This Labor Day weekend, as is fitting for the (unofficial) end of summer, each Nonesuch artist performing this holiday weekend is playing at least one set at a summer festival in the coming days.

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Allen Toussaint is offering a special program at two festivals this weekend—Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival tonight and a free set in Chicago's Grant Park on Sunday for the Chicago Jazz Festival—presenting the music of his 2009 Nonesuch debut album, The Bright Mississippi. For both events, Toussaint will be joined by two musicians who contributed to the album: Don Byron on clarinet and Marc Ribot on guitar.

On The Bright Mississippi, for the first time in his storied career, Toussaint explores the work of his New Orleans forebears, including such jazz greats as Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, Django Reinhardt, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn. The Washington Post called the soulful, Joe Henry–produced record "exquisite." The New York Times said, "Toussaint brings to these songs his own elegant, reserved sensibility."

Another contributor to The Bright Mississippi album is Joshua Redman, who joined Toussaint on the album for the Ellington/Strayhorn tune "Day Dream." Redman also follows Toussaint by one day at the Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival, performing Saturday with James Farm, the collaborative band featuring pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland, which released its self-titled, debut album on Nonesuch last year. The New York Times calls it "a model of dazzling proficiency."

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Carolina Chocolate Drops resume their North American tour with a performance at the Rhythm & Roots Festival in Ninigret Park in Charlestown, Rhode Island, on Saturday afternoon.

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Dr. John and his band the Lower 911 featuring Jon Cleary have two festival sets this weekend, starting out west at the Snowy Range Music Festival on the Albany County Fairgrounds in Laramie, Wyoming, tonight, followed by a set at the Big Muddy Blues Festival on Laclede's Landing in St. Louis on Sunday.

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Emmylou Harris returns to perform at the Greenbelt Harvest Picnic on Christie Lake in Dundas, Ontario, on Saturday. The event, which also features performances from Feist and Daniel Lanois, serves to create awareness for local farmers and the eat local movement.

Reviewing Harris's recent performance at the Regina Folk Festival, the area's Leader-Post described her voice as "the best instrument on stage ... It’s tender yet strong and has a silky smoothness that anyone can appreciate. And yes, it could be described as angelic."

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Lianne La Havas is in Ireland to perform a set at the Electric Picnic Festival at Dublin's Stradbally Hall on Sunday.

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k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang close out the US leg of their months-long tour of North America with two shows in California this weekend: at Camp Mather in Groveland tonight for the headlining set at the Strawberry Music Festival and at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center in Lancaster on Saturday.

lang and the band kick off the Canadian leg of the tour next week with a show at the Royal Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia, followed by stops in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec through the end of September.

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The Low Anthem plays a set at the End of the Road Festival at Larmer Tree Gardens in North Dorset, England, tonight. Up next for the band: a set at the Ottawa Folk Festival next week.

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The Pat Metheny Unity Band—featuring Chris Potter on sax and bass clarinet, Antonio Sanchez on drums, and Ben Williams on bass—resume their US tour with a performance at the German House Theater in Rochester, New York, on Saturday, followed by a free set in Detroit's Hart Plaza on Sunday for the Detroit Jazz Festival.

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Sara Watkins performs at the Four Corners Folk Festival at Reservoir Hill Park in Pagosa Spring, Colorado, on Saturday.