Jeff Parker and ETA IVtet—saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Jay Bellerose—stopped by the WNYC Studios in New York City to perform on New Sounds' Soundcheck and talk with host John Schaefer about their new album, The Way Out of Easy. They perform a short improvisation and the album track "Freakadelic" live in the studio. You can watch both and hear the full episode here.

When Brad Mehldau and his Trio—Felix Moseholm on bass and Jorge Rossy on drums—performed at the Nancy Opera in France for the Nancy Jazz Pulsations festival this past October, ARTE was there to capture the concert. You can now watch it here. "Brad Mehldau is without a doubt one of the most influential jazz pianists of recent decades," ARTE says. "What makes Brad Mehldau truly unique is his playing, constantly constructed in contrapuntal mode, where his hands engage in intimate dialogues or engage in passionate exchanges."

Cécile McLorin Salvant "is now one of the essential figures in today's jazz," says ARTE, who filmed the singer in concert with her band at Leverkusen Jazz Festival in Germany last month. "Critics are full of praise for Cécile McLorin Salvant. Those who have already had the chance to see the triple Grammy Award winner in concert know that this praise is justified." You can watch the concert here.

Rhiannon Giddens performs in her Pulitzer Prize–winning opera Omar at Oberlin College. Julia Bullock, Davóne Tines perform John Adams’s El Niño in Munich. Timo Andres, Sarah Kirkland Snider are at Lincoln Center’s Rubenstein Atrium in NYC. Hurray for the Riff Raff plays WYXR’s Raised By Sound Fest in Memphis. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in Richmond and Chapel Hill. Caroline Shaw, Sō Percussion conclude tour in The Hague. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway are in Santa Barbara and San Francisco.

"This was written at a cottage in the English countryside in winter where we had gone on a writing retreat to escape the noise of London," the Staves' Jessica and Camilla Staveley say of their new song, "Sitting By the Fire," out today. "On a cigarette break, Jessica went outside in the dark and could see Camilla through the window, sat at the fireplace writing a song. The song is a photograph of sorts, capturing that moment. We recorded this after we had cut the record [All Now] out in LA. We were back in London and revisited this tune and we felt that it would really be perfect to have [our sister] Emily join us on it to lend her voice to this a cappella recording."

Composer/performer Gabriel Kahane stopped by for the Nonesuch Selects video series, in which artists visit the Nonesuch office, pick some of their favorite albums from the music library, and share a few words on their choices. He chose recordings by Ambrose Akinmusire, Punch Brothers, Sam Amidon, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Richard Goode & Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Fred Hersch, and his father, Jeffrey Kahane.

The Black Keys have announced a mix of large-scale outdoor headline shows and festival dates for their upcoming European tour. Kicking off in Denmark on June 26, the tour will run through July, with stops in Berlin, Zurich, Manchester, London, Rome, and more. These shows will follow previously announced Latin American tour dates. The band also debuted a music video for “Sin City,” the latest track from Ohio Players (Trophy Edition), the expanded version of their GRAMMY-nominated new album; you can watch it here.

Composer Donnacha Dennehy, whose piece Land of Winter, performed by Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson, was released earlier this month on Nonesuch, shares some insight on the work, which explores the subtleties of Ireland’s seasons via twelve connected sections representing the months of the year, in a new essay. "It is the varying quality of light that truly demarcates the seasons," he says, "from the shorter days of grey or piercing light in the winter to the warmer but mercurial light of summer days that at solstice stretch almost to midnight. I like this play between light and time, and it is the major inspiration behind the piece."

Molly Tuttle was on the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, joining Golden Highway fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Dierks Bentley, and Sierra Hull to perform Tom Petty's "American Girl." You can watch it here.

The Way Out of Easy, the first album from guitarist Jeff Parker and his long-running ETA IVtet—saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Jay Bellerose—since their 2022 debut Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, which Pitchfork named one of the Best Albums of the 2020s So Far, is out now on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. Like that album, The Way Out of Easy comprises recordings from LA venue ETA, where Parker and the ensemble held a weekly residency for seven years. During that time, the ETA IVtet evolved from a band that played mostly standards into a group known for its transcendent, long-form journeys into innovative, groove-oriented improvised music. All four tracks on The Way Out of Easy come from a single night in 2023, providing an unfiltered view of the ensemble, fully in their element. 

The Staves' new EP Happy New Year, out today, includes three acoustic versions of tracks from their new album, All Now—"I Don't Say It, But I Feel It," "After School," and "All Now"—and a cover of The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home." Also out now: an acoustic performance video for "After School," which the duo calls "a love song to our sister Emily inspired by the bands we were listening to in the '90s. Putting on the rose-tinted glasses and embracing nostalgia."

Rhiannon Giddens and Silkroad Ensemble conclude American Railroad fall tour at BAM in Brooklyn. Carminho is across the river at The Town Hall in NYC. John Adams is performed by the CSO. Laurie Anderson’s ARK: United States V concludes in Manchester. Jeremy Denk joins Fairfax Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven. Mary Halvorson tours Spain and Switzerland. Caroline Shaw is at Cité de la musique in Paris with Roomful of Teeth and Gabriel Kahane. Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered is performed in Amsterdam. The Staves are in Denver. Davóne Tines sings Bach at Columbia. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway tour Massachusetts, upstate New York, and Ohio.