Bill Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, Disfarmer, is out now. The Christian Science Monitor calls the album "a tour de force of jazz creativity by Bill Frisell," with the guitarist creating "a profoundly eerie merger of old-timey mountain music and jazz."

Chris Thile's first Mandolin Concerto, Ad astra per alas porci, receives its official world premiere this week in three performances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra under Jeffrey Kahane, following a test run of the piece at Interlochen this summer. "I feel like I've done a lot of examining of the mandolin's possibilities," Thile tells violin.com, "but this is the culmination of my efforts in that direction thus far." In an extensive interview with Sequenza 21, he says, "As long as I have something to play, something to sing, something to write, I'll be happy."

Alarm Will Sound makes its full-length Nonesuch debut today with the release of a/rhythmia, on which the group performs 14 pieces from composers spanning six centuries, all of which explore the concept of “arrhythmia”: “want of rhythm or regularity, specifically of the pulse.” The resulting work upends order and expectation, often taking ideas akin to minimalism and refracting them through a fun-house mirror.

John Adams's recent Nonesuch release features the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and conductor David Robertson performing the first recordings of Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony and Guide to Strange Places. Jazz.com names the latter today's Song of the Day, saying: "This is the composer at his most mature, and demonstrating an uncanny skill in channeling his personality through a symphony orchestra." The Stranger's Christopher DeLaurenti calls it his "favorite orchestral work of this decade." The Philadelphia Inquirer gives the album 3.5 stars; the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, an A-.

Christina Courtin's California concert schedule continues this week with performances in San Francisco and LA. Pop Matters describes the singer as "fearless, profound, and musically fascinating" and her "impressive" new album as "unlike anything else I have heard this year ... Lyrically precocious, and musically varied, Courtin presents herself as a chameleon, shifting through varied terrain from jazz to folk to country to pop and back again."

Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, a musical memorial for September 11, will air on WNYC and be performed in concert by the Phoenix Symphony ... Carolina Chocolate Drops celebrate Chapel Hill library's 50th ... Bill Frisell performs music of Disfarmer ... Kronos begins its season at Poland's Wratislava festival ... Low Anthem plays UK's End of the Road fest ... Brad Mehldau solos in São Paolo ... Nicholas Payton plays NY's Iridium  ... Guggenheim presents dances to Reich's Double Sextet ... Allen Toussaint plays Texas, Maryland, NYC ... and more

Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy is featured in Glide's biweekly look at favorite singer-songwriters. Columnist Jason Gonulsen reflects on the impact Tweedy's songwriting has had on him over the years, dating back to an unforgettable first listen to "Misunderstood," from Being There, the 1996 double disc slated for vinyl reissue next month. "I was immediately floored," Gonulson recalls, following a through line to the band's latest release, Wilco (the album).

Kronos Quartet announces the tour dates for its 2009/10 concert season, a season that will bring the group all over the United States and to seven countries around the globe. Highlights include a Carnegie Hall Perspectives; collaborations with artists like Wu Man, Tanya Tagaq, and Alim Qasimov; the John Adams–curated West Coast, Left Coast festival with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and several world and New York premieres.

Richard Goode's Nonesuch recording of Beethoven's Complete Piano Concertos with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra is out now. The New Yorker cites the "supple, measured lyricism" from Goode and his "sterling collaborators" on the album, finding both "the humane and poetic qualities" one has come to expect from the pianist and "truly revelatory playing" as well.

Audra McDonald was recently honored with the 2009 NAACP Theatre Award's Trailblazer Award. Next month, Audra will participate in The Actors Fund's fall 2009 benefit concert titled Chance and Chemistry: A Centennial Celebration of Frank Loesser, to be held on Monday, October 26, at the Minskoff Theater in New York.

Carolina Chocolate Drops keep it close to home in the Carolinas bringing their "palpable energy" to the Boone Hall BBQ & Bluegrass Fest ... Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed play Paris ... Bill Frisell closes out two-week residency at NYC's Village Vanguard with Paul Motian, Joe Lovano ... The Low Anthem's European tour gets under way in Ireland and UK ... Brad Mehldau tours South America solo ... Sara Watkins is out West ...

Wilco (the album) comes at a time when Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy is as content as he's been in years, and, says a Maxim magazine profile, that is a very good thing, resulting in the "most confident album of Wilco’s career ... a focused collection of poetic, emotionally direct songs that explore fear, loss, and love from a midlife perspective." Ultimately, "The triumph of Wilco (the album) ably rebuts the tortured-artist ideal."