Classical singer Julia Bullock was on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour ahead of her UK performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra—with whom she performs on her album Walking in the Dark—next week, culminating with the mixed-media project History’s Persistent Voice, which shines a light on the words, work, and experiences of Black artists, at Queen Elizabeth Hall. You can hear her conversation with Woman's Hour presenter Anita Rani here.

Jeff Parker and the New Breed, including Makaya McCraven, perform in Chicago and Iowa City. Ambrose Akinmusire, Bil Frisell, and Gregory Hutchinson bring Owl Song to Budapest and Helsinki. Jeremy Denk is in Utah. Mary Halvorson's sextet takes Cloudward to Germany and Austria. Emmylou Harris headlines Ann Arbor Folk Fest. Gabriel Kahane, Attacca Quartet, and Roomful of Teeth premiere his new work in San Francisco. Kronos Quartet celebrates 50 in Stanford. Brad Mehldau is in Canada and Connecticut. Natalie Merchant leads Fondazione Prada workshop/concert in Milan. Punch Brothers host Kacey Musgraves and Tiny Habits at their NYC variety hour. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. Molly Tuttle concludes UK tour with Tommy Emmanuel in New Brighton and Harrogate.

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, has released "Colossus of Roads” and Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive),” two new tracks from their upcoming album, The Past Is Still Alive, due February 23. "I've only had this experience a couple of times, where a song falls on me—it’s all there, and I don't do anything," Segarra says. "Writing ‘Colossus of Roads’ felt like creating a space where all us outsiders can be safe together. That doesn’t exist, but it exists in our minds, and it exists in this song—this one is sacred to me. I’ve also always wanted to make my version of Bob Dylan’s ‘I Was Young When I Left Home,’ and ‘Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)’ is it.” 

Congratulations to Cécile McLorin Salvant, who has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album for Mélusine (which is also up for two Grammy Awards). Winners will be chosen by public vote, which begins today and closes at 9pm ET on March 10. To have your say, visit naacpimageawards.net and vote for your favorites now. The 55th NAACP Image Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, March 16, broadcast on BET and CBS.

"This was the first song we recorded for the album, and we had just written it so there’s a freshness and an immediacy to it for us,” The Staves say of "I Don’t Say It, But I Feel It," the new song from their upcoming album, All Now. “The song is about passing surges of emotions and memories that often don't get expressed or articulated. It’s exploring that state of stillness on the outside but with a flurry of things happening below the surface and how, often, we don’t let on what we’re really feeling most of the time or how much we’re feeling it."

Congratulations to Yussef Dayes, who has been nominated for two BRIT Awards: Best New Artist and Best Alternative/Rock Act. The 2024 BRIT Awards ceremony will take place at The O2 Arena in London on March 2, broadcast live on ITV1 and ITVX. Dayes’ debut solo studio album, Black Classical Music, was released in September; the eight-song The Yussef Dayes Experience: Live From Malibu is out this Friday.

As part of Kronos: Five Decades, the year-long celebration of Kronos Quartet’s 50th anniversary, the group is publishing five decade-spanning playlists curated by its founder and violinist David Harrington. The latest, featuring music Kronos performed in its fourth decade, 2003–2012, is out now. It includes works the quartet recorded on Nonesuch by Sigur Rós, Henryk Górecki, Clint Mansell, R.D. Burman, Ramallah Underground, Rokia Traoré, Pēteris Vasks, Terry Riley, Vladimir Martynov, Steve Reich, and more. You can hear it here.

Sam Amidon has announced a headline solo tour of the US this spring, following a North American tour as special guest of This Is the Kit and a weekend at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville. The new shows start in Northampton, Massachusetts, on March 26 and includes stops in New Hampshire, New York, California (with Sam Gendel), Oregon (with Laura Veirs), and Washington. The This Is the Kit tour starts in Brooklyn February 21.

The Black Keys released a music video for their new single, "Beautiful People (Stay High)," from their upcoming album, Ohio Players, out April 5. The video showcases beautiful people across the world, bringing high-energy dancing to match the track’s feel-good sentiment. You can watch it here.

Congratulations to Julia Bullock and Thomas Adès, who have been nominated for BBC Music Magazine Awards—"celebrating the best new classical music recordings"—Bullock for the Vocal Award for her debut solo album, Walking in the Dark, and Adès for the Orchestral Award for his Dante, performed by LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel. (Both albums have been nominated for Grammy Awards.) Winners will be chosen by public vote, which begins today and closes at midnight on Friday, February 23, and announced at an awards ceremony at King’s Place in London on April 18. To have your say, visit classical-music.com/awards and vote for your favorites now.

Guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson's new album, Cloudward, is out now. Halvorson performs eight new compositions with her sextet Amaryllis—the improvisatory band that performed on her acclaimed 2022 albums Amaryllis and Belladonna: Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone), and Adam O’Farrill (trumpet). Laurie Anderson is featured on one track. The Guardian, naming Cloudward its Jazz Album of the Month, says: "Halvorson’s fusions of written and spontaneous music reach an entrancing new seamlessness and seductive warmth with this terrific set. Superb." PopMatters calls it "a shimmering, deeply satisfying example of a jazz sextet firing on all cylinders. Prepare to be astonished." Bandcamp says: "It’s only January, but it’s hard not to see this as one of the great achievements of 2024."

Ambrose Akinmusire's album Owl Song, Cécile McLorin Salvant's Ghost Song and Mélusine, and Yussef Dayes' Black Classical Music are all topics of conversation on the latest New York Times Popcast episode, "An Elastic and Impressive Moment in Jazz," hosted by Times music critic Jon Caramanica, with guests and Times music writers Marcus J. Moore and Giovanni Russonello. You can hear their conversation about "impressive recent releases" and this moment in jazz here.