"Composer, pianist and living legend Allen Toussaint has helped shape the sound of R&B, soul and funk while infusing a little bit of New Orleans into it," says KCRW in naming as yesterday's Top Tune the Thelonius Monk–penned title track of Toussaint's forthcoming Nonesuch solo debut, The Bright Mississippi. Toussaint will perform during both weeks of the 40th anniversary New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which runs April 24–30 and May 1–3. Given his prominent place in the festival and the city's musical history, it's no surprise that Toussaint has made his way onto the official JazzFest 2009 poster, by artist James Michalopoulos.

In 2004, Ry Cooder commissioned San Antonio artist Vincent Valdez to paint a mural, on a refurbished 1953 Chevy ice cream truck, inspired by the LA Chicano community of Chávez Ravine, whose neighborhood was razed to make way for Dodger Stadium. The community is the subject of Cooder's 2004 album Chávez Ravine. The truck also took the name El Chávez Ravine and is now at the center of a special exhibit at the San Antonio Museum of Art.

Dan Auerbach was the featured guest on yesterday's episode of KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. Dan and band perform more than half the songs off his recent Nonesuch solo debut, Keep It Hid, live in the KCRW studios. At the end of the set, the show's host, Jason Bentley, sighs, "Man, you got some soul, brother." His favorite album tracks, he says, "really caught my attention as just soulful blues-rock of the highest order."

In an interview on ABC's World News webcast, Amadou & Mariam discuss having met at Mali's Institute for Young Blind People more than 30 years ago and explain the central role of music in their relationship's success. Also featured on ABC's site is a Pitchfork video review of the duo's new album. "Welcome to Mali is a brilliantly eclectic album," says reviewer Joe Tangari. "They have it all, really ... This is the kind of album that makes you feel more connected to the world you live in." "It’s hard to go wrong with Amadou and Mariam," concurs Dusted magazine. "[They] make great pop music, and their new album gives us more of it." The Boston Herald gives it an A.

Stephin Merritt has written the music and lyrics for a new stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, set to begin its limited-engagement run at New York City's Lucille Lortel Theatre on May 7. The production is a collaboration between Merritt, director Leigh Silverman, and writer/actor David Greenspan. Tickets go on sale this Monday, March 23, with a special discount offer available through the theater's site.

Richard Goode's series of concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra comes to a close Tuesday night. The Boston Globe, in a preview of this May's release of Goode's complete piano concertos with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, looks back at the pianist's 1993 collection of the Beethoven piano sonatas and says it "stands as one of the most important statements made about this music in recent decades." Goode, whom the St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls "a musician's musician," will perform Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto this weekend with David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Three Girls and Their Buddy, the popular series of concert featuring Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin, and Buddy Miller, has just announced a spring and summer leg of its tour and have launched a special pre-sale for tickets that will allow fans to both order early and automatically be entered to win a chance to meet and greet the stars of the artists. Pre-sale customers will also have a chance to purchase a limited-edition tour poster, autographed by the artists.

John Adams conducts the Pittsburgh Symphony with Leila Josefowicz; San Francisco Ballet dances to Adams in Mark Morris program ... Afro-Cuban All Stars tour the Midwest ... Laurie Anderson performs a new collection at the Guggenheim ... Dan Auerbach closes out US tour, makes the Very Short List ... David Byrne launches European spring tour ... Bill Frisell tours the South with Greg Leisz ... Philip Glass launches four-week series in NYC ... Richard Goode joins Boston Symphony Orchestra ... Kronos reaches Rotterdam's RedSound Festival ... Brad Mehldau Trio makes festival rounds in Australia, Singapore ... Mandy Patinkin, Patti LuPone play Delaware's DuPont ... Joshua Redman Trio play sets in Sweden, Switzerland ... Steve Reich featured at the Salzburg Biennale ... and more ...

Amadou & Mariam's new album, Welcome to Mali, receives its US release on Nonesuch in less than two weeks. Time magazine calls the album "a joyous, hook-filled guitar album with impressive range." The review notes that the blend of influences from Western rock to traditional African instrumentation provides "a thrilling sense of dislocation." The duo are also featured in the CMJ.com Spotlight, which insists that "Welcome to Mali is not to be cast off as cultural art du jour, but rather hailed as a global pop phenomenon."

Steve Reich is the featured composer at this weekend's cycle of the Salzburg Biennale, a new festival for contemporary music. Events begin tonight with a performance of choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Fase, featuring four works by Reich, and continue through the weekend with performances of Reich's works by the Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik, Synergy Ensemble, Ictus Ensemble, and the composer himself. Interspersed are performances by a traditional Balinese gamelan, to reflect its influence on the composer.

Laurie Anderson is a featured artist in the Guggenheim Museum's current exhibit The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989, which examines the influences of Asian culture on American artists. In addition to the inclusion of her work in the exhibit, the museum presents two live performances by Anderson, titled Transitory Life: Some Stories, in the Guggenheim's theater, tonight and tomorrow night.

Gerald Finley, the star of John Adams's opera Doctor Atomic, is the subject of a feature profile in the Globe and Mail, which examines Finley's work with "opera's great chronicler of modern history," particularly in a role that "sometimes feels like the nightly equivalent of a triathlon." Violinist Leila Josefowicz tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about performing Adams's The Dharma at Big Sur, which she will do again this weekend, with the composer conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The piece "takes you to a different place," she says, "with total strength vs. vulnerability at the same time."