Rokia Traoré rounds out the Californian leg of her North American tour … Alarm Will Sound performs Adams at Cresc Biennale in Germany … Sam Amidon concludes European tour in Copenhagen … Devendra Banhart plays Primavera Fauna Festival … Bombino tours Midwest … Olivia Chaney is in London ... Jeremy Denk joins Westchester Philharmonic … Richard Goode performs in Massachusetts … Emmylou Harris celebrates Americana on PBS … Brad Mehldau, Mark Guiliana bring Mehliana to Germany … Audra McDonald sings on the East Coast … Joshua Redman plays Chicago & Pittsburgh … Allen Toussaint is outside Philly … and more …
Rokia Traoré rounds out the Californian leg of her two-week North American tour in two more cities this weekend: at the California Institute of Integral Studies’ Nourse Theatre in San Francisco tonight and the Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Los Angeles on Saturday. The nine-city tour, which kicked off at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater in New York City last week, concludes next week with stops in Minneapolis, Toronto, and Montreal.
The Malian-born singer/songwriter is the subject of a feature article in the San Francisco Chronicle, previewing tonight’s concert, examining her role as “a clarion voice” for West Africa, and focusing on “her gorgeous new Nonesuch album Beautiful Africa.” In the article, Chronicle writer Andrew Gilbert quotes David Harrington of San Francisco’s own Kronos Quartet who says of Traoré: "She's one of my favorite singers.” Read more at sfgate.com.
Traoré was the guest on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic yesterday. She spoke with guest host Chris Douridas about the new album and the tour and performed a few tracks live in the studio. You can listen to the segment at kcrw.com.
---
Alarm Will Sound, led by conductor and co-founder Alan Pierson, performs at Frankfurt LAB in Germany on Saturday afternoon as part of the Cresc Biennale. Among the works on the program is John Adams’s 1996 piece Scratchband.
The New York Times recently praised the “adventurous” orchestra’s performance of an all-Reich program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, noting the ensemble’s “unusual versatility.”
---
Sam Amidon concludes his European tour this weekend with shows in three different countries: at the famed Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris tonight, De Doelen in Rotterdam on Saturday for the Songbird Festival, and VEGA in Copenhagen on Sunday. The tour features songs from Amidon’s Nonesuch debut album, Bright Sunny South, which was released earlier this year.
---
Devendra Banhart continues his Latin American tour at Piscinas Espacio Broadway in Santiago, Chile, on Saturday, as part of the Primavera Fauna Festival. He rounds out the three-week tour, features songs from his recently released Nonesuch debut album, Mala, with a second performance in Santiago at Ex OZ on Tuesday and at Teatro ECCI in Bogotá on Thursday.
---
Bombino covers a lot of ground this weekend, performing in three different states: at The New Vintage in Louisville, Kentucky, tonight; at Martyr's in Chicago on Saturday; and at the Magic Bag in Ferndale, Michigan, outside of Detroit on Sunday. The 14-city North American tour, featuring music from Bombino’s recently released Nonesuch debut album, Nomad, continues in Pittsburgh, Toronto, Montreal, Cambridge, Providence, Philadelphia, and DC, and culminates in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in New York City December 6.
---
Olivia Chaney, who earlier this week was both signed to Nonesuch Records and nominated for two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards (Horizon Award and Best Original Song), performs at The Cabbage Patch in Twickenham, UK, on Sunday. Chaney is due to release her Nonesuch debut album in 2014.
---
Jeremy Denk joins the Westchester Philharmonic at Purchase College’s Performing Arts Center in Purchase, New York, on Sunday afternoon for a program that includes Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F-minor, K. 533/494 and Piano Concerto No. 25, as well as Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat and Haydn’s Presto from Symphony No. 2. There is also a pre-concert discussion with director Joshua Worby and members of the orchestra. Denk next joins the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for performances in the weeks ahead.
Denk was featured on NPR's All Things Considered last weekend, discussing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, which he recorded and released on Nonesuch Records earlier this fall. You can listen to the interview at npr.org.
---
Richard Goode performs at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, Massachusetts, on Sunday afternoon, with soprano Sarah Shafer. On the program is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 27 in E-minor, Op. 90—which Goode famously recorded for the Beethoven: The Complete Sonatas box set on Nonesuch Records in 1993—as well as works by Schumann, Debussy, and Wolf. There is a pre-concert talk with musicologist Dr. Elizabeth Seitz.
On December 3, Goode begins a three-night residency with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, with conductor David Zinman leading the orchestra in works by Thomas Adès, Mendelssohn, and Mozart.
---
Emmylou Harris appears on two PBS programs showcasing Americana music this weekend: Nashville 2.0, which explores the vibrant Americana music scene with interviews and performances from Harris, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and more, tonight at 9 PM; and Austin City Limits' special featuring highlights from the Americana Music Festival 2013, airing Saturday night at 8 PM. The ACL special includes performances from Harris with Old Yellow Moon collaborator Rodney Crowell and Dr. John with Dan Auerbach, who produced his Grammy-winning Nonesuch debut album, Locked Down.
---
Following a performance at Barbican Hall in London last night, Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana bring their Mehliana electronic duo project to Germany this weekend: at the Kesselhaus in Berlin on Saturday and the Mojo Club in Hamburg on Sunday. Mehliana features Mehldau on Fender Rhodes and vintage synthesizers while Guiliana accompanies on drums and effects. They round out their European tour with dates in Italy, Monaco, Germany, and Switzerland.
Mehldau and Guiliana release their debut album, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, on Nonesuch in January, with vinyl to follow in February. The album is available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of the album track “Hungry Ghost.”
---
Audra McDonald brings the music of her latest Nonesuch album, Go Back Home, and more back home to the East Coast for a performance at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey, tonight, and a sold-out show at SUNY Stony Brook’s Staller Center in Stony Brook, New York, on Saturday, backed by a small jazz ensemble.
Reviewing her recent performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that McDonald “possesses a voluminous soprano” that “was consistently pitch perfect as it soared throughout the venue.”
---
Joshua Redman and his quartet—pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Gregory Hutchinson—perform at the Symphony Center in Chicago tonight before heading to Pittsburgh for two sets at the Manchester Craftmen’s Guild on Saturday.
In advance of their recent show in Redman’s hometown of Berkeley, the East Bay Express exclaimed that “whether he’s caressing the sound of his saxophone into smoky atmospherics or blowing audiences out of their seats, Redman exhibits a technical prowess that’s impossible to mask.”
Redman was awarded the Edison Award for Best in International Jazz for his 2013 Nonesuch album, Walking Shadows, in a ceremony held last night in the Netherlands.
---
Allen Toussaint performs at the Sellersville Theater 1894 in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. The Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot, previewing a recent solo set from the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, writes: “Toussaint's modesty belies the brilliance of his solo performances. Accompanying himself on piano, where he develops counterpoint melodies and cross-currents of rhythm that suggest three people are sitting at the instrument instead of just one, Toussaint sings in a high, mellifluous voice that epitomizes New Orleans soul.”
- Log in to post comments