Rokia Traoré is the subject of a feature interview on Pitchfork today, in which the Malian singer-songwriter now living in France discusses her career and describes the inspiration and influences behind her latest Nonesuch release, Tchamantché. "Over 10 years and four incredibly well-received albums," says Pitchfork, "Rokia Traoré has become one of world music's great synthesizers, combining the rhythms and traditions of diverse cultures from Africa and Europe into a complex sound that only she could create."

Dan Auerbach brings the music from Keep It Hid, his recently released sol debut, back home to Ohio tonight for a concert at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland with Hacienda and Those Darlins. The Boston Globe reports from Sunday's show that "the sold-out crowd certainly got what it came to hear: 90 minutes of blissfully loud, fiercely focused rock 'n' roll with heart and soul." Dan's "guitar solos were compact, penetrating bursts of roughed-up chords that chopped predictable blues-rock cliches to ribbons. And while easy to overlook, [his] voice proved an invaluable asset."

Steve Reich & Musicians' performance capped off a marathon concert at Lincoln Center's newly renovated Alice Tully Hall Tuesday night for the Hall's Opening Nights Festival. Starting the concert off was Alarm Will Sound, followed by Bang on a Can All-Stars with Glenn Kotche, whose Mobile the New York Times describes as a "bright-edged, vigorously syncopated" piece. The Times says Reich and his ensemble gave "a supple account" of the composer's Music for 18 Musicians, "a pivotal work in Mr. Reich’s canon and a score that helps define the boundary between Minimalism and post-Minimalism."

Pat Carney, The Black Keys drummer, has teamed up with Pulitzer Prize–winning author Art Spiegelman, for an animated short video showcasing Spiegelman's latest book, Be a Nose! Carney has created what Pitchfork calls "a mordant psych-groove instrumental" for Spiegelman's animated drawings. "Vintage-sounding breakbeats you might expect to find sampled on some lost trip-hop or abstract hip-hop record help soak up guitar fuzz, heavy bass, and droning organ."

Steve Reich, Glenn Kotche and Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Alarm Will Sound help celebrate the opening of Lincoln Center's spectacularly revamped Alice Tully Hall Starr Theater with a marathon evening of performances titled New York, New Music, New Hall tonight. Kotche and Bang on a Can give the New York premiere of his piece Mobile, and Steve Reich & Musicians with Synergy Vocals perform Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. It's all part of the Center's two-week Opening Nights Festival to inaugurate the new space.

David Byrne, fresh off two stellar performances at New York's Radio City Music Hall this past weekend, stopped by the Colbert Report last night to chat and perform live in the studio. "You've always been sort of an innovator," offered Stephen Colbert. "When is being on the cutting edge, being innovative and fresh and new and interesting gonna get stale? Because, wouldn't it be more surprising if David Byrne did something ordinary?" Vanity Fair reports from Radio City that it's not likely to be any time soon. Staying "tuned in" is the key to his success, and "If it keeps David Byrne young, just think what it can do for you."

Dan Auerbach plays the second of two New York area shows tonight at the Bowery Ballroom in downtown Manhattan, with openers Hacienda, which will also form his backing band, and Those Darlins. They performed last night at the Williamsburg Hall of Music in Brooklyn and the night before at Boston's Paradise Club. There, the Boston Herald says, he took "the ragged, groovy, electrified vibe of a classic Fillmore set" and fit it "with a post-grunge, post-punk, post-Black Sabbath fury," to create "original, jagged, fire-spitting guitar workouts fit for today."

Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe have announced an intimate, three-week tour of Europe to begin with three nights at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in mid-June. Cooder and Lowe’s working relationship began in the late 1980s, and following two benefit performances together at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco last year—featuring a selection of work from both their celebrated careers—the pair have decided to take their show on the road. They will be joined by Flaco Jimenez on accordion, Joachim Cooder on drums, and vocalist Juliette Commagere.

Dan Auerbach plays the first of two New York City shows tonight at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, with openers (and backing band) Hacienda plus Those Darlins. They'll all head into Manhattan to play Bowery Ballroom Tuesday. Dan is featured in a profile in the New York Times that examines the influences behind his solo debut, Keep It Hid. American Songwriter says the album's stand-out tracks are those "that flirt with folk and emphasize Auerbach’s unique voice," declaring: "Auerbach’s first forays into folk are successful ones."

Bill Frisell is gearing up for a tour of the South with Greg Leisz, starting March 15 in Austin. Leisz is featured on a number of tracks from Frisell's recently released Nonesuch retrospective, The Best of Bill Frisell, Volume 1: Folk Songs. All About Jazz asserts that for listeners new to Frisell's work, Folk Songs "is a perfect entry point," and even for Frisell aficionados, its "sequencing makes it stand on its own." What surfaces is that Frisell has maintained "an appreciation for the beauty of a simple melody"; his many influences are "re-contextualized into a nexus point of beauty and ethereality."

After giving John Adams's Doctor Atomic its UK premiere last Wednesday, English National Opera continues performances of the opera this week. "If a work forces you, simultaneously and uncomfortably, to clench your limbs and hold your breath," says The Observer, "you have to take notice." A highlight of "Adams's meditative, richly faceted score," the paper exclaims, is the aria set to John Donne's "Batter My Heart," for J. Robert Oppenheimer, "surely the finest aria written since Puccini."

Joshua Redman, with bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Greg Hutchinson, featured players on Redman's recent Nonesuch release, Compass, play the Dakota Jazz club in Minneapolis tonight and tomorrow, before starting a European tour later this week. "Redman has made some fine albums in the past," says All About Jazz, "but he's never recorded one with such clarity of purpose as the self-produced Compass." And with its success, "there's the palpable sense that the Redman has opened himself up to all manner of possibilities for future musical endeavors, proceeding directly from the cathartic self-renewal that is Compass.