Jeremy Denk performs in DC on Saturday and celebrates the recent release of his Nonesuch debut album, Ligeti/Beethoven, in NYC on Monday ... The Black Keys close out their North American tour in Atlantic City ... Billy Bragg launches European tour in Germany ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in Virginia ... Shawn Colvin plays the Cherokee Creek Music Festival ... Michael Daves, Noam Pikelny do the Brooklyn Folk Fest ... Kronos Quartet kicks off European tour in the Netherlands ... k.d. lang continues US tour in Kansas ... Jessica Lea Mayfield plays Nelsonville Music Festival ... Brad Mehldau Trio has a trio of SFJAZZ shows ... Randy Newman plays a set at the Hang Out Music Festival ... and more ...
Jeremy Denk, following the release of his Nonesuch debut album, Ligeti/Beethoven, and his return from a successful tour of Europe with violinist Joshua Bell earlier this week, performs at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC, Saturday night.
On Monday, Denk returns home to New York City to celebrate the release of his new album with his first appearance at (Le) Poisson Rouge, taking over the downtown NYC venue for a one-night-only Ligeti/Beethoven celebration. The concert program comprises Book 1 of Ligeti’s Piano Études and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111. (The new album adds selections from Ligeti’s Piano Études, Book 2). The concert is a Critics' Pick in Time Out New York and in New York magazine, which calls him "splendid." The New Yorker calls the program "irresistible."
The Observer has described the new Ligeti/Beethoven album as "dazzling," saying: "The Ligeti is crisp, nuanced and technically flawless, the Beethoven beautifully shaped and flexible."
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The Black Keys close out the latest leg of their North American arena tour with two performances on the East Coast this weekend: at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, tonight, their last date with support from special guests Arctic Monkeys, and at the newly opened Revel Ovation Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which the band helps inaugurate with their show on Saturday.
The Black Keys' Patrick Carney spoke with the Baltimore Sun for a feature in advance of tonight's show. "With the Black Keys graduating to arena status—and one worthy of closing the annual Coachella music festival," writes the Sun's Wesley Case, "they have become one of rock's most important acts." Read why at baltimoresun.com.
The Black Keys head back on the road in July for more arena shows and to headline a number of summer festivals in North America and Europe.
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Billy Bragg launched his European tour, celebrating the Woody Guthrie centenary and the recent release of Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, with a sold-out show in Berlin last night. Bragg remains in Germany through the weekend, with shows at Fabrik in Hamburg tonight, Faust in Hanover on Saturday, and Ringkirche in Wiesbaden on Sunday. Following the spring tour, Bragg heads to the States for a month-long tour to continue the Guthrie birthday celebration this summer.
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Carolina Chocolate Drops play their third of three shows in Virginia with a performance at the Theater at Lime Kiln in Lexington on Sunday. The concert comes at the close of a week that saw the band's video for "Country Girl," off their new album, Leaving Eden, played every weekday morning on CMT's High 5 Countdown. You can check out the video on YouTube.
"The electric sound of old-time music through four talented, multi-instrumentalists is as unique as it is energizing. The Carolina Chocolate Drops blend enough musical genres to satisfy any music lover," says the Lexington News Leader, previewing Sunday's show. "Their music is high energy, foot-stomping fiddle- and banjo-driven folk that is unstoppable ... just astounding to watch in action." Read more at newsleader.com.
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Shawn Colvin performs at the Cherokee Creek Music Festival at the Los Valles Ranch in Cherokee, Texas, on Saturday. Her new album, All Fall Down, is due out on June 5, as is her first-ever memoir, Diamond in the Rough, both available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store.
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Guitarist Michael Daves, whose duo album with Chris Thile, Sleep with One Eye Open, was released on Nonesuch one year ago this month, is joined by Thile's Punch Brothers band mate, banjoist Noam Pikelny, for a set at the Brooklyn Folk Fest in Brooklyn, New York, tonight.
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Kronos Quartet kicks off its spring tour of Europe with two performances in the Netherlands this weekend: at Muziekgebouw's Grote Zaal in Amsterdam tonight and De Doelen's Jurriaanse Zaal in Rotterdam on Saturday. Tonight's program features Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 as well as works by Laurie Anderson, Clint Mansell, Bryce Dessner, and more. Saturday's show includes WTC 9/11, Valentin Silvestrov's String Quartet No. 3, and the world premiere of Hanna Kulenty's String Quartet No. 5.
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k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang continue their North American tour with stops at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, Illinois, tonight, and at the Lied Center at the University of Kansas in Lawrence on Saturday. Fellow Canadian Jane Siberry opens the show.
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Jessica Lea Mayfield plays a set at the Nelsonville Music Festival at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, on Saturday. Mayfield has one more festival in her home state, at Appalachian Uprising on June 1, then heads out on tour this summer for both headline shows and supporting Langhorne Slim.
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As noted yesterday in the Nonesuch Journal, the Brad Mehldau Trio—featuring Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums—continue their California tour with a trio of shows at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Forum in San Francisco, tonight, Saturday, and Sunday, as part of the SFJAZZ Spring Season. The San Jose Mercury News, reviewing Wednesday's show, calls it "transfixing ... total exquisiteness."
The Trio concludes its California and current US tour at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica on Monday, then takes the tour to Mexico for two shows next week.
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Randy Newman is in Gulf Shores, Alabama, this weekend for a Saturday afternoon set at the Hang Out Music Festival. Newman takes the Chevrolet Stage just before Gogol Bordello.
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