On his Nonesuch debut, Into the Blue, Nicholas Payton offers a unique rendition of "Chinatown" that Jazz.com names Song of the Day, citing Payton's "creating a sensuously delicious mood of sultry, slow-steamed blues blended with the mystery of a Raymond Chandler novel. The site recently named the Brad Mehldau Trio's version of Ray Noble's "The Very Thought of You," from the new Live CD, a Song of the Day as well.

"You can quickly run out of adjectives to describe k.d. lang," writes the Adelaide Advertiser, "powerful, soulful, sensual, lush, velvet, joyous---and that's just her voice." In a four-star review of k.d.'s show in Adelaide last Saturday, the Advertiser says, "Quite frankly, Ms. lang could sing the classifieds section and it would sound beautiful." The Brisbane Courier Mail calls Watershed "her best album of original material in years" and found k.d. "in sensational form" at her recent concert there.

On Saturday night, a performance of Steve Reich's Drumming marked the culmination of percussionist Colin Currie's residency at the Horsecross Concert Hall in Perth, Scotland, and rated five stars in the Herald (Scotland). The paper's music critic Michael Tumelty says that the "mind-bogglingly virtuosic" musicians Currie gathered to perform the 1970-71 piece with him offered a "staggering musical experience" and "a stunning, dramatic version of Drumming." The event, concludes Tumelty, "was a tour de force for Currie, as organiser and player."

Nicholas Payton spoke with WBGO producer Josh Jackson fresh from recording his Nonesuch debut, Into the Blue. With the album out this week, the show is now available at npr.org as part of the Favorite Sessions series, on which public radio hosts present their favorite in-studio sessions. "I'm always looking for unique moments, times and places when musicians are creating at a high level, and try to bring those moments to anyone who will listen," says Jackson. "This was the moment to get them," he says of Payton and the band. "The iron was hot."

On the latest Nonesuch release from Kronos Quartet, the group offers the premiere recording of longtime collaborator Terry Riley's The Cusp of Magic, taking the listener on a "fantastic journey," says the San Francsico Classical Voice, through the 2004 piece, which Kronos commissioned in honor of the composer's 70th birthday.