Lianne La Havas launches her month-long North American tour in Dallas after SXSW ... Devendra Banhart, Iron and Wine, Nataly Dawn, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell continue the SXSW music-making ... John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary receives European premiere at the Barbican ... Alarm Will Sound gives US premiere of Steve Reich's Radio Rewrite ... Jeremy Denk plays in Georgia ... Dr. John, Allen Toussaint bring New Orleans to New York's Town Hall ... Audra McDonald is in Florida ... Brad Mehldau tours Europe with Mehliana ... Sara Watkins tours the Midwest ... and more ...

Rokia Traoré has announced a series of new tour dates in the UK for May. She celebrates the April release of her new album, Beautiful Africa, with a tour of France, Switzerland, and Luxembourg and will perform at a number of European summer festivals, including Roskilde and a return to the UK for Glastonbury and WOMAD. Traoré is on the cover of Songlines, which gives Beautiful Africa a perfect five stars. The Chicago Reader says the new album "marks a major transformation and a huge step forward artistically." The LA Times says "Beautiful Africa ... confirms the album title's truth."

The 27th South by Southwest (SXSW) Music and Media Conference gets under way in Austin, Texas, as thousands of bands and music lovers from all over the world descend on the live-music capital for several days of non-stop music making. Nonesuch artists will be well represented among them, with several performances throughout the week from Devendra Banhart, Nataly Dawn, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, Lianne La Havas, and Iron and Wine.

Devendra Banhart makes his Nonesuch debut with the release of Mala, his eighth studio album, out now. Pitchfork calls it his "best record in nearly a decade." It's earned four stars from Mojo, the Times (UK), and Q, which calls it a "career-best LP ... surprising and enthralling." Record Collector gives it a perfect five stars, exclaiming: "The prospect of sitting down and listening to Mala as a whole is a thrilling, private and all-too-rare feeling." Banhart performs at SXSW this week.

The stage production of John Adams's The Gospel According to the Other Mary, directed by Peter Sellars, premieres with LA Philharmonic; new Adams documentary premieres on BBC4 TV ... Laurie Anderson Domain privé concludes in Paris ... Timothy Andres plays Crumb and Reich in Chicago ... Björk concludes her Parisian Biophilia residency ... Jeremy Denk performs in Santa Barbara ... Lianne La Havas tours the UK ... Kronos Quartet, Wu Man perform at the Auckland Arts Festival ... Brad Mehldau tours Europe with Mehliana ... Audra McDonald performs in the Midwest, guests on CBS's The Good Wife ... Joshua Redman helps inaugurate the SFJAZZ Center ... Steve Reich is in residence at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall ... Sara Watkins tours the South ... and more ...

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, whose new duets album, Old Yellow Moon, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Country Album chart, perform three songs from and discuss the album on Soundcheck, airing tonight on WNYC. You can also watch the show here. The two host an exclusive one-hour special on SiriusXM's Outlaw Country tonight and join Steve Earle for his "Hardcore Troubadour Radio" show this weekend. Harris and Crowell launch their US tour next week.

Sara Watkins launches a three-week headlining tour of the US at the Red Clay Theatre in Duluth, Georgia, tonight. The 18-city tour includes stops in Louisville, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Madison, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and more. Watkins will also make a two-week spring tour of the West Coast in May, performing newly announced shows in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington. This summer, she will join Jackson Browne as special guest on his Acoustic Tour, picking up where they left off on their fall 2012 tour together.

Brad Mehldau launches a month-long European tour with Mehliana, his duo project with drummer Mark Guiliana, in Atwerp, Belgium, tonight. Mehliana, for which the composer/pianist switches to Fender Rhodes and a battery of synths, then heads to Brussels and continues the tour to the end of March, making stops in Hungary, the Czech Republic, the UK, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, and France. The new tour comes on the heels of Mehldau's recent run with fellow pianist Kevin Hays and precedes his US tour with Chris Thile in April.

American Master: A Portrait of John Adams, a new film documentary about composer John Adams by Mark Kidel, will be broadcast for the first time on BBC4 TV on Friday, March 8, at 8 PM. The film, which offers a journey through the musical landscapes of the composer, will be repeated on BBC HD on March 15. The film will also be screened at the Barbican in London on March 16 as a prelude to the European premiere of Adams's The Gospel According to the Other Mary with the LA Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Watch an excerpt from the film here.

Nonesuch Records releases saxophonist Joshua Redman’s Walking Shadows on May 7, 2013. The album, comprising 12 ballads, is Redman’s first recording to include an orchestral ensemble, which plays on many of the tracks. It was produced by Redman’s friend and frequent collaborator Brad Mehldau. The record's core ensemble is a quartet featuring Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, and Brian Blade. Walking Shadows includes original tunes from both Redman and Mehldau along with works by a wide range of composers like John Mayer and Pino Palladino, Kern and Hammerstein, and Lennon and McCartney. Walking Shadows is now available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of the Redman-penned track “Final Hour."

Sam Amidon, who launches a three-city tour of Australia at the Adelaide Festival tonight, is set to make his Nonesuch Records debut with the release of his new album, Bright Sunny South, on May 14. The album is now available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of two tracks from the album—Amidon's take on Tim McGraw's "My Old Friend" (which you can hear below) and the traditional tune "He's Taken My Feet"—and a download of the complete album available starting release day.

Devendra Banhart's Nonesuch Records debut album, Mala, is due out next week. But you don’t need to wait till then to hear it. The album is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen; it is still available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with a limited-edition, autographed print. Banhart, who is featured in a new Pitchfork interview, will tour Europe this summer, including three UK dates: in Brighton, Manchester, and London. He will perform at the Open'er Festival in Poland and at Le Trianon in Paris. Additional dates are still to be announced in Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Holland.