John Adams led a rare performance of Louis Andriessen's De Staat in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Monday. The New York Times says "it was a thrill to hear the adventurous players of Ensemble ACJW perform" the piece, calling Adams "an inspired advocate" for Andriessen. The Philadelphia Inquirer writes, after the previous day's performance in Philadelphia, that what is "so astonishing" about De Staat after almost 35 years, "is that it seems ... so completely up to date."

Tony Allen and his new album, Secret Agent, were recently featured on PRI's The World. Allen discusses his role as "the man who put the beat in Afrobeat," his work with Fela Kuti, and in the many other musical idioms in which he has proven himself to be at home. The Cleveland Plain Dealer gives Secret Agent an A, saying of Allen: "On Secret Agent, his authoritative rhythms propel hypnotic, horn-blasting jams that dare you not to dance."

Pat Metheny returned to his home state of Missouri for two stops on the Orchestrion tour this weekend. "Metheny's Orchestrion is nothing short of spectacular," raves the Kansas City Star,  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says, "The music spoke for itself, and eloquently." The tour continues tonight in Chicago. "Simply put," explains Time Out Chicago of Orchestrion, "the famed jazz guitarist has raised the bar for inventiveness, which says a lot for a career stretching over three decades."

Laurie Anderson brings her latest piece, Delusion, to Berkeley's Zellerbach Auditorium tonight and Saturday. It follows a performance at Stanford to which the San Francisco Chronicle gives its highest rating, describing Delusion as "one story, quip or rumination after another, to comic, provocative and deeply touching effect ... As much as Anderson's beguiling presence and creative mastery, it's the tension between its playful and somber sides that gives Delusion its poignant weight."

Rokia Traoré concludes her UK tour in Coventry tonight. The tour began ten days ago at Koko in London, a performance to which The Guardian, The Independent, and the Evening Standard all give four stars. The Guardian calls it "an exhilarating performance." The Independent says Traoré was "a captivating performer" throughout. The Evening Standard says, "when she rocked, she really rocked."

The Carolina Chocolate Drops kicked off their North American tour with what the New York Times called an "end-to-end display of excellence," during a free concert in Harlem presented by Carnegie Hall on Saturday. "They make short work of their instructive mission and spend their energy on things that require it: flatfoot dancing, jug playing, shouting." The trio next takes that infectious exuberance up north for two shows in Ontario.

Audra McDonald performed with the San Francisco Symphony Monday night and brought out "one gem-like number after the next," says the San Jose Mercury News, which describes her voice as "Full and mellow, elegant and sexy, lush, plush, brassy, growling, howling across her gigantic range, or expressing starry-eyed enchantment." This summer, she will reprise her role in 110 in the Shade, for a limited run in Utah; make her Tanglewood debut; and perform at Aspen and at the Ravinia Festival's Sondheim celebration.

Natalie Merchant and her new album, Leave Your Sleep, were featured on the PBS NewsHour. The Daily Beast chose the album for its Yes List, saying "Merchant’s voice is both soothing and electric on the album." Pop Matters says "this labor of love (so exhaustively researched, so musically collaborative, so many years in the making) is ... just beautiful and special." The LAist says "Merchant's voice was in top form" at a recent tour stop in LA.

The recent Louis Andriessen-curated concerts at Carnegie Hall show the composer to have "an undiminished capacity for making mischief," says The New Yorker's Alex Ross. Ross looks at other contemporary composers creating outside "a stylistic party line," and calls Timothy Andres’s forthcoming Nonesuch debut, Shy and Mighty, "the kind of sprawling, brazen work that a young composer should write," achieving "an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene."

The CBS Sunday Morning profile of Pat Metheny and his Orchestrion album and tour, scheduled to air on yesterday's episode of the program, has been postponed to an unspecified later date. In the mean time, Metheny's Orchestrion tour continues its western run this week. The Santa Cruz Sentinel, in a preview of tonight's show, says "Metheny's one-of-a-kind genius takes another evolutionary step forward with his latest project."

The Black Keys are on a bill with Snoop Dogg ... Shawn Colvin, Allen Toussaint are in New Orleans ... Christina Courtin opens for Mike Doughty in NYC ... Bill Frisell, Punch Brothers play Seattle ... Richard Goode, Joshua Redman play in Chicago ... Kronos Quartet comes to Carmel ... The Low Anthem plays Portland, Maine ... Natalie Merchant takes Leave Your Sleep to eTown ... Pat Metheny's Orchestrion tour continues in California ... Sara Watkins guests with Garrison Keillor in NYC ... Wilco tours Tokyo ... and more ...

Pat Metheny and his Orchestrion are due to be the subject of a profile on this weekend's CBS Sunday Morning. The tour continues this weekend after a performance in LA Variety described as "more fun visually than pretty much any jazz show one might attend," creating "a remarkably pure and organic musical sound." After last week's show in Austin, the American-Statesman describes it as "a musical happening of the highest order—a jaw-dropping confluence of jazz, technology and visual art."