Earlier this month, Youssou N'Dour performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, as part of the Africa Rising festival, along with John Legend and Jay-Z. Rolling Stone called his "a stirring performance," and the Washington Post says he "turned in the festival's most riveting performance, a 25-minute set filled with deeply soulful vocals sung in multiple languages over insistent, syncopated African rhythmic patterns and the night's funkiest drum breaks."

Randy Newman brings the music of his latest Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels, to the WNYC studios to perform live on The Leonard Lopate Show today. He discusses the pros and cons of political commentary on NPR's All Things Considered and on the latest videos at nonesuch.com/media. The New Statesman suggests that Randy's unique brand of storytelling has never been better realized than on Harps and Angels; Bloomberg says it "contains some of the most literate lyrics likely to be penned in 2008" and "some of Newman's most heartfelt ballads"; the San Diego Union-Tribune calls the album "a masterful collection of songs" with "exquisite lyrics set to the most sophisticated music he has yet written" outside a film score.

Tune in to the Late Show with David Letterman tonight on CBS to watch Randy Newman perform the song "Easy Street" off his latest Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels. You can also catch Randy discussing "Easy Street" on the latest video to be added to nonesuch.com/media, part of the weeklong series of interviews and performances being added to the site. On NPR's Fresh Air, reviewer Ken Tucker is driven to goosebumps by the record, The Village Voice calls the music of this "master of sardonic humor" immortal, and Paste asserts: "You don't get Newman like this very often."

Today marks the long-awaited release of Randy Newman's Harps and Angels, and the reviews continue to come in, with the Associate Press saying that Randy "has produced a record to rival his best work, and it may be the best album of 2008." At noon ET, NPR will broadcast a recent concert Randy gave in which he and his band performed the new record in its entirety. Also from NPR, All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen invited Randy to guest DJ this week's show. "I really liked his older stuff," says Boilen of Randy. "I like him better when he's older."

The critical response on Randy Newman's latest release, Harps and Angels, has already started pouring in from both sides of the Atlantic. The Times (UK) gives the album five stars, concluding: "The man's a master." The Los Angeles Times has a feature profile of Randy, whom it says "has plumbed the depths and shallows of the American psyche with greater consistency than perhaps any of his contemporaries." Also, Huffington Post contributor David Wild proclaims as the Greatest Song of All Time Randy's much-covered tune "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," calling Newman's 2003 version "probably the most powerful and shaded piece of music I could ever imagine," and adding that Harps and Angels "is one of the best ever albums from the modern musical master who gave us all the greatest song of all-time."

The Black Keys played the opening day of Lollapalooza in Chicago on Friday in a set that Time Out Chicago reports featured the band's signature "folky-blues, [which] breaks into blown-out acid riffage." Metromix Chicago says that hometown band Wilco's Saturday set showed that the city "has a lot to thank Wilco for." Over the next two weeks, each band will make its way to Brooklyn's popular McCarren Park Pool, which, as the New York Times reports, will transition back to its original use after this summer's shows.

Randy Newman's forthcoming Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels, earns four stars from both The Times (UK), which names it Album of the Week, and The Sun, which says: "This is the real Newman—dark, cynical, and very funny." The paper calls it "a winning mix" of musical styles that's "been worth the wait." The Guardian calls Randy "a true master of popular song."

In her review of Sam Phillips's latest Nonesuch release, Don’t Do Anything, USA Today's Elysa Gardner writes of Sam that her "wonderfully fuzzy vocals and wry, lyrical songwriting are two of the world’s underappreciated wonders." Gardner says that the "gorgeously quirky sensibility" of Sam's previous releases, is matched on the new record, which also features songs with "a dusky beauty that’s distinctly their own."

"In the years since TONY adopted its rating system," writes Time Out New York (TONY) music critic Jay Ruttenberg, "I had resisted granting an album six stars, the magazine’s unconventional 'it goes to 11' grade. Now, I relent: Randy Newman’s Harps and Angels ... confirms his place among our best living songwriters ... It's an outstanding album ..." Rolling Stone says, "Harps and Angels is reason to wrap yourself in the flag and cheer."

Orchestra Baobab headlined the Womad Festival in England this past weekend, performing songs from their latest release, Made in Dakar, for an audience of 30,000. The Times (UK)'s Stephen Dalton writes: "Sunday peaked with the West African veterans Orchestra Baobab ... whose undulating rhythms and mellifluous harmonies cross easily across national and generational borders. Perfect Womad headliners."

Randy Newman is the subject of a feature profile in today's Guardian (UK), in which his forthcoming Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels, is described as having "Newman's signature blend of sumptuous melodies, devastating pathos and the thorny, irony-laden character songs ..." Earlier this month, The Observer gave the albums five stars, with reviewer Tim Adams writing: "His albums have always been brilliant missives from an overly examined emotional life and this one is no exception."

Nicholas Payton's recent release, Into the Blue, his Nonesuch debut, is among "a great wave of important new jazz recordings" out this summer, according to Chicago Tribune music critic Howard Reich. He points to "a lyric melancholy" that pervades the album and which Payton uses "to haunting effect" throughout.