In 2004, Caetano Veloso curated a week of special concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall and invited his longtime friend and collaborator David Byrne to join him for the show heard on the new album Caetano Veloso and David Byrne: Live at Carnegie Hall, out now. The album earns four stars from Glide, the Guardian, and the Observer, which calls it "an entrancing showcase of their respective talents ... and even on disc a sense of joy and spontaneity is palpable." The Herald Scotland says the album "leaves the listener grinning from ear to ear." The New York Daily News includes it among the best new albums. The Seattle Times calls the concert "an absolute jewel."

Today marks the start of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference in Austin, Texas, when 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 Punch Brothers, Dr. John, and The Low Anthem. The Warner Sound showcase, featuring Punch Brothers and Dr. John, will stream live via YouTube Wednesday night.

The Black Keys' North American arena tour brought the band to NYC last night for a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden, the band's first-ever headlining show at the venue. They head next to Canada for shows in Montreal tonight and Toronto tomorrow. "The Black Keys are rock stars, and their traditional rock sound electrified Madison Square Garden on Monday night," exclaims the AP, which calls the show "exhilarating, bluesy and loud." Rolling Stone says: "[T]he songs from El Camino cast a spell over the packed arena as Auerbach wound their hooks into broad, euphoric payoffs."

The Low Anthem is set to join The Chieftains this week as the legendary Irish band marks its 50th anniversary, performing on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight on CBS; in concert from WGBH radio, streaming this Friday on NPR Music; and, on Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, live at Carnegie Hall. The Low Anthem will play its own set for SXSW at Austin's ACL Live at the Moody Theater on Thursday. Next week, the band can be heard on The Hunger Games soundtrack.

Benjamín Escoriza, the Spanish singer and former vocalist of Radio Tarifa, died on March 9, 2012, after a long illness. Benjamín Escoriza was born in Colomera, Granada, in 1953 and moved to Madrid in 1989, where he met Vicente Molino and Fain Sanchez Dueñas. They would form the band Radio Tarifa, which release four albums on World Circuit/Nonesuch Records: Rumba Argelina, Temporal, Cruzando el Rio, and Fiebre.

The Black Keys have brought their North American arena tour to New York City for a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden tonight with special guests Arctic Monkeys, following the weekend's stellar shows in DC and Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Inquirer raves: "They are a big band in these small times, and Saturday night they delivered a smoking-gun performance—which is to say they killed—at the sold-out Wells Fargo Center." The Washington Post exclaims: "Friday night the band thrilled the crowd that packed Verizon Center with nearly two hours of a brand of guitar rock whose demise, judging from this show, has been greatly exaggerated."

Carolina Chocolate Drops continued their US tour over weekend with two sold-out shows and could be heard far and wide all over the public-radio airwaves, on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday and PRI's Here and Now discussing their new album, Leaving Eden, and on PRI's Studio 360. "The Carolina Chocolate Drops put new life into old-timey music with their 2010 release Genuine Negro Jig, put a contemporary spin on southern string tunes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries," says Weekend Edition's Scott Simon. "And that collection went on to win a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. Now, the Chocolate Drops have returned with their banjos, bare bones and fiddles."

The new album pairing works by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki with the works they inspired by Jonny Greenwood is due out next week. Greenwood is the subject of an extensive feature article in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine that traces the roots of his compositions to his appreciation for Penderecki's music, through his own film scores and to the ever-evolving sounds of Radiohead. "Greenwood cites an early-’90s concert of Penderecki’s music as a conversion experience," says the Times; "he’s obsessed with Penderecki the way a lot of people are obsessed with Radiohead."

The Black Keys continue their North American arena tour with sold-out shows at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, and the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia ... Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer concludes at ENO ... Laurie Anderson brings Delusion to NYC ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in Maine and on NPR ... Richard Goode plays in Kansas City ... Guettel's Floyd Collins is in London ... Kronos Quartet, Billy Childs, and Bill Frisell are in LA ... Brad Mehldau Trio tours Germany, Italy ... Natalie Merchant gives anti-fracking benefit show in upstate NY ... Randy Newman is in Utrecht ... Punch Brothers are in LA ... Steve Reich joins Bang on a Can at MIT ... and more ...

On January 12, 2010, an earthquake struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti 10 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, damaging nearly 190,000 houses and displacing some 500,000 people. In November 2011, Nonesuch Records staffer Stephanie Bauman joined four fellow Warner Music Group employees for the 28th annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Habitat for Humanity work project in Léogâne, Haiti. She and the WMG team joined President Carter and 400 other volunteers from all over the US in helping to rebuild. Read about Stephanie's unforgettable experience here and see photos from the project.

Punch Brothers celebrated the release of their new album last month with a special show at NYC's Rockwood Music Hall. Their performance of the song "Movement and Location" from that night has premiered in a video on The New Yorker's site; watch it here. Salon's Seth Mnookin calls the song "a propulsive masterpiece that sets the tone, both musically and thematically, for what’s to come" on the album. "Punch Brothers have achieved a kind of mind-meld that’s only possible when preternaturally talented musicians spend hours pushing themselves, and each other, to explore their passion and creativity." 

As part of their 2011-12 Centennial Season, Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony launch a month-long American Mavericks Festival of music by pioneers of the American sound. The Festival begins at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall tonight, with performances there through March 18, followed by a national tour to Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium, and Carnegie Hall in New York through March 30. The American Mavericks Festival explores the music of path-breaking composers like Steve Reich and builds on their visionary spirit with world-premieres, including John Adams's "Absolute Jest." Watch Adams discuss the piece here.