Rokia Traoré's latest Nonesuch album, Tchamantché is due to hit stores in the US come January. It was released earlier this year in the UK to rave reviews. The Independent calls it her best yet and recommends her set this Wednesday at London's Jazz Café as a "show you shouldn't miss." The album earned a perfect five stars from The Guardian, which called it "an intriguing, sophisticated and often intimate set that is quite unlike any of the other great music Mali has produced." The Times gives the album four stars, exclaiming that with it, "the breadth of her artistic vision has emerged fully formed in her music." The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, and The Evening Standard all give Tchamantché four stars as well, and The Daily Telegraph named it Pop CD of the week upon its release.

"Never again will a record company essay what the producers of the Nonesuch Explorers did in 1967, bringing out a series of superb field recordings to make, eventually, a 92-record set," says The Scotsman in its five-star review of the two titles that marked the reissue of a number of Japanese Explorer Series albums on CD this fall: Koto Classics and Geza Music from the Kabuki. "The vinyl LPs ... brought to light a wealth of hitherto hidden traditions," says the review, and their return as remastered CDs "is simply wonderful, because much of this music—four decades on—is now either extinct or grievously debased."

Toumani Diabaté's US fall tour comes to a close tomorrow night at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music after a show tonight at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. The Seattle Times reports from his "showstopper" performance at the Earshot Jazz Festival last weekend that "Diabaté did not disappoint" with "a sometimes diabolically impossible round of riffs and variations." The Minneapolis City Pages calls Toumani's latest release, The Mandé Variations, a "tour de force" and "a shimmering mix of traditional and startling experimental pieces played with the exquisite touch and resolute soulfulness that are his trademarks." Time Out Chicago calls it "exquisite" as well, and the Chicago Tribune says the new album from this "legend from Mali ... affirms that he's only gotten better and bolder" over the years.

Punch Brothers kicked off a string of November tour dates this past weekend. These latest dates marked the debut of Punch Brothers' new bassist, Paul Kowert, who, fittingly, studied with Chris Thile's recent duo partner, Edgar Meyer. The Bluegrass Blog says Kowert is "more than up to the task. Not only has he memorized the demanding Punch Brothers repertoire, but he is a brilliant soloist in his own right." The band, the review concludes is "the most technically gifted string ensemble yet assembled, and the discipline they exhibit individually and as a unit is a wonder to behold."

Pat Metheny's 1989 album Question and Answer, recently remastered and reissued by Nonesuch, is described by All About Jazz as one of "a glittering, altogether too infrequent series" of acoustic trio albums from Metheny. The review cites drummer Roy Haynes ("just heavenly") and the "shining" performance of bassist Dave Holland for creating "another magnificent Metheny trio line-up." The album is a "whirlwind of an affair, invigorating and exquisite; a masterpiece of the first order." Along with that reissue comes the wider release of Upjonie, the 2002 collaboration between Metheny and Polish singer/pianist Anna Maria Jopek, in which, The Guardian states, "Metheny's guitar often accompanies Jopek's floating, fragile intensity like another voice."

Laurie Anderson's European tour of Homeland comes to a close this week in Italy this Wednesday, after two shows in Tel Aviv, Israel, last week with special guest Lou Reed. The Jerusalem Post calls Laurie's pieces "all-encompassing experiences" and Homeland in particular a "thought-provoking performance." The addition of Reed to the lineup "charmingly combined her artistic style with his rock," for "an exceptional show that ranged from the finest in performance art to a classic rock experience."

Isabel Bayrakdarian's Gomidas Songs was the subject of a segment of New Classical Tracks on Minnesota Public Radio, in which host Julie Amacher declares: "There are so many just plain gorgeous melodies on this recording ... songs that will make you dance, cry, and smile ... Bayrakdarian taps into a well of emotion as she shares these songs of her Armenian heritage. When you join her for the journey, you'll find it's an enriching experience."

The current run of k.d. lang's Watershed tour brought her to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area last night for a performance at Bass Performance Hall that the Star-Telegram called a "superb 90-minute set ... A wondrous, multilayered instrument seemingly assembled from smoke, cinders and a husky yearning, the voice ranged over a multitude of moods." Next up is a show at the Paramount Theatre in Austin tonight.

Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall, the new two-CD recording of the unforgettable 1998 performance by the legendary Cuban group, is the subject of a feature in the Wall Street Journal, which calls the concert recording "another chapter in the success story" of the Buena Vista Social Club. "Countless bands have been promoted as 'the next Buena Vista Social Club,'" the article declares. "None have replicated the group's success ... Buena Vista Social Club remains a potent example of Cuban music's power and reach ..." Jazz.com calls the original album "an exceptional body of performances by smart and seasoned musicians who had spent a few collective centuries immersed in the aural traditions of their native country."

Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall earns a perfect 10 from PopMatters, which describes the songs on the original studio album as "polyrhythmic melting pots, rich harmonies, and pastoral Cuban melodies all encompassed by a tacit authenticity" and says the concert recording "staunchly carries with it the brand characteristics that launched this cultural exchange." The Sun-Sentinal says it "proves just how brilliant this ensemble was ... The Carnegie Hall concert is a document of that virtuosity, and a pleasure to hear."

Toumani Diabaté begins a two-week tour with music from his latest solo record, The Mandé Variations, this Saturday at the Somerville Theater outside Boston. On Sunday, he comes to New York's Skirball Center, where The New Yorker suggests the "deeply meditative compositions" of the new record "promise to be quite stirring" live. Leading to next week's concerts in California, the Mercury News calls him "an unsurpassed master of the kora" whose performance on Mandé Variations "is incantatory, as Diabaté creates a rolling, hypnotic vibe that gives the album the feel of an extended suite."

The Seattle Times calls John Adams's new memoir, Hallelujah Junction, "as lively as his music," concluding: "[I]t's the range of Adams's musical appetites and intellectual hunger that leaves the strongest impression. This is a man who swallows whole new worlds with every fresh project he takes on—and makes his discoveries new for the rest of us."