Randy Newman kicks off a month-long tour of Europe and the UK with two performances in the Netherlands, in Eindhoven and Nijmegen, followed by shows in Belgium in Antwerp, Bruges, and Brussels, and a return to the Netherlands for shows at The Hague and in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Groningen. From there, Newman makes his way to the UK and Ireland, performing in London, Dublin, Glasgow, and Gateshead, and returns to the Continent to close out the tour in Germany and Austria.

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rokia Traoré's sixth album will be released on Nonesuch Records in early 2016. Further details about the record and its release will be announced shortly, as will upcoming tour dates. Desdemona, her theatrical collaboration with Toni Morrison and Peter Sellars, receives its Los Angeles premiere at UCLA's Freud Playhouse this weekend and it will be performed in Australia as part of the Melbourne and Sydney festivals later this month.

Select North American cities will host one-night-only screenings of the documentary Paradise Is There, A Memoir by Natalie Merchant, The New Tigerlily Recordings starting October 26. The film, which had its world premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival last week, will be released by Nonesuch on DVD with Natalie Merchant’s upcoming album, Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings, on November 6.

Rhiannon Giddens has unveiled the official music video for "Black Is the Color," off her debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. The video, directed by Peter Zavadil, premiered as an NPR Music First Watch. "We all had such a great time filming this video," says Giddens, "and were so honored to set our story—an old love story rediscovered—on the campus of Fisk University, a Nashville HBCU that dates back to 1866. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were among the first African-American performance groups to tour America and Europe, and they single-handedly kept their school from closing its doors with the money they raised with their singing." Watch it here.

Lianne La Havas was the musical guest on CBS This Morning: Saturday this past weekend. She performed three songs from her recently released album Blood: "Green and Gold," "Unstoppable," and "What You Don't Do." CBS This Morning host Anthony Mason called her "remarkable." You can see why in the performances here. La Havas is touring North America through the end of October.

Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Kronos Quartet, Conor Oberst, Punch Brothers play free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco … Laurie Anderson premieres new work at Park Avenue Armory … Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club passes through Pacific Northwest … Olivia Chaney concludes week-long US tour with Decemberists … Rhiannon Giddens plays Austin City Limits … Lianne La Havas takes tour to Toronto, Detroit, Chicago … Brad Mehldau visits Vienna … Audra McDonald performs in Disneyland … Randy Newman shows LA some love … and more …

The complete soundtrack recording of Laurie Anderson's newest piece, Heart of a Dog, is due from Nonesuch Records on October 23, 2015. Commissioned by the European TV network Arte, the feature film—her first in 30 years—is a personal essay on joy and heartbreak and remembering and forgetting, at the heart of which is a lament for her late beloved dog Lolabelle. The Nonesuch album is the full audio recording of the film, including all music and spoken text. 

Lianne La Havas, who is touring North America, stopped by the NPR studios to perform a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR Music, including two songs from Blood, her new album—"What You Don't Do" and "Unstoppable"—as well as the song "Forget" from her debut album. "Her music works for any activity, any emotion," says NPR's Suraya Mohamed. "La Havas is soulful yet playful, raw and vulnerable in a commanding kind of way, and her new second album, Blood, is as amazing as the first ... If you're like me, you will never get enough." Watch the set here. And catch La Havas on CBS This Morning Saturday this weekend.

St Germain (aka Ludovic Navarre)'s new, self-titled album, out next Friday, October 9, is streaming in full till then in the US as an NPR First Listen. The record marries percussive grooves, which have always been central to his sound, with a new element: traditional Malian music. "Navarre remains a sly master of the textural mix; a producer whose sweeping effects and atmospheric auras become part of the structure of the tunes," says NPR's Tom Moon. Malian guitarist Guimba Kouyate "thrives within St. Germain's sonic schemes; his terse rejoinders between vocal phrases are as spellbinding as his full-on solos." Moon concludes: "[S]ome tracks sound like they could have happened live in the studio. In those moments, everyone involved is seeking not just the right notes, but also the most apt expression; those sounds that lift the music into the higher spirit realms."

Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live eight-LP vinyl box set, due October 16, was featured on WNYC's New Sounds look at this month's new releases. The show opens with Massive Attack's "Teardrop" transitioning to Mehldau's own take on the song from the box set. It's a version "that I think is really brilliant," says host John Schaefer. "We begin with a new release that's due in two weeks, and it is so ambitious that we may well still be listening to it when we do next month's new releases program." Hear the show here.

Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz has announced his intention to gradually step away from the day-to-day running of the label. Under his transition plan, Hurwitz, who has been head of the iconic label for the past 31 years, will remain President through the end of 2016. He will become Chairman Emeritus in January 2017. This move will allow Hurwitz to continue working at the label in an A&R capacity, including as Executive Producer on ten to twelve albums a year, while also being able to devote more time on a variety of ongoing interests, among which are teaching, writing, and archival projects. Hurwitz’s successor as President will be announced shortly.

This summer, Rhiannon Giddens was joined by Joe Henry on guitar, Tony Garnier on bass, Diego Schissi on piano, and Gustaf Llunggren on pedal steel on stage at the Aarhus Festival in Denmark. They performed "She's Got You," which Giddens also performs on her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. "I love this version for the dynamics," she says, "and the way we are all listening to each other with every fiber of our being." Giddens is currently touring the US.