Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau conclude their duo tour with performances in New Jersey and Boston ... Laurie Anderson is at the Donau Festival ... The Black Keys' arena tour hits St. Louis and Tulsa ... Carolina Chocolate Drops, Dr. John, Cheikh Lô, and Allen Toussaint are in Louisiana for Jazz Fest and more ... Shawn Colvin tours the Northeast with Mary Chapin Carpenter ... Richard Goode plays the Gilmore Keyboard Festival ... Jessica Lea Mayfield has two shows in Texas ... Punch Brothers are in DC, play MerleFest ... Steve Reich is in residence at the Sydney Opera House ... Dawn Upshaw is in NY with the Australian Chamber Orchestra ... Sara Watkins plays the Stagecoach Festival ... and more ...
Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau team up for the last two dates of their US duo tour this weekend with a performance at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, New Jersey, tonight and at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston on Saturday. This duo tour began last month in Detroit and brought the label mates to Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, and Ontario.
"Already adventurous musicians in their own right, the two appeared liberated in the duo setting," writes Time Out Chicago's Chris Bentley of their recent show at Chicago's Symphony Center. "This show offered a peek into the musical universes of two virtuosos, whose collision produced something else even more wonderful."
Redman heads next to perform with his Trio at the St. Lucia Jazz Festival before joining with his James Farm band mates for a tour starting next month. Mehldau performs at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, both solo and with his Trio, in May.
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Laurie Anderson joins Shannon Funchess and Bruno Coviello, aka Light Asylum, at the Donau Festival—this year looking at “The Expulsion Into Paradise”—in Krems, Austria, on Saturday for their first performance together.
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After two weekends of headlining the Coachella festival, The Black Keys are back to headlining their own stadium tour with special guest Arctic Monkeys, playing a sold-out show at the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis tonight. The bands then head to Oklahoma to play at the BOK Center in Tulsa on Saturday.
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As noted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, today marks the start of the New Orleans Jazz Fest. Carolina Chocolate Drops, who perform on the Fais Do-Do Stage Saturday afternoon, arrive in the city a few days early to perform at The Temple for the Backbeat Jazzfest Series tonight.
The band was in London earlier this week to join The Chieftains for a performance on Later ... with Jools Holland on BBC Two. The bands performed the song "Pretty Little Girl" from the celebrated Irish group's new album, Voice of Ages, on which the Chocolate Drops appear. Fans in the UK can watch an encore broadcast of that performance as well as a performance by the Chocolate Drops of the song "No Man's Mama," off their own new album, Leaving Eden, tonight at 23:05 GMT.
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Shawn Colvin teams up with Mary Chapin Carpenter for a run of seven duo shows, their first being at the Norwalk Concert Hall in Connecticut tonight. The two remain in Connecticut another day to play at the Infinity Music Hall & Bistro in Norfolk on Saturday before heading to Pennsylvania to play at the Musikfest Café in Bethlehem on Sunday. Colvin's new album and memoir, due out June 5, are both available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.
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Dr. John is in his hometown of New Orleans this weekend both for the start of Jazz Fest and for a set at Tipitina's Saturday night. He hits the festival's Main Stage on Sunday afternoon, just before headliner Bruce Springsteen is set to close the first weekend's festivities.
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Richard Goode participates in the Gilmore Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, Michigan, this weekend, playing a solo recital of works by Schumann and Chopin at the Chenery Auditorium on Saturday, and offering a master class at Western Michigan University’s Dalton Recital Hall on Sunday.
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Cheikh Lô brings his North American tour to a close with three shows in Louisiana this weekend. Lô joins the lineup of the Louisiana International Festival in Lafayette both tonight and takes to the Congo Square Stage at New Orleans Jazz Fest on Saturday.
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Jessica Lea Mayfield continues her US tour this weekend with two shows in Texas: at Mucky Duck in Houston tonight and Cactus Café in Austin on Saturday.
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Punch Brothers conclude the leg of their headlining tour of North America with support from Jesca Hoop in a sold-out show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, tonight. After bidding Hoop farewell, the band joins in on the action at MerleFest at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on Saturday, then heads to Charleston, South Carolina, for a show at The Music Farm on Sunday.
The Washington Post, in a preview of tonight's show and a review of the band's new album, Who's Feeling Young Now?, says: "The music conjures seminal bluegrass traditions one moment and thoroughly modern pop, rock and chamber folk overtures the next, leaving ample space for fleet-fingered flights and exhilarating thrust."
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Steve Reich makes a rare visit to Australia for the launch of a new series at the Sydney Opera House called The Composers. The House hosts The Composers: Steve Reich in Residence, a program that began on Thursday and will celebrate Reich's work through a number of events, culminating in a Sunday night performance of some of the highlights of his musical repertoire by Synergy Percussion, eighth blackbird, and others. On Monday, Reich heads down to Melbourne for a conversation and concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre with eighth blackbird and members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
In advance of these events, Reich spoke with The Australian about the past, present, and future of minimalism. You can read the article and watch a video of Reich in rehearsal at theaustralian.com.
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Allen Toussaint, who will join in on the New Orleans Jazz Fest fun next weekend, offers his hometown a preview in two sets at Snug Harbor in New Orleans this Saturday night.
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Dawn Upshaw continues her tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra with a performance at Cornell University’s Bailey Hall in Ithaca, New York, tonight. The tour features Maria Schneider’s newest composition, Winter Morning Walks, a blend of classical and jazz elements written for Upshaw. For their final performance, Upshaw and the ACO will give Winter Morning Walks its New York premiere in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on Monday.
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Sara Watkins continues her US tour with a set at the Stagecoach Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, on Saturday.
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