Sam Amidon is the guest on the latest episode of the Suzie Explores podcast hosted by violinist Suzie Collier. The two discuss approaching one's work with a beginner's mind, being open to new influences, and catching the creative spark when it hits. Amidon also talks about his lifelong connection to the fiddle and his lifelong friendship with musician and producer Thomas Bartlett. You can hear the conversation here.

Makaya McCraven has released “Dream Another,” the second track from his forthcoming album, In These Times, out September 23. The track, which McCraven wrote and recorded in his home studio in Chicago, features Brandee Younger on harp, Junius Paul on bass, Matt Gold on guitar/sitar, and De’Sean Jones on flute. An accompanying music visualizer, directed by Nik Arthur, features hand-drawn, digital, and photographic animations composed and laser-etched into stone in the style of a “zoopraxiscope,” a nineteenth-century animation device, predating the motion picture, that allowed images to move for the first time. You can watch it here.
 

Evergreen, performed by Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet, is due September 23 on Nonesuch Records. The album is five original works by Shaw: three pieces for string quartet—Three Essays, Blueprint, and The Evergreen, which Shaw describes as an offering to a tree she encountered in an evergreen forest on an island off Vancouver—and two songs for string quartet and voice, including Other Song, which she also performed on her 2021 album Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. Also included is an interpretation of a 12th-century French poem for quartet and voice. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include a limited-edition, 8”x8” autographed print of the score for The Evergreen.

Graphic designer John Gall, who has designed dozens of albums for Nonesuch Records over the past 25 years, is the latest guest on the art podcast The Weird Show Broadcast. He talks about how he came to design, from his childhood appreciation of baseball cards and band logos to the series of Nabokov book jackets he art-directed for Vintage Books. He also discusses his work creating collage, one of which can be seen on the cover of Gabriel Kahane’s 2022 Nonesuch album, Magnificent Bird. You can hear the episode here.

Grammy Award–winning and multi-Platinum selling singer-songwriter Michelle Branch’s new album, The Trouble with Fever, is due September 16. You can watch a video for the album's first single, "I'm A Man," here. Created during the pandemic lockdown, The Trouble with Fever is Branch's fourth solo album and follows her critically acclaimed 2017 album, Hopeless Romantic. The time at home gave Branch the opportunity to stretch herself creatively. She kicks off her tour in Nashville September 12, with dates in New York and Los Angeles, among others.

The Colorado Music Festival continues in Boulder this weekend with performances from John Adams, this year’s festival’s composer-in-residence and co-curator, Timo Andres, and Jeremy Denk. There's lots of great music ahead around the world from Rhiannon Giddens, Dawn Upshaw, The Black Keys, Tigran Hamasyan, Jeff Parker, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and Molly Tuttle.

The members of the legendary original 1990s Joshua Redman Quartet—Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade—who reunited after twenty-six years for the 2020 album RoundAgain, return now with LongGone, an album of six original songs written by Redman, due September 9. The first of those tunes, “Disco Ears,” is out today along with a live performance video that can be seen here.

The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were on CBS Saturday Morning to talk with Anthony Mason about their twenty-year career and perform a Saturday Sessions set of two songs from their new album, Dropout Boogie—"Wild Child" and "It Ain't Over"—and "Gold on the Ceiling," from their album El Camino, which turned ten last year. You can watch the interview and three performances here. The band kicks off its North American Dropout Boogie tour in Las Vegas tonight.

The Black Keys kick off their North American tour featuring songs from their new album, Dropout Boogie, in Las Vegas on Saturday. This is the band’s first string of shows since touring in support of their 2019 album “Let’s Rock." Band of Horses support on all dates; Ceramic Animal, Early James, and the Velveteers open at select performances. 

Cécile McLorin Salvant, Tigran Hamasyan, Sam Gendel, Makaya McCraven, and Lianne La Havas all perform at North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam this weekend. Salvant is also in Portugal and Poland, and Hamasyan is at Montreux ... John Adams's Saxophone Concerto and Steve Reich's Runner get their Swiss premieres in Geneva ... The Black Keys kick off their Dropout Boogie tour in Vegas ... Joachim Cooder is in Atascadero, CA ... Kronos Quartet comes to Caramoor in Katonah, NY ... Jeff Parker is in Mesa, AZ ... Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway are at Stern Grove Fest in San Francisco ...

Nonesuch Records releases Bamboleo Remixes—three remixes and one acoustic reworking of Gipsy Kings' hit song, “Bamboleo”—in the US today, marking the song's 35th anniversary. Originally released as a single in 1987 and included on Gipsy Kings’ 1988 self-titled Nonesuch debut, “Bamboleo” was certified silver in the UK, while the album went gold and platinum in the UK and US, respectively. Bamboleo Remixes includes new mixes of the song by Pumped Up (aka Nick Patrick), THRDL!FE (aka Jake Brian Tench), and Miami (aka Andy Clay), as well as an acoustic version of the song remixed by Gildas Boclé & Jean Baptiste Boclé. 

Nonesuch releases Philip Glass’s award-winning soundtrack to The Hours on vinyl for the first time on September 30 to coincide with its 20th anniversary and Glass’ 85th birthday concert season. Originally released in December 2002, Glass’s score to the Academy Award–winning film was itself nominated for an Academy Award, as well as a Golden Globe and a Grammy, and went on to win a BAFTA and a Classical BRIT. Based on Michael Cunningham’s 1999 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, the film was directed by Stephen Daldry with a screenplay by David Hare and stars Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman. “Was there ever a more perfect film for Glass’s lyrical manner?” asked Gramophone. “Such a feeling of fragile beauty is a rare achievement.”