David Byrne, Wilco, Allen Toussaint, and Toumani Diabaté (sharing the stage with Béla Fleck) will be among the scores of incredible performers at the 2009 Bonnaroo festival. This year's incarnation of the event will be held June 11–14 in Manchester, Tennessee. In other festival news, Coachella, in Indio, California, has also announced its lineup for 2009. The Black Keys are among the headliners for the festival's opening night, April 17, as are such legendary performer/songwriters as Leonard Cohen and Paul McCartney.

Toumani Diabaté’s The Mandé Variations has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding World Music Album. Audra McDonald was nominated for two acting awards, for her work on the TV series Private Practice and on the TV movie A Raisin in the Sun. President-elect Barack Obama, the subject of many of the works in the Image Awards' literature categories, chose Kulanjan, Diabaté's 1999 collaboration with Taj Mahal, as the only CD on his Borders Shortlist recommending five things to read, watch, and listen to.

Since the last Nonesuch Journal entry of 2008, which laid out scores of year-end best-of lists featuring Nonesuch albums and artists, still more critical praise has come in placing this music among the year's best.

While 2008 may go down as one of the more turbulent years in recent (or distant) memory, or, more optimistically, a time of change, there is much to celebrate in the year in music. Nonesuch artists across all genres have contributed to that and, accordingly, have made their way onto many critics' lists of the year's best. For the final Nonesuch Journal article of the year, we offer an overview of just some of that year-end critical praise.

The Mandé Variations, Toumani Diabaté's first solo album in more than two decades, is one of five albums CBS Sunday Morning contributor Bill Flanagan recommends as musical gift ideas "that haven't gotten the attention they deserve." Says Flanagan: "Toumani Diabaté is the master of the kora ... and he has a beautiful new album called The Mandé Variations. After a tough day looking for a parking space at the mall, this album will bring you back to a spirit of peace on Earth."

"Si Naani," the opening track to Toumani Diabaté's 2008 Grammy-nominated album, The Mandé Variations, earns a 95/100 from Jazz.com, which concludes: "This moving 10-minute track, and indeed the whole CD, will leave you anything but restless tonight. This release is an important contribution to Diabaté's oeuvre and is one of the most important recordings of traditional African music in recent memory."

The Grammy nominations are in, and a big congratulations goes out to the many Nonesuch artists whose work has been recognized by the Recording Academy, the organization behind the awards. Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Toumani Diabaté, Youssou N'Dour, Stephen Sondheim, Jonny Greenwood, and Isabel Bayrakdarian were all recognized for their recent Nonesuch releases, as were producers Danger Mouse and Judith Sherman for their work on Nonesuch albums this year.

Toumani Diabaté's US fall tour comes to a close tomorrow night at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music after a show tonight at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. The Seattle Times reports from his "showstopper" performance at the Earshot Jazz Festival last weekend that "Diabaté did not disappoint" with "a sometimes diabolically impossible round of riffs and variations." The Minneapolis City Pages calls Toumani's latest release, The Mandé Variations, a "tour de force" and "a shimmering mix of traditional and startling experimental pieces played with the exquisite touch and resolute soulfulness that are his trademarks." Time Out Chicago calls it "exquisite" as well, and the Chicago Tribune says the new album from this "legend from Mali ... affirms that he's only gotten better and bolder" over the years.

Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté is currently on tour in the US, and performs in the Bay area on Wednesday, November 5. The San Francisco Bay-Guardian's music blog, Noise, recently posted about his music and his recent album, The Mandé Variations, describing Diabaté's "ability to incorporate disparate sounds from Western pop, Indian classical music, and blues while remaining grounded in his country's tradition."

Toumani Diabaté begins a two-week tour with music from his latest solo record, The Mandé Variations, this Saturday at the Somerville Theater outside Boston. On Sunday, he comes to New York's Skirball Center, where The New Yorker suggests the "deeply meditative compositions" of the new record "promise to be quite stirring" live. Leading to next week's concerts in California, the Mercury News calls him "an unsurpassed master of the kora" whose performance on Mandé Variations "is incantatory, as Diabaté creates a rolling, hypnotic vibe that gives the album the feel of an extended suite."

The kora—the 21-string West African harp—is the focus of tonight's episode of New Sounds on WNYC, New York public radio. Toumani Diabaté, whose solo kora record, The Mandé Variations, was released earlier this year, and who was recently described by the Boston Globe as "the uncontested master" of the instrument, will be among the featured artists on the show, as will Philip Glass, for his work with Gambian musician Foday Musa Suso.

Toumani Diabaté has just announced dates for a tour across the US, with music from his latest release, The Mandé Variations. Paste magazine says that with the new record, "Mali’s reigning musical magician uncorks another genie from his bottle ... Diabaté’s magic hands coax an amazing array of voices from his instrument." The Boston Globe calls Diabaté "the uncontested master of the 21-string lute called kora" who "presents his virtuosity in a whole different light" on the new record and tour.