Record Store Day, the annual celebration of independent record stores, takes place this Saturday, April 16, and included among the special releases on that day are the first-ever vinyl release of Clint Mansell's haunting score to Darren Aronofsky's 2000 film Requiem for a Dream, performed by Kronos Quartet, and the first worldwide vinyl release of Emmylou Harris's Grammy Award–winning, Daniel Lanois–produced album Wrecking Ball.

Pat Metheny has unveiled a new track, "Born," from the forthcoming Pat Metheny Unity Group album, The Unity Sessions, which is due out May 6. The song, which premiered via Jazz Times yesterday, can be heard below and is available to download now with pre-orders of the new album along with the previously released album track "This Belongs to You." Pat Metheny joins bassist Ron Carter for several East Coast performances next week.

This Record Store Day weekend, The Arcs, Mbongwana Star, St. Germain play Coachalla … LA Phil performs John Adams's Scheherazade.2 … The Bad Plus Joshua Redman kick off tour in DC, Missouri … Olivia Chaney plays All Tomorrow’s Parties ... Ry Cooder is in New York with Sharon White, Ricky Skaggs … Jeremy Denk plays Carnegie Hall … Kronos Quartet puts on Fifty for the Future program at Carnegie … Lake Street Dive is in Germany … Brad Mehldau Trio launches tour in US Northeast … Chris Thile co-hosts A Prairie Home Companion in NYC … Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil play two shows in Miami … and more …

Following his recent European tour, Joshua Redman is back in the United States to reunite with The Bad Plus, kicking off a seven-city tour at The Kennedy Center's Crossroads Club in Washington, DC, on Friday. The quartet then heads to Missouri for shows in Kansas City and Columbia and a two-night run in St. Louis, followed by shows in Chicago, Buffalo, and Ann Arbor. The musicians head to South America in May for shows in Argentina and Brazil, and return to the US in June for a set at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the Playboy Jazz Festival. The Joshua Redman Quartet will tour the US in the summer.

Laurie Anderson's film Heart of a Dog opens in UK cinemas starting Tuesday, May 10, at the Brighton Festival, of which she is the guest director. On May 11, she takes part in two screenings in London: one hosted by BBC Radio 6 Music's Lauren Laverne, another open to dogs (and their owners). All three feature Q&As with Anderson. Heart of a Dog continues to open in cinemas in the UK and Ireland through the spring and summer. Anderson discusses the film at a sold-out screening at the Tate Modern on Friday, April 22.

Composer Adam Guettel's 2005 Tony Award–winning musical The Light in the Piazza begins previews at the Balzer Theater in Atlanta tonight with Opening Night this Saturday, April 16. Presented by Theatrical Outfit, the production is directed by Richard Garner and runs through May 15. The original Broadway cast—Kelli O'Hara, Matthew Morrison, Victoria Clark—reunited at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre for a special one-night-only performance last week to benefit Lincoln Center Theater. The New York Times called the original cast album, released on Nonesuch, "sublime ... the most intensely romantic score of any Broadway musical since West Side Story."

Nonesuch releases American Tunes, a new studio album by legendary New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint, on June 10, 2016. Toussaint had just completed the album when he passed away in November of last year. Recording took place at two sets of sessions with producer Joe Henry: solo piano at Toussaint's New Orleans home studio, and with Jay Bellerose, David Piltch, Bill Frisell, Charles Lloyd, Greg Leisz, and guests Rhiannon Giddens and Van Dyke Parks in Los Angeles. There are works by Toussaint, Professor Longhair, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Paul Simon, and others. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an instant download of the album track "Big Chief" plus an exclusive print.

The Brad Mehldau Trio—Mehldau on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums—launches a tour of the United States and Europe ahead of the forthcoming album Blues and Ballads, due June 3. The tour begins with a concert at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston this Friday, followed by stops in Albany, Philadelphia, DC, Oberlin, and Chicago. The group then heads to Europe for shows in Italy, Belgium, Denmark, France, and Switzerland.

Chris Thile will take over for Garrison Keillor as the new host of A Prairie Home Companion beginning on October 15, 2016. The show will continue to be broadcast live on Saturday nights from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, as well as from venues across the country, including The Town Hall in NYC, where he and Keillor will co-host this Saturday. Each of the new live shows will feature a mix of well-known and up-and-coming musicians, humor with sketch comedy and spoken word, plus an original "Song of the Week" composed by Thile. 

Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil kicked off a US tour featuring music from their new album, Dois Amigos, Um Século de Música: Multishow Live, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday. "What a pleasure it is to watch two masters at work," exclaims the Los Angeles Times music critic Mikael Wood of the "deeply satisfying concert." The two artists used "gorgeous melodies and propulsive rhythms to put across profound ideas," performing songs from their "superb" new album. As the Times headline reads, they "basically played their album in concert (and it was awesome)." The tour continues in Oakland, Miami, and Brooklyn.

Laurie Anderson will curate a day-long celebration of the work and legacy of Lou Reed as part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival in New York City. Titled The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed, after Reed's song "The Bells," the full day of free events will take place on Saturday, July 30, curated by Anderson with Reed's friend and longtime producer Hal Willner.

The Arcs kick off their North American spring tour at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver tonight. The "West Coast Caravan" leg of the tour also includes stops in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA, and more, plus two appearances at the Coachella festival. The band then heads eastward for shows in Denver, St. Louis, Austin, New Orleans, and more, making a final stop at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis on May 1. The band will perform at several North American festivals in July, including the just-announced Newport Folk Festival.