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  • Monday, December 14, 2009

    Randy Newman has announced that he will tour Europe in April and May 2010 to support the release of his acclaimed, best-selling album Harps and Angels, his first album of new material in nine years and the first record of his 40-year career ever to chart in the UK. The tour includes dates in Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, UK, and Holland, and follows a February performance at UCLA in February.

    Journal Topics: On Tour
  • Monday, December 14, 2009

    The revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A Little Night Music opened last night at the Walter Kerr Theatre, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury; Nonesuch Records / PS Classics will record the cast album in January. New York calls the revival a "stunning, twilit, devastatingly good new production ... beautiful." Sondheim and Lansbury talk to the magazine about this and their previous work together. NPR's Weekend Edition looks at a different sort of relationship with ties to the play. USA Today praises both Lansbury and Sondheim's score for their "blend of wit and poignancy."

    Journal Topics: Reviews, Radio
  • Friday, December 11, 2009

    The Associated Press has announced its Top Ten list of the best albums of 2009, and on it are Wilco's Wilco (the album) at No. 3 and Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi at No. 9. Included as Honorable Mention is Dan Auerbach's solo debut, Keep It Hid, and Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali is "also one of the year's best."

    Journal Topics: Artist News
  • Friday, December 11, 2009

    Nonesuch Records and PS Classics will record the cast album of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A Little Night Music on January 4, 2010. The production, which opens on December 13, 2009, at the Walter Kerr Theatre, stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury, and Alexander Hanson. Directed by Trevor Nunn, it is the first revival of the show since its 1973 debut. Tommy Krasker will produce the album.

    Journal Topics: Album Release, News
  • Friday, December 11, 2009

    John Adams leads El Niño with Dawn Upshaw at Carnegie Hall ... Amadou & Mariam play the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo ... the Assads stop by A Prairie Home Companion live in NY ... Christina Courtin plays NY's Rockwood Music Hall ... Philip Glass is solo in Istanbul ... Emmylou Harris supports Epilepsy Foundation in Nashville ... Kronos reunites with Joan Jeanrenaud in Berkeley ... Brad Mehldau joins Haden, Konitz, Motian at Birdland ... Joshua Redman plays with James Farm in Philly ... Sara Watkins joins Grant Lee Phillips in LA ... and more ...

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend Events
  • Friday, December 11, 2009

    BlakRoc, the album that brought together The Black Keys, Damon Dash, and a star-studded lineup of hip-hop MCs, is now available digitally at nonesuch.com for fans in the US and Canada at the same audiophile-quality 320kbps MP3s available throughout the site. The A.V. Club gives the album an A, saying it "defeats all odds by sounding both organic and cohesive." The Houston Chronicle gives it four stars, calling it "a sinewy masterpiece."

    Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News, Reviews
  • Friday, December 11, 2009

    Wilco's latest Nonesuch release, Wilco (the album), has been named Album of the Year by the Independent, which has an exclusive interview with Jeff Tweedy as well. In a year that has been "a fine year for albums," the paper's Andy Gill calls Wilco's newest "an extraordinary achievement." Also on his list of favorites is Oh My God, Charlie Darwin from The Low Anthem, "this year's most intriguing new Americana-indie offshoot." The Boston Herald concurs, placing both albums on its Top 10 of 2009.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Reviews
  • Friday, December 11, 2009

    Kronos Quartet's latest Nonesuch release, Floodplain, has been named one of the Ten Best Albums of 2009 by Songlines. "There are few musicians on earth that encompass a range of music like Kronos," says Songlines, praising its "mastery of classical string playing" and "engagement with traditional sounds and contemporary geo-politics." The group reunites with its former cellist, Joan Jeanrenaud, in concert at UC Berkeley this Sunday.

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News, Reviews
  • Friday, December 11, 2009

    Composer Elliott Carter turns 101 today. Earlier this year, as part of the composer's centennial celebration, Nonesuch Records released Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, featuring most of Carter's Nonesuch recordings from 1968 to 1985. The four-disc set The Observer called "covetable and historic" is now 33 1/3% off the standard list price at nonesuch.com as part of the Nonesuch Store Anniversary Sale.

    Journal Topics: Artist News
  • Thursday, December 10, 2009

    Orchestrion, the forthcoming album from guitarist Pat Metheny, is due out on Nonesuch early next year, but you don't have to wait till then to hear music from the record. Pat Metheny Radio, available on patmetheny.com, is offering fans an exclusive first-listen excerpt, now through December 14. You can also pre-order the album with a limited-edition 9" x 12" print signed by Pat only at nonesuch.com.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Web
  • Thursday, December 10, 2009

    Q2, the new 24/7 music stream from New York public radio's WQXR dedicated to contemporary classical music, kicks off its first full festival, Maximum Reich: A Celebration of Steve Reich, today. This weeklong immersion into Reich's work will include a presentation of his recorded works, explorations of the influences both on and of Reich, recent videos and exclusive downloads, and interviews and music recordings from the archives of WNYC, the new owner of WQXR.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Web, Radio
  • Wednesday, December 9, 2009

    Rolling Stone has announced its 100 Best Albums of the Decade, and five Nonesuch releases have made the list, including two albums from Wilco and one each from The Black Keys, Amadou & Mariam, and Brian Wilson. Wilco is also on the magazine's list of the decade's Top 100 Songs, for "Jesus, Etc.," joined by Randy Newman, for his Harps and Angels track "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country." OMM includes the Amadou & Mariam album and Ali Farka Touré's Savane on its list of the decade's Top 50.

    Journal Topics: Artist News