The 2006 Grammy Award nominations are in, and four Nonesuch recordings have been given nods: Kenny Garrett's Beyond the Wall, the Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris collaboration All the Roadrunning, Ali Farka Touré's Savane, and the Broadway revival cast recording of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.

John Adams has written an essay for The Guardian about his new opera, A Flowering Tree. The composer reflects on working with director and co-librettist Peter Sellars and discusses the influence of Mozart on the piece.

Listen to The Gothic Archies, a.k.a. Stephin Merritt, and author Daniel Handler perform songs from The Tragic Treasury and discuss the new Lemony Snickett book live on NPR's All Things Considered at npr.org.

The Black Keys were recently interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition. The band's concert at the 9:30 Club in DC was webcast live on NPR. Both can be heard online at npr.org.

Steve Reich recently spoke with Pitchfork; read the interview now at pitchfork.com.

Shawn Colvin will stop by the WNYC studios in New York for an appearance on today's episode of Soundcheck.

David Byrne has been listening to an advance copy of Caetano’s new CD, Cê. "It’s another radical shift of direction for him," he reports. "This time I guess you could say it’s an immersion in the land of experimental indie rock. And it’s probably the best indie rock record to come out this year. He may disagree with that categorization, but though not completely accurate it gives some idea what the record sounds like."

"The man was Frederic Rzewski," writes Mark Swed in a review of Rzewski's recent concert in California, "the greatest pianist-composer of our time and something of a legend in modern music."

Elvis Costello interviews Scritti Politti's Green Gartside in the Los Angeles Times.

By Robert Hurwitz
Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz remembers the life of Thomas Stöwsand, the head of the Austrian agency Saudades Tourneen, which booked many great jazz, Brazilian, and new music artists, including Don Byron, Bill Frisell, Kronos Quartet, Caetano Veloso, John Zorn, and many others.

Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau visit Studio 360 to talk with host Kurt Anderson about their recent collaboration.

Shawn Colvin performed three songs live on NPR's Weekend Edition.