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.

Steve Reich stopped by the WNYC studios yesterday to discuss his new album, Daniel Variations, and the creation of its title piece, on The Leonard Lopate Show. You can download an MP3 of the segment at wnyc.org or listen to it in its entirety here.

Youssou N'Dour was in Washington, DC, last Friday for a meeting at the White House with President Bush in honor of Malaria Awareness Day. Reuters reports that the two discussed the recent rise in the cost of food around the world and the resulting political instability, both of which have made the world's poorest all the more susceptible to malaria-causing conditions. Youssou is working to raise both awareness and the funds to eradicate the disease in part through such simple, cheap, and highly effective means as mosquito netting. Following his meetings in Washington during the day, Youssou made his way to New York City for an intimate benefit concert at Joe's Pub Friday night. 

"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.

April 13, 2008, marked the 70th birthday of composer Frederic Rzewski, who, in 2002, performed his own works for piano on a seven-disc collection, Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works, 1975-1999, released by Nonesuch. This week, the composer will celebrate with three special concert events: tonight and tomorrow as part of the renowned Gilmore Keyboard Festival and this Thursday in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in New York. The New York Times writes of the 2002 collection that, for all of Rzewski's "anarchic streak," both humorous and political, "what emerges above all is a picture of a pianist enamored of his instrument as handed down by the master builders of the 19th century."

Steve Reich will be the featured guest today on The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC, 93.9 FM. The composer will discuss his new album, Daniel Variations, and its title piece, written in memory of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The show also includes an interview with filmmaker Errol Morris about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.