Devendra Banhart, Rokia Traoré, Fatoumata Diawara, and Lianne La Havas all perform at Glastonbury ... Amadou & Mariam are in the Midwest ... Sam Amidon kicks off a tour of Japan ... Laurie Anderson, Kronos Quartet debut Landfall at the Barbican ... Bombino plays three French festivals ... Carolina Chocolate Drops, Punch Brothers are at ROMP ... Jeremy Denk guests with Westchester Philharmonic ... Dr. John hits Milwaukee's Summerfest ... Adam Guettel concludes Australia tour ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica host Latvian festival ... Joshua Redman plays Walking Shadows songs at Montreal Jazz Fest ... Sara Watkins tours with Jackson Browne ...
The 2013 Glastonbury Festival got under way at Worthy Farm in Pilton, UK, earlier this week and continues through the weekend, featuring performances from a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Devendra Banhart, Rokia Traoré, Fatoumata Diawara, and Lianne La Havas. The BBC will be streaming live from Glastonbury at bbc.co.uk.
Devendra Banhart, who this week began a six-week European tour in support of his recently released Nonesuch debut album, Mala, performs at The Old Market in Brighton, UK, tonight before his Glastonbury set on the Park Stage at 5:30 PM on Saturday.
Rokia Traoré and Fatoumata Diawara both play early sets at Glastonbury on Saturday: Traoré at 11 AM on the Pyramid Stage and Diawara at noon on the West Holt’s Stage. In response to the recent attempt to ban non-religious music by extremist groups in Mali, Glastonbury Festival organizers looked to include some of the country’s most prominent performers in this year’s line-up, Traoré and Diawara among them. Traoré, speaking with the Guardian, says that “Glastonbury’s support goes straight to the heart … but even now that the ban on music has gone, there’s still so much to do to make sure Malian musicians can live off their art and contribute to the renewal and evolution of the country.” PRI's The World examines the issue as well in a conversation with British journalist Andy Morgan available here.
The UK’s own Lianne La Havas plays a set on the West Holt’s Stage at Glastonbury on Sunday at 7:45 PM, as part of her ongoing European festival tour. La Havas returns to the States to tour again starting in late July.
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Amadou & Mariam perform two concerts in the Midwest this weekend, first at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis tonight, and then at Park West in Chicago on Saturday. Following a recent performance in Philadelphia, the Inquirer writes: “Amadou & Mariam seemed radiant, even regal, as they went about the business of mesmerizing music-making.”
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Sam Amidon begins a brief, three-city tour of Japan with a performance at the Tonofon Festival in Tokorozawa on Sunday. The tour continues next week with performances in Kyoto and Tokyo, before Amidon returns to Europe to continue his tour there.
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Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet, now celebrating its 40th anniversary concert season, reunite to perform Landfall, the artists’ first-ever collaboration together. They give the work—which the Washington Post calls “quiet, poignant and very human”—its European premiere in a sold-out performance at Barbican Hall tonight.
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Bombino performs sets at three French festivals this weekend: at the Domaine Thénard in Givry for the Festival les Musicaves tonight, the Hippodrome de Longchamp in Paris for the Solidays Festival on Saturday, and finally Parc de l’Arbre Sec in Auxerre for the Catalpa Festival on Sunday afternoon.
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Carolina Chocolate Drops play a set outdoors today at the ROMP Bluegrass Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky. Also performing at ROMP this weekend are Punch Brothers, who take the stage on Saturday following a set in Chicago tonight for at Old St. Pat’s World’s Largest Block Party.
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Jeremy Denk performs twice with the Westchester Philharmonic at the Purchase College Performing Arts Center in Purchase, New York, tonight and Saturday afternoon. On the program for both concerts is Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, “Pastoral,” and his Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, as well as Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor.
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Dr. John headlines two festivals this weekend as part of his ongoing North American tour. On Friday, he performs on the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival’s TD Mainstage, then travels to Wisconsin to perform at Summerfest in Milwaukee on Sunday night.
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Adam Guettel concludes his month-long tour of Australia with several appearances at the Melbourne Cabaret Festival. On both Saturday and Sunday evenings, Guettel will perform with musical director Kim Grigsby and vocalist Haley Bond at Chapel Off Chapel, where he will also lead a master class on Sunday afternoon. Following his recent performance at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Arts Hub declared that “Guettel’s work is fast becoming a staple of contemporary musical theater, and, once you see the show, it’s easy to see why.”
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Iron and Wine is today's guest on NPR's World Cafe. Tune in to hear singer-songwriter Sam Beam discuss and perform songs from the new album Ghost on Ghost.
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Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica are hosting the 10th Kremerata Baltica Festival in Kremer’s native Latvia, where they will play several concerts together at Baltais Flīģelis Concert Hall in Sigulda over the weekend, showcasing the work of composers spanning centuries of classical music. The weekend closes with the performance of “Gidon Sun Sounds” a compilation of pieces and fragments that relate to summer that include the work of Tchaikovsky, Piazzolla, and others.
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Joshua Redman brings his quartet—pianist Aaron Goldberg, drummer Gregory Hutchinson, and bassist Reuben Rogers—north of the 49th parallel for a set at Maison symphonique de Montréal on Saturday evening as part of the Montreal Jazz Festival. The group performs selections from Redman’s recent Nonesuch release, Walking Shadows.
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Sara Watkins continues her ongoing tour as special guest of Jackson Browne with concerts at the Palace Theater in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday and at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel in Niagara Falls, New York, on Saturday. Watkins performs a free concert outdoors in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, for the Allegheny County Concert Series on Sunday.
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