Randy Newman fans in the UK who had hoped to see the singer-songwriter perform this month are in luck. Though he was forced to postpone the European leg of his Harps and Angels tour this month due to severe back pain, Randy was able to tape a special concert for BBC Four Sessions this summer at LSO St. Lukes that debuts tonight. Time Out calls it "essential viewing for fans, but also worthwhile for those who haven't heard anything beyond his work with Disney." The Calgary Herald picks Randy's new album as CD of the Week, calling its songs "tuneful and interesting on so many levels."

Following her performance in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall this past Sunday, Dawn Upshaw is preparing for two nights at Lincoln Center's Gerald Lynch Theater, in a production of Kurtág's Kafka Fragments. She first brought the piece to Zankel Hall in 2005, under the direction of Peter Sellars and with violinist Geoff Nuttall, who also return for the current iteration. The New York Times talks to the soprano about the piece and her other current projects; she says: "I feel I’m doing the world—or my audience—the most good by bringing things to them that I either feel have an important message or bring perspective or beauty to their lives, and do it as honestly as I can."

The current run of k.d. lang's Watershed tour brought her to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area last night for a performance at Bass Performance Hall that the Star-Telegram called a "superb 90-minute set ... A wondrous, multilayered instrument seemingly assembled from smoke, cinders and a husky yearning, the voice ranged over a multitude of moods." Next up is a show at the Paramount Theatre in Austin tonight.

Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall, the new two-CD recording of the unforgettable 1998 performance by the legendary Cuban group, is the subject of a feature in the Wall Street Journal, which calls the concert recording "another chapter in the success story" of the Buena Vista Social Club. "Countless bands have been promoted as 'the next Buena Vista Social Club,'" the article declares. "None have replicated the group's success ... Buena Vista Social Club remains a potent example of Cuban music's power and reach ..." Jazz.com calls the original album "an exceptional body of performances by smart and seasoned musicians who had spent a few collective centuries immersed in the aural traditions of their native country."

The newly redesigned Nonesuch Records site, launched this past July, has been named the Site of the Day by Adobe, which explains its selection of Nonesuch.com this way: "This site goes way beyond album promotion and song previews by giving fans more ways to enjoy their favorite music." The Nonesuch Journal was recently included among 50 Beautiful Blog Designs chosen by Smashing Magazine for having designs "that literally stand out—either through their layout or through their design or through their attention to little details." Let us know what you think.

Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté is currently on tour in the US, and performs in the Bay area on Wednesday, November 5. The San Francisco Bay-Guardian's music blog, Noise, recently posted about his music and his recent album, The Mandé Variations, describing Diabaté's "ability to incorporate disparate sounds from Western pop, Indian classical music, and blues while remaining grounded in his country's tradition."

Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love, a new feature film by director Chai Vasarhelyi documenting the creation of and worldwide response to N'Dour's Grammy-winning 2004 album, Egypt, won the audience award at the closing ceremonies of the 32nd Annual São Paulo International Film Festival last week. The film debuted at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals earlier this year and was awarded the Black Pearl Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago.

Kronos continues its multi-year residency at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Center ... Cleveland Orchestra gives swing-state Ohio a short break from the campaign with Adams's Gnarly Buttons ... Laurie Anderson gives Netherlands premiere of "Amelia Earhart" ... David Byrne takes his "effortless artistic grace" (Montreal Gazette) to Boston and The Borgata ... Toumani Diabaté begins his two-week US tour in Boston ... Bill Frisell's Trio plays film music in Portugal ... k.d. lang beats Byrne to The Borgata ... Brad Mehldau Trio plays two nights in Austria ... Sam Phillips plays two sets at Yoshi's ... Joshua Redman Trio continues its tour of Europe ... Dawn Upshaw joins pianist Stephen Prutsman at Carnegie Hall ... Wilco's in Wisconsin, getting out the vote ... and more ...

Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall earns a perfect 10 from PopMatters, which describes the songs on the original studio album as "polyrhythmic melting pots, rich harmonies, and pastoral Cuban melodies all encompassed by a tacit authenticity" and says the concert recording "staunchly carries with it the brand characteristics that launched this cultural exchange." The Sun-Sentinal says it "proves just how brilliant this ensemble was ... The Carnegie Hall concert is a document of that virtuosity, and a pleasure to hear."

Last night, Wilco unveiled a new song on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Titled "Wilco the Song," the Report exclusive features the lyric "Wilco will love you baby" and a similar shout-out to Colbert, who concludes, "Nation, that is a number one hit!" You can watch the performance and a pre-performance interview with Jeff at the show's site. Tomorrow, members of the band perform a free Concert for Change in Madison, Wisconsin, in support of the Obama campaign and early voting.

Toumani Diabaté begins a two-week tour with music from his latest solo record, The Mandé Variations, this Saturday at the Somerville Theater outside Boston. On Sunday, he comes to New York's Skirball Center, where The New Yorker suggests the "deeply meditative compositions" of the new record "promise to be quite stirring" live. Leading to next week's concerts in California, the Mercury News calls him "an unsurpassed master of the kora" whose performance on Mandé Variations "is incantatory, as Diabaté creates a rolling, hypnotic vibe that gives the album the feel of an extended suite."

The Seattle Times calls John Adams's new memoir, Hallelujah Junction, "as lively as his music," concluding: "[I]t's the range of Adams's musical appetites and intellectual hunger that leaves the strongest impression. This is a man who swallows whole new worlds with every fresh project he takes on—and makes his discoveries new for the rest of us."