Allen Toussaint and his Bright Mississippi Band, featuring most of the players from his recently released Nonesuch album, begin a week's residency at New York's Village Vanguard tonight. NPR member station WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM will broadcast Wednesday night's early set live from the Vanguard on air and online at npr.org, where there will be a live video feed as well. "On The Bright Mississippi," says the New York Times, "his sharp and spirited new album, Mr. Toussaint—an eminent New Orleans pianist and songwriter, but not, strictly speaking, a jazz man—takes a crack at some old-time jazz standards, with refreshing results."

Fresh off yesterday's release on Nonesuch of Richard Goode's recording of the complete Beethoven piano concertos and his performance last night at Carnegie Hall, Goode joins WNYC's Leonard Lopate for a performance on today's show. The Huffington Post exclaims that the album's release signals "a great day for classical music," asserting: "If you're in the mood to hear five of the greater piano concertos ever written ... then Richard Goode's your man. Oh, there are other pianists who have climbed this mountain, but of the living practitioners, Goode stands alone. He's given the bulk of his creative life to Beethoven. And it shows."

Allen Toussaint helped close the 40th anniversary New Orleans JazzFest "on an upbeat note" yesterday, says USA Today. NPR's Fresh Air says that "Toussaint sounds as eternal as New Orleans" on his recent Nonesuch release, The Bright Mississippi. "Whether he's reworking Ellington, Bechet or Reinhardt, Toussaint infuses the numbers with his own elegant funk, particularly evident in his piano work, never so varied and flowing." The Observer says the pianist and his band "dip into the New Orleans fountain of jazz youth" on the album, and "Toussaint's own piano rolls along as ornately and authentically as ever.

In a week that brought big news from Wilco about their forthcoming studio album's Nonesuch release, there's now more good news from the band: They're offering fans a new recording of Woody Guthrie's Depression Era song "Jolly Banker," on their site, with 100% of the suggested donation going to support the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives. Jeff Tweedy tells American Public Media's Marketplace how Guthrie's words, even seven decades later, still resonate, and how the band got to see an all-too-rare side of America while on the tour documented in their new concert film, Ashes of American Flags.

Of Richard Goode, the Denver Post has written, "he might well be without equal when it comes to the music of Beethoven." Next week, Nonesuch Records will release Goode's first-ever recording of the complete Beethoven concertos, performed with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor Iván Fischer. All this week, Britain's Classic FM is playing tracks from the set, which its Executive Producer calls "one of the best new CDs of the year so far," even more pointedly exclaiming: "I can safely say that this is going to become one of the benchmark recordings of these Beethoven masterpieces." The Independent gives the recording a perfect five stars.

Allen Toussaint is back home in New Orleans and, as one would expect from the artist featured on the official JazzFest poster, playing a number of festival events, following the release of his new album, The Bright Mississippi. "You’re going to love this," says the Buffalo News of the new album in its four-star review. "Not to be missed." The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette gives the album an A, exclaiming, "Emotional, toetapping and richly spacious, this is one very cool album." Blurt says, "New Orleans could hardly ask for a better tribute."

Amadou & Mariam, who recently released their second Nonesuch album, Welcome to Mali, are scheduled to appear on today's episode of NPR's World Café at 2 PM ET. The new album was featured on PRI's The World Friday as its "Global Hit." Planet magazine says, "Since we first wrote about Amadou and Miriam in 2005, we've remained enchanted by both their music and their affecting story," and cites Welcome to Mali's Damon Albarn–produced opening track, "Sabali," as "a mesmerizing blend of Gorillaz-style electronica and traditional Malian music."

Allen Toussaint's Nonesuch solo debut album, The Bright Mississippi is set for release tomorrow. "Mr. Toussaint brings to these songs his own elegant, reserved sensibility," says the New York Times. "He doesn’t rip them apart or interrogate them on the harmonic or rhythmic terms with which they’ve usually been met; he shines them up and levels them out into slow-rolling and grandiloquent New Orleans songs, full of tremolo chords and serenity no matter whether they were written by Duke Ellington or Thelonious Monk or Django Reinhardt." The Chicago Tribune gives four stars to the "top-notch" new album; The Independent gives it four stars too and describes Toussaint as "the jewel in New Orleans's crown," citing one track as "a bravura performance that bears out Van Dyke Parks's estimation of Toussaint as 'the greatest piano player alive.'"

Toumani Diabaté wrapped up his tour with Béla Fleck's Africa Project last week to kick off his own US tour with the Symmetric Orchestra this week in New Jersey and New York City. "The Symmetrics deliver a jubilant polyrhythmic party of percussion, electric guitars," says The Village Voice, "and Diabaté's 21-stringed instrument showering notes like a musical waterfall." Fleck and Diabaté are featured on NPR's Morning Edition; on which Renée Montagne describes, after a performance by Toumani: "I could sit all day and listen to that."

After The Low Anthem's performance with Ray LaMontagne at The Egg in Albany, New York, Monday night, the Albany Times Union described the band's music as "spare" and "magical," exuding charm in "a hushed, hypnotic way." The Low Anthem helped celebrate the 25th anniversary of West Virginia public broadcasting's Mountain Stage in a special concert last December, now streaming online. "All of them play various instruments," says the show's host, Larry Groce. "They play very subtle music, very quiet, very thoughtful, very interesting tunes."

The Black Keys' singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach stopped by the studios of New York public radio station WFUV for an episode of Words & Music from Studio A to perform songs from his recent solo release, Keep It Hid, with his uncle James Quine, and discuss the project with the show's host, Russ Borris, who calls the album "a fine piece of work ... marked by warm production and some of the best vocals Auerbach has recorded to date."

Sara Watkins's self-titled solo debut is out today on Nonesuch. To mark the occasion, Sara is in New York City, where she'll perform on Soundcheck this afternoon at 2 PM ET, with her brother and Nickel Creek band mate, Sean Watkins, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, both of whom are among the stellar list of guest artists on the new album. Sara begins an extensive US tour later this week and returns to New York on Monday to perform on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.