Congratulations to Jeff Parker, whose new album, Suite for Max Brown, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Current Contemporary Jazz Chart and at No. 2 on the Contemporary Jazz Chart in the US. The album was released on January 24 via a newly formed partnership between International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. "It lives at the vanguard of new jazz music," says Pitchfork. The Los Angeles Times calls it "a transcendent set of pieces that occupy a vague terrain lit by jazz, experimental electronic music, instrumental hip-hop and genre-jumping avant-rock." Jeff Parker will tour the US in March, with shows in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, Philadelphia, NYC, Miami, and Knoxville's Big Ears Festival.

Mandy Patinkin was on CBS Sunday Morning to talk with correspondent Holly Williams about portraying Saul Berenson on Homeland, entering its eighth and final season on Showtime next Sunday, and his role as an ambassador for the International Rescue Committee. You can watch the piece here, as well as a web-exclusive segment on singing, his "first love." Patinkin is on the final leg of his tour of songs from Children and Art, his first new album since 2002.

Academy Award–winning director Spike Lee will direct a filmed version of the acclaimed Broadway show David Byrne’s American Utopia, due later this year. Participant will be the lead financier and executive producer for the project, which River Road Entertainment and Warner Music Group will also co-finance. “Pinch me. This couldn't have worked out better for this project,” Byrne said. “Spike Lee directing and Participant producing—two socially engaged teams, well, three if you count us in the band, coming together in what I feel will be something moving, important, and unlike anything anyone has seen before.”

Early James plays the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles ... Devendra Banhart performs from Ma in the Netherlands ... Lake Street Dive and Yola are at Brandi Carlile's Girls Just Wanna Weekend 2 in Mexico ... Brad Mehldau joins NDR Radiophilharmonie for his Piano Concerto and Bach in Germany ... Mandy Patinkin is in Schenectady ... Joshua Redman brings Still Dreaming to Illinois ...

Congratulations to Yola, who has won both UK Americana Awards for which she was nominated: UK Artist of the Year and UK Album of the Year for her Dan Auerbach–produced solo debut album, Walk Through Fire. Yola also performs on the self-titled album from the supergroup Highwomen, which won the award for International Album of the Year.

Sam Gendel’s Nonesuch Records debut album, Satin Doll, due March 13, is a sonic construction/deconstruction of jazz standards like Miles Davis’ “Freddie Freeloader,” Charles Mingus’ “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” and Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll.” We've collected the songs to which he refers on this "a woozy, blissfully twisted album" (Los Angeles Times) in the Satin Doll References Spotify and Apple Music playlists heard here.

Vagabon (aka Laetitia Tamko) is the guest on the latest episode of the Song Exploder podcast. She breaks down the song "Water Me Down" and talks about working with co-producer Eric Littmann to create the track from her self-titled debut album. You can hear what they had to say here, where you can also watch the video for the track.

Yola will join Chris Stapleton as his special guest on tour this spring and fall. The spring leg of the tour starts in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 11, and includes shows in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Ohio, and Kentucky. The fall leg starts in Knoxville and Nashville in early October with stops in New Jersey, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas, and Madison Square Garden in NYC. Yola's Austin City Limits debut, taping next Wednesday, February 4, will stream live here.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2020–21 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Rhiannon Giddens, who is a Perspectives artist for the season, John Adams, Chris Thile, Caroline Shaw, and Kronos Quartet.

Congratulations to Brad Mehldau, Attacca Quartet, and Kronos Quartet, who won Grammy Awards on Sunday, and to Yola, who performed at the Premiere Ceremony in Los Angeles at which those awards were presented. Mehldau earned his first Grammy when Finding Gabriel won for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Attacca Quartet received the Grammy for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for Caroline Shaw's Orange. Kronos Quartet's recording of Terry Riley's Sun Rings won the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Classical; it was engineered by Leslie Ann Jones; mixed by John Kilgore, Judy Sherman, and David Harrington; and mastered by Robert C. Ludwig.

The Black Keys have announced a ten-date “Let’s Rock” tour of Canada this May. The tour begins at the Halifax Scotiabank Centre on May 5 and continues through May 19, culminating at Rogers Place in Edmonton. The band will be joined by special guests The Sheepdogs and Early James. Tickets will go on sale starting Friday.

Chris Thile and Gaby Moreno helped celebrate Dolly Parton's recent birthday with a performance of her song "Blue Smoke" for a special "Encores and Extras Compilation" episode of Live From Here last weekend. You can watch their performance of the song, as well as Thile's solo performance of "Little Sparrow," here. (Thile performed on Parton's 2001 album, Little Sparrow.) Chris Thile has several US solo concert dates in the weeks ahead, and Live From Here returns live from The Town Hall in New York City on February 8.