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  • Friday, February 13, 2009

    There's no shortage of unforgettable musical memories for Valentine's: Brad Mehldau, Anne Sofie von Otter bring his Love Songs to Cambridge ... Adams works feature in dances by the Pennsylvania Ballet and by Savion Glover with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra ... Dan Auerbach plays Conan ... David Byrne ends his Southern Hemisphere tour ... Gipsy Kings play three nights ... Philip Glass, Patti Smith honor Allen Ginsberg; Glass plays marathon Music in 12 Parts ... Richard Goode performs Bach, Chopin in Budapest ... Punch Brothers play convivial California ... Alvin Ailey dances Reich ... Allen Toussaint continues Joe's Pub residency ... Rokia Traoré concludes US tour ... Dawn Upshaw's Australian tour closes ... and more ...

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend Events
  • Friday, February 13, 2009

    Rokia Traoré's two-week tour of the US comes to a close this weekend with a performance at the Somerville Theatre outside Boston tonight and a return to New York Saturday for show at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts. Rokia is the subject of a feature article in the Boston Globe, which examines her unique blend of traditional and modern sounds and instruments, contending that she has "found a potent muse in the sound of an old electric guitar," the Gretsch, featured prominently on her new album, Tchamantché.

    Journal Topics: On Tour
  • Friday, February 13, 2009

    Youssou N'Dour is partnering with IntraHealth International, the non-profit working to promote sustainable, accessible health care around the world, on a charity album titled OPEN Remix. It will benefit a new IntraHealth OPEN Initiative, created to address critical health issues in Africa by putting the latest open-source software technologies directly in the hands of health workers. Nas, Duncan Sheik, Peter Buck, and other artists have joined Youssou in the effort, donating remixes of his song "Wake Up (It's Africa Calling)" to raise funds and visibility for the new initiative.

    Journal Topics: Artist News
  • Friday, February 13, 2009

    Dan Auerbach will be the musical guest on tonight's Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Tune in to catch Dan perform a song off his solo debut album, Keep It Hid. The show airs on NBC starting at 12:35 AM ET. The Associated Press finds Keep It Hid "every bit as brainy, engaging and powerful as" Dan's work with The Black Keys and also sees him "stepping out, stretching a bit" on the new album. It's "full of tasty sounds," says the AP, and "shows an understanding of what really makes rock roll."

    Journal Topics: Reviews, Television
  • Thursday, February 12, 2009

    Allen Toussaint, fresh off his celebratory weekend at the Grammys, during which he was awarded the Trustees Award and performed on the live CBS telecast, is in the New York City studios of WNYC to talk with Soundcheck this afternoon about his forthcoming Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi, and perform songs from the album. It is Toussaint's first solo record in more than a decade. Fans in New York City this weekend can also catch Toussaint perform live at Joe's Pub on Sunday.

    Journal Topics: Radio
  • Thursday, February 12, 2009

    Joshua Redman's recently released double-trio album, Compass, finds the saxophonist "doing his best work yet," says the San Jose Mercury News. The album exhibits "a mood that ranges from ghostly to goosebump exuberant." Redman and "some of the best players of his generation" come together for interplay that is at once "intuitive, rambunctious, brilliant." The Vancouver Sun exclaims: "In or out of the groove, Redman and company perform magnificently."

    Journal Topics: Reviews
  • Wednesday, February 11, 2009

    Wilco is set to release a new concert DVD, Ashes of American Flags, on Nonesuch, Saturday, April 18, at independent retailers and nonesuch.com nationwide as part of national Record Store Day. The film, shot in high-def and produced and directed by Christoph Green and Fugazi’s Brendan Canty, presents Wilco live in concert during their 2008 tour. Culled from concerts in five quintessentially American venues—Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, The Mobile Civic Center in Mobile, The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC—it captures the energy, poignancy, and musicality of a Wilco concert and tour.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Video
  • Wednesday, February 11, 2009

    Rokia Traoré returns to New York City for a performance of songs from her latest release, Tchamantché, at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village. The Chicago Tribune calls this week's performance at Chicago's Old Town School of Music "riveting," one that showed the many facets of the "fascinatingly complex singer ... who embraces but also stretches centuries-old traditions." Throughout, "the incredible Traoré was in command of stage, song and crowd alike."

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Reviews
  • Wednesday, February 11, 2009

    Brad Mehldau will be joined by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter at Carnegie Hall tonight for the world premiere of his new work Love Songs. The piece, written for von Otter, is Brad's third Carnegie Hall commission for voice and song; it is set to poems by Sara Teasdale, Philip Larkin, and e. e. cummings, each poet with a different perspective on love. Mehldau and von Otter will perform a number of American popular songs as well. On the first half of the program, pianist Bengt Forsberg will accompany von Otter on works by Sibelius, Hahn, and Schumann, and perform piano works by Ravel and Dukas.

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News
  • Wednesday, February 11, 2009

    Dan Auerbach's Keep It Hid, earns an 85 from Paste, which says that Dan "explores the crossroads of early-‘70s rock and swampy ballads" on the album, while placing "more emphasis on melody and spacious production, bolstering his familiar barn-burning blues with a sense of exploration and comfort." The review concludes: "He’s a gifted songwriter, and his experience behind the microphone lends a melodic anchor to his guitar riffs, which blister and burn but rarely muddle their hooks in waves of amplified skuzz." The Times Herald-Record gives an A grade to this "ethereal, raw, visceral and wondrous" new record, "one of the great hidden emotion albums."

    Journal Topics: Reviews
  • Tuesday, February 10, 2009

    Dan Auerbach's new Nonesuch release, Keep It Hid, scores a 9 out of 10 from Pop Matters. Citing influences from Motown to bluegrass, the review explains: "Auerbach never seems to be straining himself or merely appropriating other, signature sounds just for the sake of doing so. The music he has so obviously, and voraciously, absorbed makes him who he is, pure and simple ... It is not unlike the best Black Keys material, with all the obvious and not-so-obvious influences on the surface, unfolding into something startlingly original."

    Journal Topics: Reviews
  • Tuesday, February 10, 2009

    Orlando "Cachaíto" López, the legendary Cuban bassist, died in a Havana hospital yesterday, after complications from a routine operation. Born in Havana in 1933, Cachaíto came from one of Cuba’s foremost musical dynasties, which included his father, Orestes López and uncle, Israel "Cachao" López, and he was considered by many as the finest bass player in the world. The "heartbeat of the Buena Vista Social Club," bass player Cachaíto was the only musician to have played on every album in the Buena Vista Social Club series.

    Journal Topics: Artist News