Kronos Quartet joins Bang on a Can for a mini-marathon at MIT ... Tony Allen continues his North American tour ... Laurie Anderson gives a reading in the Hamptons ... The Black Keys headline at Coachella ... Wanda Jackson heads South ... The Low Anthem tours the Northeast with Iron and Wine ... Jessica Lea Mayfield plays her home state ... Randy Newman performs in the Pacific Northwest ... Punch Brothers play p-Bingo in NYC ... Dawn Upshaw, Donnacha Dennehy conclude Carnegie Hall workshop ... Sara Watkins tours with the Decemberists ... and more ...
Kronos Quartet performs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kresge Auditorium in Boston tonight as part of a music mini-marathon (in advance of this Monday's running of the full-length Boston Marathon) with Bang on a Can All-Stars, Wu Man, Gamelan Galak Tika, and the MIT Chamber Chorus, as part of the school's Festival of Art+Science+Technology. Curated by Evan Ziporyn, MIT's Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music, tonight's five-hour concert features the world premiere of Tod Machover's Chomsky's Suite, with special guest Noam Chomsky, video by Joan Logue, and visual effects by Peter Torpey; selections from Terry Riley's The Cusp of Magic; and performances of Christine Southworth's Super Collider, and Brian Eno's Music for Airports, among other works.
On Sunday, Kronos performs works by Riley, John Zorn, Bryce Dessner, Sigur Rós, Café Tacuba, Clint Mansell, Ram Narayan, and Aleksandra Vrebalov at The Palladium in Carmel, Indiana.
Last weekend, Kronos performed Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 in a concert titled America Program, featuring all American composers at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in Maryland. The concert, says the Washington Post's Anne Midgette, "did a lot more than just present American music. It offered some thoughtful perspectives on what it means to be American—without lecturing, without analysis, simply through music. It may have been the best match of idea and execution I’ve heard from Kronos, ever." Read the review at washingtonpost.com.
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Legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen and his band perform three shows this weekend as part of their North American tour: at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto tonight, Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, and the Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Detroit keyboardist and record producer Amp Fiddler joins Allen for this tour. The tour continues through next weekend.
Listen to Allen's performance on WNYC's Soundcheck from earlier this week here:
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Laurie Anderson appears at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York, on Sunday to read Raphael, a new short story written by James Salter, as part of the opening-weekend events of the museum's new exhibition Julião Sarmento: Artists and Writers/House and Home. Sarmento will be present for the reading, which will take place in the Museum’s galleries. Tickets are free with museum admission. Reservations are required. For more information, go to parrishart.org.
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The Black Keys perform tonight on the Coachella Main Stage as part of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Their set, scheduled for 8:40 PM PT, will be webcast live on YouTube.
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With just over a week to go before the release of Emmylou Harris's latest album, Hard Bargain, fans can pick up a new vinyl pressing of Harris's unforgettable duet with Gram Parsons of "Love Hurts" from 1973. It's one side of a 7" single with a 2010 recording of the song by Jenny and Johnny on the flip side, and it's only available as part of Record Store Day, taking place tomorrow at independent record shops. For more information, visit recordstoreday.com.
The video for the Hard Bargain track "Goodnight Old World" premiered on CMT.com earlier this week. You can now watch it here via Harris's official YouTube channel and at nonesuch.com/media.
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Wanda Jackson heads to the South for a full weekend of shows beginning tonight at The Loft in Atlanta, Georgia, which the Atlanta Journal Constitution chooses as today's live music pick. Jackson then goes to North Carolina to play the Visulite Theatre in Charlotte and The Orange Peel in Asheville, on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Fans in Tulsa, Oklahoma, can catch an interview with Jackson on Rogers State University public television's Green Country Perspectives with Sam Jones tonight at 9 PM.
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k.d. lang's "I Confess" is the Free Song of the Day on Amazon. Download the song today at amazon.com.
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The Low Anthem plays three sold-out shows in the Northeast with Iron and Wine this weekend: at the Town Ballroom in Buffalo, New York, tonight; MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, on Saturday; and the Higher Ground Ballroom in Burlington, Vermont, on Sunday.
The band can be heard on NPR's Mountain Stage this weekend, along with Lucinda Williams, Red Horse (John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky, and Eliza Gilkyson), Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, and Ivan & Alyosha.
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Jessica Lea Mayfield returns to her home state to perform at the University of Akron's Wayne College in Orville tonight.
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Randy Newman performs two shows in the Pacific Northwest this weekend, at the Aladdin Theater in Portland tonight and the Atwood Concert Hall in Anchorage on Sunday. Newman spoke with Willamette Week in advance of tonight's show; you can read the interview at wweek.com.
The Ottawa Citizen called Newman's recent performance there as "superb." All About Jazz, reviewing the show, wrote: "Newman writes about the human condition ... and about the multitude of matters concerning life, love, politics, and pretty much anything else that the multifarious charms and peccadilloes of said condition impact, and he does so with a rare combination of astute personal awareness and a broad world view that makes his sometimes satiric, sometimes poignant, and occasionally downright painful songs resonate in ways that transcend time." Read the review at allaboutjazz.com.
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Punch Brothers perform one of their patented p-Bingo Nights at Bowery Ballroom in New York City tonight. The event is sold out.
Meanwhile, How to Grow a Band, a feature documentary about the band, receives its world premiere at the Nashville Film Festival tonight. The film, by Mark Meatto, looks at the band’s early days as an ensemble, touring behind its first album, Punch. The premiere will take place at Nashville’s Regal Green Hills Stadium 16; a second screening will take place on Wednesday, April 20. For more information, visit punchbrothersmovie.com.
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Dawn Upshaw and Donnacha Dennehy conclude their seven-day workshop at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in New York this weekend. For the Professional Training Workshop, presented in partnership with The Bard College Conservatory of Music, the duo has mentored four composers and ten singers on the collaboration between composer and performer in creating new vocal music. The participants will preview their new works for voice and ensemble in a free Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in Queens on Saturday and premiere them in Zankel Hall on Sunday. The ensemble will be conducted by Alarm Will Sound's artistic director, Alan Pierson.
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Sara Watkins returns to the road for the next leg of her tour performing with the Decemberists. They play at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs on Saturday and the Holland Performing Arts Center in Omaha, Nebraska, on Sunday.
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