The BMW Jazz Festival in Brazil opened last night through Monday with performances in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Headlining the event are three groups familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Pat Metheny Unity Band, James Farm, and Brad Mehldau Trio.

Bookending the festival is the Pat Metheny Unity Band—featuring Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, and Ben Williams—which kicked off the festivities at HSBC Brasil in São Paulo last night and closes out the entire event at Vivo Rio in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. In between these festival sets, the band performs at the Grande Palladium Teatro SESC in Belo Horizonte tonight and two more sets in São Paulo: at the Bourbon Street Music Club on Saturday and a free show at the Auditorio Ibirapuera on Sunday.

In the New York Times Popcast, music critic Nate Chinen discusses Metheny’s just-released Nonesuch album Tap: John Zorn’s Book of Angels, Vol. 20, calling it a “surprising mind-meld.” Chinen had previously interviewed both artists for the Times, calling the album “an impressive feat of imagination, and a strikingly clear distillation of both artists’ distinctive languages.”

Joshua Redman, whose new album, Walking Shadows, was released last month, joins his collaborative band James Farm—pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland—for performances on the São Paulo festival stage tonight and the Rio stage on Saturday. Nonesuch released James Farm’s self-titled debut album in 2011.

Brad Mehldau and his Trio—bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard—perform at the Rio venue on Saturday and at HSBC Brasil in São Paulo on Sunday.

Redman, Mehldau, Grenadier, and drummer Brian Blade, all of whom perform on Redman’s new album, were joined by the orchestra The Knights for a one-night-only performances of songs from Walking Shadows at New York's Town Hall on Tuesday. Chinen, in his New York Times concert review, writes: "Mr. Redman has always been a fluid technician, but the inner glow in his tone throughout the night, along with the grace and clarity of ideas, suggested new levels of prowess."

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Sam Amidon, who recently released his Nonesuch debut album, Bright Sunny South, closes out the West Coast leg of his US tour with a performance at the Bootleg Bar in Los Angeles tonight. Later this month, he travels across the country for shows along the East Coast in Philadelphia, Cambridge, and Portland, as well as his home town of Brattleboro and the Solid Sound Festival curated by Wilco.

“Amidon is an extraordinarily creative musician,” says Songlines magazine in the latest four-star review for Bright Sunny South. “For his Nonesuch debut he has transformed an eclectic gathering of hymns, blues, ballads and folk tunes into a singularly expressive songbook. Amidon has created an intensely personal yet wholly approachable electroacoustic soundscape.”

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Devendra Banhart begins the East Coast leg of his North American tour with his one-and-only New England performance, at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston tonight, and a set at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC, on Saturday. He rounds out the three-month-long tour with a performance at The Town Hall in New York on Wednesday before launching a five-week tour of Europe. Both tours follow the release of Banhart’s Nonesuch debut album, Mala, from which he performs a number of songs on the road.

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Björk concludes her three-show Biophilia residency at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Saturday, marking the end of two sets of California residencies in which she performed the album in the round. Björk goes on to perform at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday and at Bonnaroo next weekend. The LA Music Blog’s Jay Chirinos, professing his long admiration for the artist in his concert review, concludes: “This was as near to perfection as you could expect … Her music, along with the Biophilia show, is the kind of thing that has you reaching for superlatives and abandoning all pretense of critical cool. She was and she remains a truly special talent.”

Prior to her Palladium residency, Björk spoke with LA Weekly about her inspiration for the show, the supplementary educational programs, and the ways in which nature and technology are intimately connected. She describes how “using lightning to explain arpeggios and using the tide and moon to explain patterns and crystals to show structure,” Biophilia employs natural phenomena to illuminate the inner workings of music. 

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Bombino joins Gogol Bordello for two supporting sets in the Midwest this weekend, following two such performances earlier this week: at the Egyptian Room at Old National Centre in Indianapolis tonight and the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee on Saturday. His tour, featuring music from his just-released Nonesuch debut album, Nomad, continues with a headline set at Martyr’s in Chicago on Sunday, which the Chicago Reader selects as the night's best show. The Denver Post's Hey Reverb, reviewing one recent tour stop, says Bombino "blew up" the place "with his dazzling finger picking and penchant for ambling jams."

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Jeremy Denk joins the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra led by conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson for the second of two consecutive nights at Cankar Hall in Ljubljana tonight. On the program are works by Khachaturian, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky. He returns to the US for a three-night run at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Michigan starting on June 15.

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Adam Guettel kicked off a month-long tour of Australia with a performance at the Slide Lounge in Sydney last night. He remains in Syndey this weekend to present a four-hour, all-ages master class at the Australian Institute of Music on Sunday afternoon. Guettel’s Australian tour includes a similar schedule of master classes and performances in Adelaide and Melbourne later this month.

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Emmylou Harris hosts the second-annual Woofstock at The Fontanel Mansion in Nashville on Saturday. Proceeds from the event—which includes performances from Harris, Ella Mae Bowen, John Hiatt, Buddy Miller, Joan Osborne, and more—go to support her dog rescue, Bonaparte’s Retreat, and Crossroads Campus, which gives disadvantaged youth and adults the opportunity to care for homeless cats and dogs. Harris reunites with Rodney Crowell for the next US leg of their Old Yellow Moon tour in Santa Fe on June 15.

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Gidon Kremer joins the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra at the Grand Theatre in Hangzhou, China, on Saturday. This is the last stop on Kremer’s tour of China before heading to Europe for performances in Russia, Latvia, and Germany in the coming weeks.

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Audra McDonald kicks off the first leg of her North American tour in support of her new album, Go Back Home, at the Midland Center for the Arts in Midland, Michigan, on Saturday,a s part of the Matrix:Midland Festival. The program includes American classics and songs by her favorites contemporary composers, many of which are recorded on the album.

McDonald will be back in New York City for the Tony Awards on Sunday. A five-time Tony winner herself, she will be a presenter at the awards ceremony, which will be broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall on CBS starting at 8 PM ET.