The Bad Plus Joshua Redman close out 2015 and their US tour with a four-night residency at the Miner Auditorium at SFJAZZ Center, in San Francisco, beginning with last night’s sold-out show and continuing with performances tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday.

Earlier this week, Redman was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Improvised Jazz Solo for his performance of his tune "Friend or Foe" off the self-titled debut album from the quartet. The album has received no shortage of accolades, having been described upon its release earlier this year as “a knockout” by the New York Times and “a roaring and beautiful summit meeting” by NPR, and now earning nods from MOJO and PopMatters lists of the Best Jazz Album of 2015.

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Sam Amidon continues his two-week North American tour as a special guest of San Fermin with a stop at the Basement in Columbus, Ohio, tonight and Exit/In in Nashville tomorrow.

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Laurie Anderson takes part in Q&A sessions following two screenings of her latest film, Heart of a Dog, at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe tonight and tomorrow.

The New York Times film critic A.O. Scott has just placed Heart of a Dog at No. 4 on his list of the Best Movies of 2015, saying: “[A]nyone who ever had a heart is likely to succumb to Ms. Anderson’s ethereal wisdom and her fierce formal wit.” Nonesuch released the film’s soundtrack, which All About Jazz says is “almost a transcendence into another-worldly place with new and intriguing musical landscapes.”

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Timo Andres joins the Attaca Quartet to perform Robert Schumann’s 1842 Piano Quintet at the French Cultural Institute in New York City. Earlier in the program, the Attaca performs excerpts from John Adams’s Book of Alleged Dances and works by Andres, among others.

The Boston Globe, reviewing a recent performance of an Andres piece by the Takács Quartet, notes: “When such a group champions a living composer, you pay attention. Happily, "Strong Language" by Timo Andres … merited the attention.” The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, reviewing a recent St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concert with Jonathan Biss premiering Andres’s new piece "The Blind Banister", says: “The sounds and textures that Andres has come up with, both in the orchestra and the piano, were unfailingly compelling.”

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The Arcs continue their three-week North American tour with a show at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston on Saturday. In advance of the show, Dan Auerbach spoke with the Boston Globe, which calls Yours, Dreamily, the band's debut album, "dynamite." Read what Auerbach has to say at bostonglobe.com. The Washington Post, previewing next week’s two-night run at the 9:30 Club in DC, explains: “When the Arcs take the stage, expect a party among friends that takes its form in expansive solos, singalong choruses and general merriment.”

Yours, Dreamily, recently came in at number 9 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 50 Best Albums of 2015. The album track “Stay in My Corner” is also included on Rolling Stone’s list of the 50 Best Songs of 2015. The Arcs' new EP, The Arcs vs. The Inventors Vol. I, featuring Dr. John and David Hidalgo, first released on Record Store Day's Black Friday event, is now available everywhere.

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Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell give an intimate performance at The Hamilton in Washington, DC, on Sunday, to support her dog shelter, Bonaparte’s Retreat.

The pair’s second duo album, The Traveling Kind, earned two Grammy nominations earlier this week: Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song for the title track, which they co-wrote with Cory Chisel. Produced by Joe Henry, the album follows the longtime friends’ Grammy-winning first duet album, 2013’s Old Yellow Moon.

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The Mark Morris Dance Group performs The Hard Nut, Morris’s modern retelling of The Nutcracker, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)’s Howard Gilman Opera House, as part of its 2015 Next Wave Festival. The first of eight holiday-season performances takes place Saturday evening, followed by two on Sunday and additional performances through next Sunday.

In 2007, Nonesuch released a DVD of the original 1991 performance of The Hard Nut, which the New York Times says "creates a marvelously musical, choreographically ingenious response to Tchaikovsky’s great score that has its own magic and speaks its own truths about the nature of love … What makes The Hard Nut so lovable, and indispensable is a sweetness and spaciousness very like its traditional Tchaikovsky score."

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Audra McDonald is joined by Norm Lewis—Porgy to her Bess in the 2012 Tony Award–winning production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess—and orchestra for a performance at the Apes Hill Polo Club in Saint James, Barbados, on Saturday as part of the Classical/Pops Festival 2015.

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Natalie Merchant helps kick off a five-night engagement of screenings of her new documentary, Paradise Is There, at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, tomorrow evening. She answers audience questions about the memoir-style film, which contains live performances, archival footage, and interviews with musicians, friends, and fans about the influence the songs of her 1995 debut solo album, Tigerlily, have had over the past 20 years. Additional screenings at the Siskel Film Center will take place on December 18, 21, 23, and 26.

A DVD of the film is included in deluxe editions of Merchant’s latest album, Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings, a collection of all-new recordings revisiting the songs on that album. MOJO, in a four-star review of the album, says: "Time has only amplified the power of Merchant’s music."

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Punch Brothers continue their two-week United States tour with stops at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware, tonight, and The Capitol Theatre in Port Washington, New York, on Saturday, both with special guest Gabriel Kahane.

The group has been nominated for three Grammy Awards this year: Best Americana Album for their latest album, The Phosphorescent Blues, produced by T Bone Burnett, and Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance for the album track "Julep."