Allen Toussaint, fresh off his celebratory weekend at the Grammys, during which he was awarded the Trustees Award and performed on the live CBS telecast, is in the New York City studios of WNYC to talk with Soundcheck this afternoon about his forthcoming Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi, and perform songs from the album. It is Toussaint's first solo record in more than a decade. Fans in New York City this weekend can also catch Toussaint perform live at Joe's Pub on Sunday.

Joshua Redman's recently released double-trio album, Compass, finds the saxophonist "doing his best work yet," says the San Jose Mercury News. The album exhibits "a mood that ranges from ghostly to goosebump exuberant." Redman and "some of the best players of his generation" come together for interplay that is at once "intuitive, rambunctious, brilliant." The Vancouver Sun exclaims: "In or out of the groove, Redman and company perform magnificently."

Wilco is set to release a new concert DVD, Ashes of American Flags, on Nonesuch, Saturday, April 18, at independent retailers and nonesuch.com nationwide as part of national Record Store Day. The film, shot in high-def and produced and directed by Christoph Green and Fugazi’s Brendan Canty, presents Wilco live in concert during their 2008 tour. Culled from concerts in five quintessentially American venues—Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, The Mobile Civic Center in Mobile, The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC—it captures the energy, poignancy, and musicality of a Wilco concert and tour.

Rokia Traoré returns to New York City for a performance of songs from her latest release, Tchamantché, at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village. The Chicago Tribune calls this week's performance at Chicago's Old Town School of Music "riveting," one that showed the many facets of the "fascinatingly complex singer ... who embraces but also stretches centuries-old traditions." Throughout, "the incredible Traoré was in command of stage, song and crowd alike."

Brad Mehldau will be joined by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter at Carnegie Hall tonight for the world premiere of his new work Love Songs. The piece, written for von Otter, is Brad's third Carnegie Hall commission for voice and song; it is set to poems by Sara Teasdale, Philip Larkin, and e. e. cummings, each poet with a different perspective on love. Mehldau and von Otter will perform a number of American popular songs as well. On the first half of the program, pianist Bengt Forsberg will accompany von Otter on works by Sibelius, Hahn, and Schumann, and perform piano works by Ravel and Dukas.

Dan Auerbach's Keep It Hid, earns an 85 from Paste, which says that Dan "explores the crossroads of early-‘70s rock and swampy ballads" on the album, while placing "more emphasis on melody and spacious production, bolstering his familiar barn-burning blues with a sense of exploration and comfort." The review concludes: "He’s a gifted songwriter, and his experience behind the microphone lends a melodic anchor to his guitar riffs, which blister and burn but rarely muddle their hooks in waves of amplified skuzz." The Times Herald-Record gives an A grade to this "ethereal, raw, visceral and wondrous" new record, "one of the great hidden emotion albums."

Dan Auerbach's new Nonesuch release, Keep It Hid, scores a 9 out of 10 from Pop Matters. Citing influences from Motown to bluegrass, the review explains: "Auerbach never seems to be straining himself or merely appropriating other, signature sounds just for the sake of doing so. The music he has so obviously, and voraciously, absorbed makes him who he is, pure and simple ... It is not unlike the best Black Keys material, with all the obvious and not-so-obvious influences on the surface, unfolding into something startlingly original."

Orlando "Cachaíto" López, the legendary Cuban bassist, died in a Havana hospital yesterday, after complications from a routine operation. Born in Havana in 1933, Cachaíto came from one of Cuba’s foremost musical dynasties, which included his father, Orestes López and uncle, Israel "Cachao" López, and he was considered by many as the finest bass player in the world. The "heartbeat of the Buena Vista Social Club," bass player Cachaíto was the only musician to have played on every album in the Buena Vista Social Club series.

London's Wigmore Hall has announced the first group of concerts that Brad Mehldau has programmed as artistic director of an annual, two-season jazz series there. Scheduled for the first season, 2009-10, are two solo events, a duo concert with label mate Joshua Redman, a Brad Mehldau Trio concert, and a recital with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, with whom he premieres his Love Songs tomorrow at Carnegie Hall.

Dan Auerbach's solo debut, Keep It Hid, is out tomorrow. To mark the occasion, Nonesuch has launched a new Nonesuch Radio station titled "First Listen," where you can hear all the tracks from the album shuffled and streaming through release date. Dan's hometown paper, the Akron Beacon Journal, says that following "the revelation" that was The Black Keys' Attack & Release, Keep It Hid shows "other sides of Auerbach's abilities, such as how he can smooth out his primal, bluesy wail and still imbue his songs with emotion and passion, and can trade blunt force for pastoral melodies without losing the music's power."

Rokia Traoré, "one of Africa's most sublime artists" (San Francisco Chronicle), takes her two-week US tour to the Midwest ... Laurie Anderson's also in the region with a selection of songs and stories from her various solo shows ... The Black Keys re-conquer New York City ... David Byrne follows his "exhilarating triumph" (The Australian) in Sydney with one in Brisbane ... Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, et al. play PA and Portsmouth, NH ... Fred Hersch has two gigs in San Francisco ... Punch Brothers play a mini Mississippi college tour ... Steve Reich continues as featured artist at Vassar festival ... Allen Toussaint, Elliott Carter are fêted at the Grammys ... Dawn Upshaw continues her tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra ... and more ...

Shortly after Barack Obama was sworn in as President, the Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed offered a list of "rich, wise, inclusive original voices" he might invite to the White House to signal his commitment to the arts. Others have even suggested the appointment of an arts czar. Given all the demands currently weighing on the President, though, Adams explains, in a Newsweek interview, that music appreciation has to start on a much more basic level. "[T]he one and only way to interest people in classical music is to get them to play it as children," Adams asserts. "I think people should just be exposed all the time to great art. That sounds like a really simple, grandiose statement, but I think it's really true."