The 71st DownBeat Critics Poll results are in, and among the winners are Mary Halvorson, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and Rhiannon Giddens. Halvorson’s Nonesuch debut albums, Amaryllis & Belladonna, have been named Jazz Album of the Year, and Halvorson herself Guitarist of the Year; Salvant is Female Vocalist of the Year; and Giddens has won in the Beyond Artist or Group field.

Julia Bullock joins Boston Symphony Orchestra, Hilary Hahn, and conductor Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood. The Black Keys are in Spain and Greece. Sam Gendel tours Japan with Festival Fruezinho. Emmylou Harris headlines Winnipeg Folk Festival. Brad Mehldau Trio plays Kongsberg and North Sea Jazz fests. Natalie Merchant joins Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra upstate. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in the Catskills. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway are at Blissfest in Harbor Springs, MI.

The nominations for the Edison Klassiek and Jazz Awards in the Netherlands have been announced, including four Nonesuch recordings: Julia Bullock’s Walking in the Dark for Solo Vocal in the Klassiek awards; Mary Halvorson’s Belladonna and Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade’s LongGone for Jazz International Instrumental; and Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Mélusine for Jazz International Vocal—the award she won last year for her Nonesuch debut album, Ghost Song.

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, begins a two-week, full-band headline tour of the US next week with support from Squirrel Flower followed by a week-long duo acoustic tour of the UK with support from Katie Malco. It all starts with a show at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville July 12, followed by concerts in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Delaware, DC, Kentucky, Iowa, and Missouri, as well as sets at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, La Fête de Marquette in Wisconsin, and the Calgary Folk Festival. The UK tour kicks off with a sold-out show at Omeara in London on August 11, followed by shows in Oxford, Hebden Bridge, Manchester, and Brighton. Segarra then heads to Norway for sets at the Pstereo and Parken festivals. 

This long July 4 holiday weekend in the US, Chris Thile and Michael Daves perform at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC as part of a concert series to keep the beloved venue open. The Black Keys hit the European festival circuit with sets in Belgium, Italy, and France. Julia Bullock joins San Francisco Symphony and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Sam Gendel is at Montreal Jazz Fest. Tigran Hamasyan's trio plays festivals in Romania, UK, and France. Brad Mehldau Trio is in Spain and Portugal. Natalie Merchant and National Symphony Orchestra perform at The Kennedy Center in DC. Cécile McLorin Salvant concludes Asia tour in Singapore.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, while at the Railbird Festival in Lexington, KY, earlier this month, performed a live session for Holler. The set includes two songs from their upcoming album, City of Gold—“Down Home Dispensary” and “Next Rodeo”—and a new song, “Wild Things.” “What's most evident ... is the unspoken synergy Tuttle has found with her like-minded friends in the band,” writes Holler’s Ross Jones. “You'll find it hard to find another band that are having as much fun doing what they do as a group than these five, and it's a pleasure to witness." You can watch it here.

Composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue and his Secret Society ensemble make their Nonesuch Records debut with Dynamic Maximum Tension on September 8. The album pays homage to some of Argue’s key influences with original songs dedicated to R. Buckminster Fuller, Alan Turing, and Mae West. Cécile McLorin Salvant joins for “Mae West: Advice.” You can watch the ensemble perform the album track “Dymaxion”—a portmanteau of “dynamic maximum tension”—from the song’s recording session, here.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway have released “San Joaquin,” a new song from their upcoming album, City of Gold, due July 21. "I’ve always loved singing songs about trains, and this one takes place in my home state of California," Tuttle says. "Ketch [Secor] and I had the idea for writing ‘San Joaquin’ while looking at a map of different train lines that run through the state. Ketch loves writing geographical songs, and I have many fond memories of road trips taken through the Central Valley when I was a kid, so we dreamed up this story of a wild ride down the San Joaquin railway.” You can watch the video and a live performance of the track here.

Congratulations to Julia Bullock and Steve Reich, who have each won an Opus Klassik award in Germany for their 2022 Nonesuch albums: Bullock as Breakout Artist of the Year for her debut solo album, Walking in the Dark, and Reich in the Symphonic Recording of the Year category for Runner / Music for Ensemble and Orchestra, performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Susanna Mälkki. The awards ceremony will take place at the Konzerthaus in Berlin on October 8, televised in Germany by ZDF.

Natalie Merchant is the guest on the latest episode of the Song Exploder podcast. She talks with host Hrishikesh Hirway about "Sister Tilly," breaking down the song from her new album, Keep Your Courage. The song was arranged by Gabriel Kahane. You can hear what Merchant had to say here.

Kronos Quartet’s annual Kronos Festival is at SFJAZZ Center, celebrating its Fifty for the Future–commissioned works, with Attacca Quartet and others. Laurie Anderson celebrates Mikhail Baryshnikov's 75th in upstate NY. The Black Keys are in Glasgow and London. Richard Goode performs Beethoven in Portland, ME. Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza is at NY City Center starring Ruthie Ann Miles; Miles starred in the original 2014 off-Broadway production of David Byrne & Fatboy Slim's Here Lies Love, which is in previews on Broadway. Makaya McCraven is at the Getty Center in LA. Natalie Merchant is joined by Orchestra of St. Luke’s at NJPAC in Newark. Mandy Patinkin performs on Long Island. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in Hong Kong. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway tour Wisconsin and Missouri with Outlaw Music Festival.

"This was the first song we recorded together in the studio, and it was the one that set the tone for the rest of the week," Rhiannon Giddens says of "You Louisiana Man," a newly released song from her upcoming album, You're the One. "Like kids on the first day of school, we were feeling out everyone in the room musically, and in that moment it all clicked.” You can watch the video, filmed in the studio while the album was being recorded, here. Giddens has announced a European tour for February 2024 following her previously announced US tour.