Wordless Music presents an all–Steve Reich program over two nights in New York ... John Adams's Two Fanfares for Orchestra is performed in Singapore ... Laurie Anderson's Homeland heads South ... Bill Frisell finishes two-week residency at New York's Village Vanguard with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano ... Philip Glass and his Ensemble unveil a new work at the World Expo's closing ceremonies in Spain ... Emmylou Harris closes out the British leg of her tour ... Kronos Quartet and Wu Man perform Terry Riley's The Cusp of Magic in its entirety at the Phoenix Symphony's World Music Festival ... Nicholas Payton performs at the Tudo É Jazz Festival in Brazil ... Sam Phillips hits Pittsburgh and Boston, with an in-store for Newbury Comics' 30th anniversary ... Punch Brothers play Texas ... Joshua Redman Quartet performs at the Jazz à la Villette festival in France ... Dawn Upshaw joins the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for its Opening Weekend Celebration ... Wilco's Nels Cline celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Fender Jazzmaster in an all-star concert at New York's Knitting Factory ... and more ...

Sam Phillips's tour continues with stops in the Northeast this weekend, including a special, free in-store performance at the Newbury Comics store in Harvard Square, Cambridge, celebrating the retailer's 30th anniversary. As the tour continues, Sam's Monday night show in Annapolis, Maryland, will be broadcast live from NPR, for All Songs Considered's online concert series, at npr.org. "Of all of Sam Phillips' roles as a musician," says NPR, "her latest incarnation is the most alluring."

Toumani Diabaté has just announced dates for a tour across the US, with music from his latest release, The Mandé Variations. Paste magazine says that with the new record, "Mali’s reigning musical magician uncorks another genie from his bottle ... Diabaté’s magic hands coax an amazing array of voices from his instrument." The Boston Globe calls Diabaté "the uncontested master of the 21-string lute called kora" who "presents his virtuosity in a whole different light" on the new record and tour.

Randy Newman's Harps and Angles, is Stereophile magazine's Recording of the Month, earning five stars for performance and four stars for sound, calling it "another collection of uniquely chiseled miniatures that vividly bring back memories of what a master he is of songcraft and how expressive his voicings can be ... In short, Randy Newman has done it again."

Emmylou Harris's European tour began this past Tuesday with a concert at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall. The Independent finds her voice in "mint condition," admiring "her stately mastery of her art," and noting that Emmylou's obvious pride in her latest album, All I Intended to Be, "is justified, because many of the show's best moments stem from this record." The Herald calls it "a splendid album" and reports that Emmylou is "sounding, and looking, as good as she has ever done."

Sam Phillips's tour with the music of her latest release, Don't Do Anything, continues at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern tonight in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Free Times's Michael David Toth describes Sam's work as "a spectacular body of sophisticated, shadowy pop albums," at once "progressively modern" and reflective of inspirations from the Beatles to Tin Pan Alley. Her 2004 album, A Boot and a Shoe, "stands as one of this decade's most criminally overlooked recorded masterpieces," he asserts. "With any luck, her follow-up, Don't Do Anything, will get the acclaim it deserves."

Emmylou Harris began her monthlong European tour last night at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall and brings the show to Newcastle's City Hall tonight. "The honeyed voice; the high cheekbones; the flowing silver hair: it can only be Emmylou Harris," says Metro UK. "Her recently released 26th album, All I Intended to Be, illustrates just how far Harris has come since her early days working as a waitress to support her New York coffee-house gigs."

Nicholas Payton makes his way down to Brazil this week for the Tudo É Jazz Festival in Ouro Preto, where he'll perform on Saturday night. The event follows last week's five-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard with bassist Christian McBride and guitarist Mark Whitfield. The New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen says the trio members "have a number of things in common: complete rhythmic assurance, for one, and an intrepid approach within the modern jazz mainstream."

The New Yorker has just announced the schedule for the upcoming ninth run of its New Yorker Festival, and among this year's participants is Dawn Upshaw, who will speak with the magazine's classical music critic, Alex Ross, on October 4. The event is one of several high-profile engagements for Dawn this fall, including an all-Bernstein program with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony next week in San Francisco and the following week in New York for Carnegie Hall's Opening Night Gala.

"It takes a songwriter such as Sam Phillips to depart from the routine expectations set by the last 50-plus years of pop music," says the Chicago Tribune, and at the start of her fall tour this past weekend at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, "she detoured into German cabaret, French chansons and a waltz, as well as lightly tracing elements of American gospel and blues." As the area Sun-Times paper, Southtown Star, reports, she delivered "a masterful performance that was enchanting from beginning to end" for a "superb show."

Congratulations to k.d. lang, who was inducted into the Canadian Walk of Fame this past Saturday night in a gala ceremony held at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. Among the other honorees were actor Michael J. Fox, director James Cameron, and the comedy group The Kids in the Hall. Fellow Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith introduced k.d., who received a standing ovation.

John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony receives its Scandinavian premiere in Finland ... Laurie Anderson's Homeland plays Sao Paolo, Brazil ... The Black Keys make two stops in Wisconsin ... Bill Frisell continues his two-week Village Vanguard run with Paul Motian, Joe Lovano ... Youssou N'Dour celebrates Toronto Film Fest screening with free concert ... Nicholas Payton joins Christian McBride, Mark Whitfield at NYC's Jazz Standard ... Sam Phillips begins two-week tour with two nights at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music ... Punch Brothers tour the Midwest ... Steve Reich's music featured in Detroit's music marathon Strange New Music II and Klangspuren 08 festival in Schwaz, Austria ... Wilco members take time for solo projects ... and more ...