John Adams's new memoir, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life, is an "absorbing book," says the New York Times, "which at times reads like a quest narrative that travels through the whole landscape of 20th-century music." Adams has created a "particularly American" sound, reads the review. "His music is both lush and austere, grand and precise. To make an analogy to two poets whose work he has set to music, it’s Walt Whitman on the one hand and Emily Dickinson on the other." The "soundtrack" to the book is available in the companion Nonesuch retrospective, also available now.

David Byrne, who just announced European dates for his current tour, Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno, has been performing in California all week. San Diego City Beat calls the show "classic Byrne ... a great reminder of Byrne’s genius and his continuing relevance as a performance artist." The Orange County Register calls the Los Angeles show "remarkable" with "Byrne as good as he's ever been since his heyday." The Oakland Tribune calls the Byrne/Eno pairing "one of the greatest partnerships to ever occur in the recording studio," writing that "time has served to validate the significance of" their recently reissued collaboration My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which has "played a huge role in shaping modern electronic music."

Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall, released last week on high-grade vinyl and set for release as a double CD next Tuesday, is featured on the latest edition of NPR's All Songs Considered. The show's host, Bob Boilen, introduces "Silencio," the touching duet between Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo, by saying of the entire set: "What I love about this music is how gently it all hangs together. It's both relaxed and precise at the same time."

Bill Frisell begins an eight-set residency at Yoshi's Oakland tomorrow night with guitarist Russell Malone. The two performed together last night in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in what the Grand Rapids Press 3-1/2 star review describes as a "singular evening of comparing and contrasting electric-guitar styles." Frisell played a duo set of a different sort late last month with drummer Matt Wilson at the Monterey Jazz Festival, in what the All About Jazz reviewer names among his "personal highlights from the festival." Label mate Joshua Redman had opened the festival with "a rousing trio set, hearkening back to the Sonny Rollins' trio recordings from the late fifties."

Isabel Bayrakdarian began her North American tour music from her recently released Nonesuch debut, Gomidas Songs, this past weekend in California and heads to Vancouver tonight. The Star-Ledger gives the album four stars and says this "charming artist with a warm, gleaming voice ... sounds utterly authentic in these piquant, touching songs." The San Francisco Chronicle says Saturday's tour opener there, by "the brilliant Armenian Canadian singer," was "transfixing ... a wondrous showcase for singer and composer alike." Her voice's "vivid, dark-hued tone and sumptuous phrasing imbued every piece of music with warmth and urgency. Her singing reached great heights of oratorical splendor when necessary, but the simplicity of some of the more straightforward songs was equally touching."

Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile's tour with music from their recently released self-titled debut duo disc on Nonesuch, takes a week's hiatus before resuming in Raleigh next Wednesday. In the mean time, Chris will be performing with label mate Brad Mehldau at New York's Poisson Rouge on Friday in a benefit for Obama. Last night in Seattle, Meyer and Thile gave a performance that, says the Seattle Times, "showcased the rigorous yet accessible, and engrossing, experimentation that defines their intermittent partnership ... [T]he boldness of this duo's performance will not be easily forgotten." After their Sunday show in Portland, The Oregonian calls them "masters of their respective instruments unconstrained by considerations of genre."  Chris also found time to talk to the Los Angeles Times about another passion of his: The Cubs.

Tonight at the 92nd Street Y in New York City: The Composer's Voice: John Adams. John Adams will talk with Juilliard dean Ara Guzelimian about his career; his opera Doctor Atomic, which receives its New York premiere at the Met next week; and his new memoir, Hallelujah Junction, just published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The program also features "musical illustrations" by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, baritone Jordan Shanahan, and pianist Linda Hall.

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian's Nonesuch debut, Gomidas Songs, was released last week; she launches her North American tour of songs from the album at the end of the week in San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle finds Bayrakdarian's "gorgeous, dark-hued tone and communicative power" and the "tender clarity and ripe urgency" of her singing to be well suited to these songs. The Ottawa Citizen gives the album four-and-a-half stars, exclaiming: "Bayrakdarian's voice is a marvel. Songs for children, songs of nature, of love, of humour, of yearning, she finds exactly the right mode of expression for each one. You have to wonder if there's another singer anywhere in the world who could do them equal justice."

Randy Newman's Harps and Angels tour stop at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, on Friday night. The Philadelphia Inquirer previewed the set with a look at the man he places "among the most perversely funny of songwriter-observers who ever hit the charts." Randy had stopped in Bethesda, Maryland, earlier in the week for what the Washington Post calls "jaw-dropping concert" and "a rollicking ride through Randy Newman's psyche." Glide magazine calls Harps and Angels "34 minutes of sharp-witted commentary by one of America’s most original lyricists."

Kronos Quartet joined legendary Azerbaijani singer Alim Qasimov and his ensemble at London's Barbican this past Friday for the center's annual Ramadan Nights celebration of Sufi music. The Guardian says the pairing produced an "outstanding" concert from the "intriguing collaboration" between Qasimov, "certainly one of the most thrilling, unashamedly emotional performers on the planet," and the Quartet, which showed "daring" and "range with a virtuoso set."

Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer's tour in support of their new, debut duo album continues in California this weekend, including a stop in San Diego on Sunday. The San Diego Union-Tribune says of Thile: "I can't think of any other mandolinist who is more talented or consistently innovative ... [He] is a master of his instrument who rarely fails to inspire or elevate his listeners." It goes on to praise the new album as "an all-instrumental gem that never sacrifices nuance and musicality for virtuosity, even when the two perform at a seemingly superhuman tempo ... Their fusion of classical and bluegrass, the earthy and the sophisticated, is so seamless and evolved that it seems unlikely anyone will catch up soon."

The Black Keys are on the road again, with opener Jessica Lea Mayfield, who contributed harmony vocals on the Attack & Release track "Things Ain't Like They Used to Be" and recorded her own CD with the Keys' Dan Auerbach as producer. The Knoxville News describes last night's show in that city as "All you want in a rock show." The Houston Chronicle previews an upcoming show by calling the band's recordings as "progressively varied, interesting and exciting."