Audra McDonald marked the release of her new album, Go Back Home, with an appearance on PBS's Charlie Rose. The two discuss the personal nature of the new album, her career in theater and on television, and the upcoming broadcast of "Audra McDonald In Concert: Go Back Home," on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center this Friday, May 24, featuring her recent performance in concert at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall. 

Pat Metheny’s recording of John Zorn’s Tap: The Book of Angels, Vol. 20 from Zorn’s Masada Book Two was released yesterday on Nonesuch Records and Tzadik. The album was featured on NPR's All Things Considered last night. "Metheny takes what's on the page and goes to work conjuring," says NPR's Tom Moon. "The result is an ornate, stunningly vivid sound world that neither artist would have found on his own." Listen to the complete All Things Considered review here.

Sam Amidon, who is currently touring Europe in support of his new album, Bright Sunny South, has performed the album track "As I Roved Out," for The Line of Best Fit. On the new album, Amidon delves "further in compelling expressions that draw jazz and folk influences together to an entirely unique place," says the site. Watch that performance and his recent set for ABC Radio in Australia, which has named Bright Sunny South its Album of the Week. The Daily Telegraph and Irish Times give the album four stars.

Iron and Wine recently concluded the first leg of its tour featuring music from the new album Ghost on Ghost, making stops along the US East Coast. While in New York last month, Sam Beam and the band stopped by WFUV, 90.7 FM, to discuss and perform a few songs from the album—"Grace for Saints and Ramblers," "Low Light Buddy of Mine," and "The Desert Babbler"— for Words and Music from Studio A. You can watch those performances here. The European tour starts next week, and the next leg of the North American tour in September is on sale now.

Björk has brought her live Biophilia show back to North America, starting with the first of three shows outside San Francisco tonight, followed by two at the Hollywood Palladium where the venues have been set to her original Biophilia specifications as audio-visual shows in an intimate, in-the-round setting. In addition to her Biophilia performances, Björk will also appear at the Hollywood Bowl and at Echo Beach in Toronto along with three festival appearances: Pitchfork Festival, Bonnaroo, and the RBC Bluesfest in Ottawa.

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim have won the Village Voice Obie Award for Music/Lyrics for Here Lies Love; the ceremony was held at Webster Hall in New York on Monday and featured a performance from the cast. Here Lies Love has also won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, which will be presented tomorrow at Sardi's. The musical, which opened at the Public Theater in April, has now been extended a fourth and final time to run through July 28. Director Alex Timbers is featured on the latest episode of Studio 360, which you can listen to here.

Stephen Sondheim's latest musical, Road Show, begins a six-week run at the Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, Texas, tonight, marking its first regional theatre production. The Guardian has described Road Show as "an intimate epic that, while giving enormous pleasure, aspires to be nothing less than a state-of-the-nation musical." Variety calls it "an alluring odyssey ... [N]obody who cares about musical theater should miss it." Nonesuch Records and PS Classics released the original cast recording of Road Show in 2009.

Pat Metheny’s recording of John Zorn’s Tap: The Book of Angels, Vol. 20 from Zorn’s Masada Book Two is out now, their first collaboration. The New York Times calls it "audacious ... an impressive feat of imagination, and a strikingly clear distillation of both artists’ distinctive languages." The Independent says it's "dazzlingly virtuosic and evocative." All About Jazz calls it "a suite of half a dozen cinematic pieces, some of truly epic proportions ... the work of an artist who is doing anything but resting on his considerable laurels and accomplishments."

Audra McDonald’s first solo album in seven years—Go Back Home—is out now. The album features songs by composers with whom she has long been associated (Adam Guettel, Michael John LaChiusa, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim) and some, like the Kander & Ebb title track, relatively new to her repertoire; in addition, McDonald continues to champion works by an emerging generation of composers. New York exclaims: "It's entirely possible that Audra McDonald is the greatest singer alive." The New York Times, which describes her concert for this Friday's Live From Lincoln Center on PBS as "absolutely thrilling," visited McDonald to capture an intimate performance of Guettel's "Migratory V," which you can watch here.

Congratulations to composer John Adams, who received an honorary degree from Yale University at the school's 312th Commencement held in New Haven yesterday. Adams' fellow honorees include Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and author Edwidge Danticat (seated in the photo with Adams). "You have pushed the boundaries of music, layering sound upon sound, playing with silence and speech and song, extending minimalism," read the citation honoring Adams. "Creating symphonies, choral works, concerti, and historical operas, your compositions have comforted and confronted, amused and amazed, challenged and transformed."

Pat Metheny’s recording of John Zorn’s Tap: The Book of Angels, Vol. 20 from Zorn’s Masada Book Two is out this week. Metheny and Zorn spoke with the New York Times about this, their first collaboration. "An impressive feat of imagination, and a strikingly clear distillation of both artists’ distinctive languages," writes the Times' Nate Chinen, "the album strongly suggests an artistic dialogue." Metheny and Zorn appeared on BBC Radio 6 Music for Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone in the UK, where the album earns four stars from the Daily Telegraph, the Scotsman, the Times, and the Independent, which concludes: "It's all dazzlingly virtuosic and evocative."

Audra McDonald, whose new album, Go Back Home, is out tomorrow, was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. She spoke with NPR's Jeff Lunden about her personal connection to the songs on the album, which is noted as well in an Associated Press feature. Both the new album and this Friday's broadcast of her concert on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center "pull back the curtain on one of the most decorated women on Broadway," says the AP. "The CD's title taken from the stunning Kander and Ebb song from The Scottsboro Boys musical is a hint that this is McDonald's most personal album to date." New York recommends both, exclaiming: "It's entirely possible that Audra McDonald is the greatest singer alive."