Allen Toussaint, fresh off the heels of his New Orleans JazzFest performances, is set to play a free outdoor performance in Las Vegas Saturday night. The New York Daily News writes of his solo Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi: "It's a marvel on every level ... The feel for New Orleans music offered on the CD defies every garish cliché of the region, epitomizing instead a subtlety and dignity that have marked Toussaint's music from the start." All About Jazz calls it "a rich and multi-layered CD ... Toussaint, with producer Joe Henry, has crafted a sound that is modern yet traditional, jazzy yet funky, soulful yet pristine and completely elegant." The Ottawa Citizen gives it four stars, exclaiming: "It's a killer."

Wilco (the album) is due out June 30 on Nonesuch, and Billboard offers a hint of what's to come, stating that, "musically, Wilco (the album) offers a little bit of everything while making good on frontman Jeff Tweedy's stated goal to use 'the studio as another instrument.'" The article offers insight on each of the album's tracks, including its "majestic" closer and "a gorgeous duet" with Feist. Blurt magazine's review of the band's new concert DVD, Ashes of American Flags, compares it favorably to Scorsese's The Last Waltz, leading the reviewer to commit to Wilco as "the greatest American rock 'n' roll band."

The Brad Mehldau Trio returned to the Village Vanguard in New York's Greenwich Village this past Tuesday for the first in a five-night residency of a dozen sold-out sets. "[T]here was looseness in his first set on Tuesday night, along with variety and depth of feeling," says the New York Times. "Mr. Mehldau conveyed a spruce informality, mixing impulse with erudition." By set's end, "His sound, completely luminous, filled the room." The Chicago Tribune calls last Friday's Trio performance at that city's Symphony Center "delightful," exclaiming that Mehldau's "collaboration with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard reaffirmed one's belief in the enduring viability of the jazz trio."

Dawn Upshaw and pianist Gilbert Kalish performed at Boston's Jordan Hall on Sunday afternoon, in what the Boston Globe calls a "memorable" recital. "She is, indisputably, a great singer, with a voice that radiates power and unforced warmth," says the Globe. "But her secret weapon is a casual, unpretentious demeanor that lessens the distance between stage and audience. Listeners in her presence experience music not as the inaccessible product of a holy art but as a thing of open, approachable beauty." Later this month, Nonesuch will reissue, as MP3 albums, exclusively in the Nonesuch Store, five recordings of the Haydn piano sonatas Kalish made for the label between 1975 and 1980.

Coraline, the new musical featuring music by Stephin Merritt and based on the Neil Gaiman horror/children's book, opens in previews tonight at New York's MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel. Merritt spoke with the Village Voice for an extensive article about the play. "Since the earliest Magnetic Fields albums," says the Voice, "critics have drawn comparisons between Merritt's songwriting and that of Cole Porter and Irving Berlin ... So it seemed only a matter of time before he would imitate those idols and write for the stage."

Fresh off yesterday's release on Nonesuch of Richard Goode's recording of the complete Beethoven piano concertos and his performance last night at Carnegie Hall, Goode joins WNYC's Leonard Lopate for a performance on today's show. The Huffington Post exclaims that the album's release signals "a great day for classical music," asserting: "If you're in the mood to hear five of the greater piano concertos ever written ... then Richard Goode's your man. Oh, there are other pianists who have climbed this mountain, but of the living practitioners, Goode stands alone. He's given the bulk of his creative life to Beethoven. And it shows."

Today marks the release of Richard Goode's first-ever recording of the complete Beethoven piano concertos, with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor Iván Fischer. In a perfect five-star review of the recording, the Financial Times declares it a "landmark recording of the Beethoven concertos." The review continues: "Goode makes the familiar sound unexpectedly fresh. He plays without mannerism, without stylistic quirks, without making anything sound predictable." Goode performs solo works by Bach and Chopin tonight at Carnegie Hall.

The Brad Mehldau Trio sets up shop tonight for a five-night residency at New York's Village Vanguard, the site of the group's most recent recordings, Live  and the Nonesuch Store exclusive MP3 collection Live: The Complete Friday Night Sets. The New York Times says that Live shows that the pianist's "peerless trio ... has the glide to elevate just about anything, including Mr. Mehldau’s savvy originals." The Village Voice declares: "Hard to beat a mix of killer chops and songbook savvy." The Guardian gives four stars to Brad's recent Wigmore Hall solo performance, calling him "the doyen of contemporary jazz pianists, an improviser whose instinctive, emotional command of the instrument is complemented by a formidable intellect."

Richard Goode's recording of all five Beethoven piano concertos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor Iván Fischer, is set for release on Nonesuch this week. The New York Times examines both the new set and Goode's earlier recordings in an in-depth look at the pianist's career and his extensive history with the label, describing it as "a long and productive affiliation ... that any musician would envy." Even in an earlier time when such relationships were perhaps less rare, "Mr. Goode would have stood out for his fastidious musicianship, infallible fingers, warming spirit and vital connection to the living traditions set down by his predecessors."

Nonesuch will release its second album by Grammy Award–winning singer/songwriter/guitarist Shawn Colvin, Live, on June 23, 2009. Recorded in 2008 during a special three night solo engagement at San Francisco’s famous jazz club Yoshi’s, Live includes 12 songs written or co-written by Colvin, as well as covers of songs by Robbie Robertson, Gnarls Barkley, and the Talking Heads. The record was co-produced by Colvin and longtime collaborator John Leventhal.

Allen Toussaint helped close the 40th anniversary New Orleans JazzFest "on an upbeat note" yesterday, says USA Today. NPR's Fresh Air says that "Toussaint sounds as eternal as New Orleans" on his recent Nonesuch release, The Bright Mississippi. "Whether he's reworking Ellington, Bechet or Reinhardt, Toussaint infuses the numbers with his own elegant funk, particularly evident in his piano work, never so varied and flowing." The Observer says the pianist and his band "dip into the New Orleans fountain of jazz youth" on the album, and "Toussaint's own piano rolls along as ornately and authentically as ever.

Dawn Upshaw was in Boston yesterday for a performance with pianist Gilbert Kalish at Jordan Hall of works by a wide variety of composers, from Ravel to Golijov. Upshaw, with her ability to transform whatever she chooses to perform "into a soul-rattling artistic experience," is the subject of an extensive feature profile in the Boston Globe that describes her as "one of the most significant and dramatically moving singers before the public today ... Upshaw's rare gift as a performer is an ability to inhabit a work on the most profound levels, to live the music on stage rather than sing it at you."