Composer, singer, and instrumental polymath Ben LaMar Gay's new album, Open Arms to Open Us, is due November 19 on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. Living up to NPR's claim that "there is no one universe for Ben LaMar Gay, he just sonic booms from one sound to another," he interweaves jazz, blues, ballads, R&B, raga, new music, nursery rhyme, Tropicália, two-step, hip-hop, and beyond in his most colorful and communicable work yet, an expression of his signature omni-genre, "Pan-Americana" brew. You can watch the video for the track "Sometimes I Forget How Summer Looks on You," featuring OHMME, here.

Randy Newman is the guest on the season four finale of the podcast Score. He talks with hosts Robert Kraft and Kenny Holmes about his film music, his family's film scoring legacy, and more. You can watch their conversation here.

Congratulations to Lianne La Havas, whose 2020 self-titled album has been named Best Album at the Ivor Novello Awards. The Ivors celebrate creative excellence by British and Irish songwriters and screen composers. The 66th awards presentation took place at Grosvenor House in London today.

Chris Thile hosted a centenary celebration for the esteemed Town Hall in New York City from just around the corner, outdoors in Bryant Park, for the culmination of the park's Picnic Performances season last night. He was joined on stage by Cécile McLorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner, Timo Andres, Zakir Hussain and Ganesh Rajagopalan, Emily King, Damon Daunno, and others for the evening of performances honoring the hall's storied past. You can watch it here.

Jeremy Denk’s Mozart Piano Concertos is now available on Nonesuch Records. Denk is joined by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for two Mozart concertos—No. 25 in C Major, K. 503 and No. 20 in D minor, K. 466—bookending the composer’s solo Rondo in A minor, K. 511. "Denk approaches everything with questing intelligence and energy," says the Observer. "His ornaments and cadenzas are full of wit and imagination, his ear for detail incisive and bracing. The excellent Saint Paul players match his variety and range of expression. As ever, Denk’s probing liner notes shed light, making an already engrossing album more than worth the purchase.”

k.d. lang and producer Tracy Young release “Constant Craving (Fashionably Late Remix)” on Nonesuch Records today. It's the first-ever official remix of lang’s 1993 Grammy-winning hit and follows the recent release of makeover, a new collection of classic dance remixes from the era. You can watch the new remix video, featuring paper dolls designed by a fan, Katja Virtanen, here. "When ‘Constant Craving’ was the single, my team wanted to do a remix of it, and I was feeling protective and said ‘No, I don’t want to touch it," lang recalls. "When we were putting together makeover, we realized we didn’t have a ‘Constant Craving’ remix! And that was why.” Young says: "The song continues to resonate through generations, and it speaks about the struggles of life and the resiliency of the human spirit—an inspirational message that is so needed right now." Young will debut the remix in her headlining DJ sets at Miami Pride and Orlando Pride in the coming weeks.

The 2014 Record Store Day split vinyl 7" single on which Conor Oberst and Dawes covered each other's tunes—Oberst performing Dawes' "Million Dollar Bill" and Dawes performing the Bright Eyes song "Easy/Lucky/Free"—is now available digitally to download and stream. "As far as I’m concerned, between Bright Eyes and his solo records, Conor Oberst is one of the greatest songwriters that has played the game," says Dawes' Taylor Goldsmith. "We tried our best to make 'Easy/Lucky/Free' sound like a Dawes song and Conor did the same thing to 'Million Dollar Bill.' Happy to bring these recordings back to life."

The Black Keys will release a special tenth anniversary edition of their landmark seventh studio album El Camino via Nonesuch Records on November 5. El Camino (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) will be available in several formats including a Super Deluxe edition of five vinyl LPs—with a remastered version of the original album, a previously unreleased Live in Portland, ME concert recording, a 2012 BBC Radio 1 Zane Lowe session, a 2011 Electro-Vox session, an extensive photo book, a limited-edition poster and lithograph, and a “new car scent” air freshener—or four CDs minus the poster and air freshener. A three-LP edition, which include the remastered album and the live recording, will also be available, as well as a special fan club version of the three-LP set. You can watch a new trailer, with Derrick T. Tuggle, here.

The 75th Ojai Music Festival takes place this week, September 16–19, with events led by 2021 Music Director John Adams, the Ojai debuts of Rhiannon Giddens and Attacca Quartet, and the return of Timo Andres all streaming for free live from the Libbey Bowl in Ojai, California.

The Big Ears Festival returns—for the first time since 2019—to Knoxville, Tennessee, March 24–27, 2022, with music from Caroline Shaw, Sō Percussion, Kronos Quartet, Jeff Parker, Tristan Perich, and Attacca Quartet, among many others.

David Byrne was on NPR's Bullseye with Jesse Thorn to discuss David Byrne's American Utopia, the Spike Lee film of which has won two Emmy Awards, and the theatrical production of which returns to Broadway this Friday. "If you wanted to find a common theme in his work, maybe it's that David Byrne has always worked to push the boundaries of what pop music can be," says Thorn. "While at the same time, he takes high art ... and makes it more accessible and familiar." You can hear their conversation here.

Chris Thile is on American Songwriter's Basic Folk podcast to talk with host Cindy Howes about his new solo album, Laysongs. "How beautiful and intoxicating finding a little bit of truth can be," he says. "We start to consider it a threat to that truth that we've discovered for ourselves, a threat to the good that we perceive it doing for ourselves when someone else doesn't accept that as true. And I think that's giving all of us a whole lot of trouble right now, on the internet and everywhere else." You can hear their conversation here.