The members of the original Joshua Redman Quartet—Redman (saxophone), Brad Mehldau (piano), Christian McBride (bass), and Brian Blade (drums)—reunite with RoundAgain, the group’s first recording since 1994’s MoodSwing, out now. "A flawless effort," exclaims NPR. "Each one of them is at the very top of his game now." On July 22, NPR Music and Jazz Night In America will host a live chat and video stream of a rare performance by Redman, Mehldau, McBride, and Blade from last fall; the musicians will join Nate Chinen to discuss the gig and RoundAgain.

David Byrne's American Utopia and other Broadway shows have partnered with HeadCount to promote voter registration in the US. Although Broadway performances remain suspended through 2020 due to COVID-19, fans can join their favorite shows in making their voices heard at the polls this fall. Now through October 1, visit headcount.org to register, check, or update your voter registration status online and find localized information about polling dates, sites, and candidates, and, by doing so, enter to win tickets to see American Utopia when performances resume.

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, performed by the English vocal ensemble Gallicantus led by Gabriel Crouch, will be released on September 25 on New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records. A video for “Sanctus/Benedictus” from the Mass, made by Deborah Johnson / CandyStations, can be seen here. Snider’s Mass, with a libretto by poet/writer Nathaniel Bellows, is a celebration of, and an elegy for, the natural world—animals, plants, insects, the planet itself—an appeal for greater awareness, urgency, and action.

Lianne La Havas has released a new video for the song “Can’t Fight” from her forthcoming self-titled album. Created in collaboration between La Havas and director Kevin Morosky, the video documents her cultural roots, influences, memories of love and loss, and daily passions, taking the viewer on a visual journey through her beloved South London. La Havas says, “I’ve finally made a video for ‘Can’t Fight’ navigating the social distancing guidelines, and had a lot of fun doing so. Enjoy.”

Vagabon (aka Laetitia Tamko) is a special guest host on the latest episode of the Talkhouse podcast, recorded back in March with Black Belt Eagle and SASAMI. She joins Talkhouse host Elia Einhorn to discuss her work and issues of representation for women of color in music and live performance spaces, ahead of the latter two artists' own talk about the subjects. You can hear the conversation with Vagabon, whom Einhorn calls "one of my absolute favorite artists," at the start of the full episode here.

On his Nonesuch Records debut, Over That Road I’m Bound, due October 2, 2020, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joachim Cooder uses the plain-spoken songs of country-music progenitor and banjo player Uncle Dave Macon as a jumping off point, playing with the lyrics and reworking melodies for his chosen instrument: an electric mbira. Cooder culled songs from Macon’s vast catalog and recorded them with his band and special guests: Ry Cooder, Rayna Gellert, Juliette Commagere, Sam Gendel, Glenn Patscha, Amir Yaghmai, Dan Gellert, and Vieux Farka Touré. The album track “Come Along Buddy” is available today; a video may be seen here.

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi performed "At the Purchaser's Option," the opening track to Giddens' 2017 album, Freedom Highway, from home in Ireland for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's online series Play at Home today. You can watch it here.

Devendra Banhart will release a four-song EP, Vast Ovoid, as a limited-edition 12” colored vinyl 45 on July 24, 2020. “Let’s See,” the second track from Vast Ovoid, is available today; another EP track, a remix of Banhart’s “Love Song” by Helado Negro, was released in January. The EP is a follow-up to Banhart’s latest studio album, Ma, which was released to critical acclaim in 2019. “This EP was born during the Ma recording sessions, three songs that didn’t quite fit in with Ma’s theme of maternity," Banhart says. "Ultimately all three songs are about the difference between disappointment and disillusion … Bigger difference than I realized ..."

It was thirty years ago today: Kronos Quartet's album Black Angels, featuring composer George Crumb’s title piece, was released on Nonesuch. Kronos's connection to the piece dates back to the ensemble's origins when, in 1973, violinist David Harrington was inspired to form the group after hearing the work. Crumb's piece sets a powerful tone for the collection, which addresses the political, physical, and spiritual consequences of war, and includes works by Tallis, Ives, Shostakovich, and Istvan Marta. "As a piece of music, George Crumb's Black Angels remains at the heart of Kronos," Harrington says in a new short film about the album you can watch here. "It seems as relevant today as it did in 1973. As an album, Black Angels set our course for the next thirty years and beyond."

David Byrne helped kick off the Aspen Ideas Festival's 2020 online edition in a conversation with Ford Foundation President Darren Walker on Sunday. The two discussed the role of the artist in difficult social times such as this. "Music can unite people," Byrne says. "It can make people feel that they belong, that they’re not alone." You can watch their conversation here. Also on the festival's opening day were conversations with Anthony Fauci and Stacey Abrams.

Two Natalie Merchant albums are now available digitally for the first time: Butterfly, a studio album featuring four new songs and six reinterpretations from her catalogue arranged for string quartet, and Rarities, a collection of fifteen rare and previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1998 and 2017. For Rarities, Merchant curated a selection of unique home studio demos, album outtakes, live tracks, and collaborations with diverse artists like Billy Bragg, David Byrne, The Chieftains, Cowboy Junkies, and Amy Helm. Both albums were created for and were previously only available as part of the deluxe ten-CD box set The Natalie Merchant Collection in 2017.

Lianne La Havas will play a one-off solo live show at London's Roundhouse on Wednesday, July 15, which will include new songs from her forthcoming, self-titled album and throughout her catalog. This very special, multi-camera, one-night-only performance will be broadcast via YouTube; tickets go on sale this Friday. La Havas will donate her proceeds to Black Lives Matter–related organizations. She has just released a cover of Radiohead's "Weird Fishes," the latest single from the new album, due July 17. The new track is "glorious," says Uncut; Mojo calls it "a show-stopper."