Ry Cooder was featured on AirTalk from Southern California public radio station KPCC this morning. He spoke with host Larry Mantle about his music, his new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, and his new book, Los Angeles Stories. "With a musician’s ear for language," says the show of the book, "Cooder’s stories and the characters who people them—drifters, trolley drivers, disc jockeys, salesmen, jazz musicians and of course, cops and robbers—take us on a journey into a Los Angeles that has long gone the way of Chavéz Ravine and the red cars."

New York's Lincoln Center is the place to be to take in two groundbreaking works by composer Philip Glass this week: Koyaanisqatsi, performed by the New York Philharmonic and the Philip Glass Ensemble in Avery Fisher Hall, and the return of Satyagraha to the Metropolitan Opera in the first revival of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s 2008 production. The November 8 Satyagraha performance includes a pre-concert talk by Nico Muhly and will stream live online. On November 19, the opera will be transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series.

Nonesuch Records wishes k.d. lang a very happy 50th birthday today. She and her band the Siss Boom Bang perform in Singapore tonight in advance of their Australia tour featuring music from their new album, Sing it Loud. The two-week tour kicks off in Western Australia this Saturday and includes six nights at Sydney's State Theatre. "It's nice to be able to sing this material because it engages the band," lang tells the West Australian, "and translates to the audience in a really fun way."

Jessica Lea Mayfield launches a three-week headlining US tour in Chattanooga, Tennessee, tonight. From there, the tour makes stops throughout the South, with shows in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Virginia. Following her headlining tour, Mayfield will join the Drive-By Truckers for a few shows up North. She'll also play two additional headlining dates in Brooklyn and Annapolis. She supports Ryan Adams on tour in December.

Desdemona, Rokia Traoré's theatrical collaboration with director Peter Sellars and novelist Toni Morrison, receives its NY premiere at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater tonight and tomorrow as part of the White Light Festival. The New York Times describes it as "an interactive narrative of words, music and song about Shakespeare’s doomed heroine, who speaks to the audience from the grave about the traumas of race, class, gender, war—and the transformative power of love." The Los Angeles Times calls it "astonishing ... a great, challenging, haunting and lasting work."

Stephen Sondheim is due to receive the Handel Medallion, New York City's highest award for achievement in the arts, from Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a ceremony for the Mayor's Awards for Arts & Culture held this evening at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. Sondheim is due to receive the 2011 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement in an event at the Chicago Humanities Festival this weekend. His second book of collected lyrics, Look, I Made a Hat, is due out later this month.

The line-up for the 2012 American Songbook series from Lincoln Center has been announced, and among the artists performing are mandolinist Chris Thile and guitarist Michael Daves. The duo will perform songs from their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open, at The Allen Room in Frederick P. Rose Hall, overlooking New York's Central Park, on Thursday, January 12. Tickets are go on sale to the general public on November 14. Friends of Lincoln Center will be given early access on November 3. 

The results of the 76th annual DownBeat Readers Poll have been announced, and topping the list for Jazz Album of the Year is Brad Mehldau's solo CD/DVD Live in Marciac. Mehldau was also named the year's Best Pianist. Joining him among DownBeat readers' favorites are two Nonesuch artists with whom Mehldau has collaborated: Pat Metheny, named Best Guitarist, and Joshua Redman, named Best Tenor Saxophone. “There is no recording more befitting the title of Jazz Album of the Year than Brad Mehldau’s Live in Marciac," says DownBeat. "He is setting a new standard.”

Perhaps you've heard The Black Keys' new single, "Lonely Boy," off their forthcoming album, El Camino? Perhaps you'd like to hear it again? Why not? Listen again here. Rolling Stone, which gives the song four stars, calls it "a swift, sturdy hunk of all-American cool.” Stereogum says it's “a fired-up rager with a surf-inflected central riff and a jumpy, restless organ … It’s a seriously catchy, energetic song.” VH1 says it's "as raw and infectious as anything the Black Keys have ever produced, possessing that rare, uncanny quality that crawls under your skin, breathing life into otherwise inert parts of your body, making you move in ways that are both spectacular and completely organic."

Laurie Anderson performs at Other Voices NYC: A Celebration of Music and Literature benefit concert ... Björk continues Biophilia residency in Reykjavik ... Carolina Chocolate Drops' Dom Flemons performs solo in Chicago ... Richard Goode joins the LA Philharmonic for Mozart ... Wanda Jackson tours Switzerland ... Gidon Kremer joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Schumann ... Audra McDonald performs two NY benefit concerts ... Pat Metheny Trio is in Budapest, as is Steve Reich ... Stephen Sondheim talks in Costa Mesa ... Rokia Traoré performs Desdemona in Berkeley ... and more ... 

Nonesuch Records releases jazz pianist Brad Mehldau’s Art of the Trio Recordings: 1996–2001 on December 6, 2011. The set includes the five original Art of the Trio albums (the fifth volume includes two CDs), released over a prolific four year period from 1997 to 2001; a seventh disc of previously unreleased material from shows at the Village Vanguard completes the box. These recordings feature Mehldau’s longtime trio with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy. New liner notes by Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson include interviews with all three trio members.

As Björk's fully sold-out Biophilia residency in Reykjavik continues, we are happy to announce that one lucky fan has won a trip for two to the closing-night performance on November 7. Congratulations to Justin Allan from Seattle! The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog, reviewing the show, says Björk "gave a commanding performance ... sharing the joy of a magical evening." The Onion's A.V. Club says that "the mix of concert and performance art was easily summarized: stunning." The New York Times calls the larger Biophilia project "among the most creative, innovative and important new projects in popular culture."