orchestral score let most of this unique artist's character glow through."

The latest episode of Studio 360 celebrates the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, including word from The Low Anthem's Ben Knox Miller on the origin of the title of the band's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. The Rough Trade staff puts the album at No. 2 of the year's best, calling it "essential." After the band's show in London last week, Uncut calls it "the year's breakout album," not least for its "supernaturally beautiful title track."

Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe bring "exceptional" show to Brisbane ... Dan Auerbach ends tour in Tennessee ... David Byrne discusses Jung at NY's Rubin Museum ... Carolina Chocolate Drops close tour in South Carolina ... Philip Glass talks Kepler at BAM ... Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller bring show to Boulder ... Kronos kicks of Adams-curated fest in LA ... Low Anthem, Natalie Merchant cross paths at Crossing Border in Holland ... Brad Mehldau flies solo in Serbia ... Joshua Redman plays Padova ... Sara Watkins joins Infamous Stringdusters in North Carolina ... and more ...

This weekend marks the start of West Coast, Left Coast, the LA Philharmonic festival curated by John Adams, its creative chair. The festival, which celebrates the unique spirit of California's creative renegades, kicks off on Saturday with a special Opening Event titled Eureka!, featuring Kronos Quartet's premiere of a new work by Thomas Newman.

Bill Frisell premieres a new work he co-wrote with Mike Gibbs in a performance at London's Barbican Hall tonight with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Tuesday. The Financial Times writes of Frisell: "Panoramic and evocative, his cocktail of jazz warmth, country whine and the echoing throb of jukebox rhythm-and-blues conjures images from the underbelly of American life. It is a vision that he never fails to coax from the many ensembles he works with."

Wilco has just completed its tour of Europe that included a London show the Independent called "one of the best gigs of the year, by one of the best bands in the world." The band tours North America in February and March and has now added a number of dates in Japan and Australia starting in April. The Vine says the band was "reliably excellent" when last in Australia, in "that hypnotic, skillful vein of Americana that suggests the band could play pretty much any style of music they want and still be better than most everyone, in any era."