In 1996, a group of Mali's finest musicians were due to fly into Havana for a speculative collaboration with some of Cuba's most brilliant singers and instrumentalists. For reasons that have never been made clear, the Malians never arrived. A very different album was recorded: Buena Vista Social Club. Now, World Circuit Records' Nick Gold, the man behind the 1996 venture, has brought the original invitees together and the great lost Afro-Cuban album will be released 14 years after originally planned.

Punch Brothers follow Tonight Show appearance with return to Telluride ... I Am Love, with music by John Adams, opens ... Tony Allen heads West ... Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed lead the Mermaid Parade ... David Byrne talks bikes in Chicago ... Carolina Chocolate Drops head from Texas to Telluride ... Shawn Colvin, Sara Watkins play Clearwater Fest ... Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau duo in Germany ... Youssou N’Dour's Paris Grand Ball turns ten ... Joshua Redman's James Farm plays Seattle ... Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury give final performances in A Little Night Music ... and more ...

In April, Laurie Anderson, Nonesuch Records, and Indaba Music launched a search for collaborators to remix her new song, “Only an Expert,” from the album Homeland. The jury of experts, including Anderson and Lou Reed, have now chosen a Grand Prize Winner and two Runners-Up, and fans have chosen ten Honorable Mentions, all of which can be heard here. "We loved all the entries," says Anderson. "What a huge variety. Thanks for sending the great music."

Punch Brothers have been celebrating the release of their new album, Antifogmatic, touring with Steve Martin. Tonight, the band will perform the album track "Rye Whiskey" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The band was at Bonnaroo last Friday, photos from which are now on nonesuch.com/media. Paste says: "On Antifogmatic, the guys sound more sure of themselves, more polished, more self-aware. The warm harmonies and crisp mandolin plucks and fiddle strains ... ring with the resounding clarity the album’s title suggests."

Natalie Merchant offered an intimate performance at the 2010 Poetry Conference at West Chester University on Saturday. The Wall Street Journal reports that "poets, scholars and other enthusiasts reveling in rhyme, meter and narrative in verse were lined up like smitten rock fans waiting for Natalie Merchant to sign copies of her new, deluxe-edition, double-disc recording, Leave Your Sleep." The songs on album, says the Journal, "reveal an ideal fit between poetic and musical rhythms."

The Carolina Chocolate Drops made their Bonnaroo debut and were included among SPIN's 30 Must-Hear Artists there. Photographer Andrew Pearson was there, capturing all the action both onstage and behind the scenes with the band in photos now available at nonesuch.com/media. The band also played the culminating event of the Spoleto Festival, drawing more than 3,000 people to their set.

Tony Allen's North American tour returns to New York City for a two-day stretch featuring two free outdoor performances plus the late-night Jump 'n' Funk at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Allen's recent show in Chicago was a critic's choice for Chicago Reader, which says: "Allen merges James Brown funk with jazz, highlife, and traditional West African rhythms, and his calling card is a doubled-up kick-drum accent that's weighted like a heartbeat, pinning his grooves solidly to the earth no matter how intricate his syncopations and permutations get up top."

With just one week left till the release of Laurie Anderson's Homeland comes the fourth in a series of videos featuring Anderson's male alter ego, Fenway Bergamot. Also new at nonesuch.com is an excerpt from the documentary included with the album, in which Anderson discusses the challenges of making the record and the invaluable support of Lou Reed. PopMatters calls Homeland "an incredible work of art pop of the highest order ... one of the most riveting and poignant accounts of post-9/11 America pop music has offered to date."

The soundtrack for I Am Love, the new film from director Luca Guadagnino and actress Tilda Swinton, featuring music by John Adams, is out today on Nonesuch, one day before the film's red-carpet premiere gala in New York City. The filmmakers discuss their use of Adams' music in the Wall Street Journal. The Observer notes: "Whether or not you see the film, this soundtrack is a rewarding digest of the Pulitzer-winner's musical styles."

Ben Folds was at the 14th Annual Webby Awards in New York City last night, giving the audience of internet insiders and stars an improv performance in the vein of his viral ChatRoulette videos on YouTube. Fittingly, Folds presented the Webby Award for Breakout of the Year to Andrey Ternovskiy, the 17-year-old Russian lad behind ChatRoulette.com. 

Lonely Avenue, a collaboration between two eminent artists—American singer-songwriter Ben Folds and English novelist Nick Hornby—will be released September 28 on Nonesuch Records. The album features music and vocals by Folds and lyrics by Hornby, with string arrangements by one of the most influential pop string arrangers of all time, Paul Buckmaster. Lonely Avenue, made specifically to be listened to on vinyl, will also be available on CD, digitally, and in a special deluxe edition that includes four short stories by Hornby.

The Punch Brothers new album, Antifogmatic, is out tomorrow and is streaming in full all week at Spinner. Their Bonnaroo set is now online via NPR. The Wall Street Journal calls them "across-the-board excellent." New York Times counted their take on Radiohead among the festival's standout covers. The Star-Tribune, reviewing their opening set for Steve Martin in Minneapolis, raves: "Punch Brothers were creative, exciting and wow-inducing." The Independent calls the new album "coolly fascinating."