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  • Tuesday, January 19, 2010

    The Magnetic Fields' latest release, Realism, is out now. The BBC says the album confirms Stephin Merritt's "stature as the most inventive rhymer in the American lineage since Tom Lehrer," its sound "absolutely prime Merritt ... consistently confirming what unusually inventive arrangers Merritt and his cohorts are." MusicOMH‬‪ gives it four stars, saying Merritt's "talent for bathing his songs in wonderful arrangements and limpet-like melodies seals his genius status."

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Reviews
  • Tuesday, January 19, 2010

    The Carolina Chocolate Drops have added a special performance to their tour schedule: an Emergency Benefit Concert for Haiti at New York's City Winery this Wednesday with Patti Smith, The Swell Season, John Wesley Harding, Yo La Tengo, Young People’s Choir of New York City, Joshua Bell, and others. Proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, and the Jewish Renaissance Medical Center's emergency mobile hospital unit.

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News, Reviews
  • Friday, January 15, 2010

    NY Phil performs Adams's The Wound-Dresser ... Laurie Anderson previews new piece at MASS MoCA ... Carolina Chocolate Drops bring "electrifying show" to Dartmouth, Birchmere ... Richard Goode gives free concert in Florida ... Kronos Quartet gives West Coast premiere of A Chinese Home at Stanford ... The Low Anthem joins Dave Douglas for NY's Festival of New Trumpet Music ... Punch Brothers play three shows in Colorado ... Joshua Redman's new quartet plays Paris ... and more ...

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend Events
  • Friday, January 15, 2010

    Laurie Anderson is at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, this weekend as part of a weeklong residency to develop her new work, Delusion. On Saturday afternoon, she will speak about her creative process and discuss the piece, which will premiere on February 16 and run for a week at the Vancouver Playhouse as part of that city's Cultural Olympiad.

    Journal Topics: On Tour
  • Thursday, January 14, 2010

    The Low Anthem will be making its US television debut with an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight. The band will be performing "Charlie Darwin" off its Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. The episode is sure to be additionally special, as Letterman will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of his successful quintuple bypass heart surgery by speaking his surgeon, O. Wayne Isom.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Television
  • Thursday, January 14, 2010

    Allen Toussaint celebrates his 72nd birthday today. He received an early birthday gift when he was awarded the Grand Prix, Best Disc of the Year, from France's Académie du Jazz, for his 2009 Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi. The awards ceremony took place this past Tuesday in Paris with members of the Ministry of Culture and a diverse array of artists in attendance.

    Journal Topics: Artist News
  • Thursday, January 14, 2010

    Brad Mehldau performs solo sets at New York City's Highline Ballroom tonight, with proceeds going to benefit JazzReach, a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, performance, creation, and teaching of jazz. "Mehldau has established himself as one of the standout jazz voices of his generation," says the New York Times, "partly through a run of intensely lyrical solo piano recitals." The Village Voice calls Mehldau's solo work "sublime."

    Journal Topics: On Tour
  • Wednesday, January 13, 2010

    "I didn't know quite what to expect when I started this whole thing, especially making a record with it," says Pat Metheny of his latest project, Orchestrion, and the forthcoming Nonesuch release of the same name. "The result is absolutely nothing like I ever would have imagined." That's from a new video launching today at nonesuch.com/media, in which Pat takes viewers behind the scenes of Orchestrion. Says The Guardian: "The Orchestrion reconciles his love of old-fashioned, unamplified live performance with his restless urge to innovate."

    Journal Topics: Video
  • Tuesday, January 12, 2010

    k.d. lang will join Tony Bennett on stage again to headline the San Francisco Symphony’s 2010 Black & White Ball on May 22. The concert will include duets as well as individual performances at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall with all proceeds going to support the Symphony’s Adventures in Music education program. The pair's 1994 duet "Moonglow" will be part of Recollection, the forthcoming k.d. lang career retrospective, out February 9.

    Journal Topics: On Tour
  • Tuesday, January 12, 2010

    The Carolina Chocolate Drops' Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig, is out now. The BBC calls it "an extraordinary and stylish album," its highlight a "pickin’, fiddlin’ and slappin’ version of Blu Cantrell’s 'Hit ‘em Up Style.'"

    Journal Topics: Reviews
  • Tuesday, January 12, 2010

    The Low Anthem performed at Saturday's multi-artist Hot Stove Cool Music benefit concert in Boston; the Boston Globe included the set among the event's highlights, calling the group "a dazzlingly talented bunch." Now comes word that the band will be headlining its first North American tour this spring and making its US television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman this Thursday. It will also spend much of February supporting The Avett Brothers on the road.

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News, Television
  • Monday, January 11, 2010

    Steve Reich joined So Percussion on stage in a performance of his 1972 work Clapping Music—"still one of his most audacious and breathtaking creations," says the San Francisco Chronicle—for a "marvelous" all-Reich program at Stanford. Featured were some of Reich's "groundbreaking percussion works" that sounded "as magical and arresting as ever," says the Chronicle, and the US premiere of Reich's Mallet Quartet. At the hands of the performers, said the Mercury News, it sounded "irresistible."

    Journal Topics: Reviews