Amadou & Mariam's latest album, Welcome to Mali, is set for US release on Nonesuch tomorrow. The duo is the subject of a number of feature-length articles about changing perceptions in the West of African musics beyond "world music." The New York Times places them "among the world’s most renowned African musical acts" and says the new album is "less an abandonment of the group’s culture than an updating of it." The Los Angeles Times cites the success of Amadou & Mariam, who "helped define the current African shift," and of Youssou N'Dour, Oumou Sangare, and Rokia Traoré, as examples that "the American cliché of African music is falling apart—or, really, exploding." Detroit Free-Press gives Welcome to Mali four stars, calling it "a spirited invitation to dance away those recession-induced blues and welcome spring ... This is a feel-good album. Don't miss it."

"Composer, pianist and living legend Allen Toussaint has helped shape the sound of R&B, soul and funk while infusing a little bit of New Orleans into it," says KCRW in naming as yesterday's Top Tune the Thelonius Monk–penned title track of Toussaint's forthcoming Nonesuch solo debut, The Bright Mississippi. Toussaint will perform during both weeks of the 40th anniversary New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which runs April 24–30 and May 1–3. Given his prominent place in the festival and the city's musical history, it's no surprise that Toussaint has made his way onto the official JazzFest 2009 poster, by artist James Michalopoulos.

Richard Goode's series of concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra comes to a close Tuesday night. The Boston Globe, in a preview of this May's release of Goode's complete piano concertos with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, looks back at the pianist's 1993 collection of the Beethoven piano sonatas and says it "stands as one of the most important statements made about this music in recent decades." Goode, whom the St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls "a musician's musician," will perform Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto this weekend with David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

The Best of Bill Frisell, Volume 1: Folk Songs, the first collection of tunes culled from Frisell's extensive Nonesuch catalog, is out this week. You can listen to every track from the album streaming on the Nonesuch Radio channel First Listen now. "Two words will sum up anything the exemplary guitarist has turned his hand to: 'very good,'" says the BBC. "But when it comes to his explorations in Americana as on this collection, it's very very good. If you don't already own most of these tracks, beware. Because when you do hear them you'll have to go out and buy all the parent albums that they're culled from."

Bill Frisell has crafted a Nonesuch catalog of more than 20 albums that DownBeat included among "the best recorded output" of the last decade. Now comes the first anthology of songs assembled from that rich catalog in The Best of Bill Frisell, Volume 1: Folk Songs, out this Tuesday. The Independent gives a perfect five stars to this album of "beautiful, ringing musicality: 15 pieces of fathomless depth played with the freshness and simplicity that only genius brings. Make your world anew and treat yourself." The Guardian gives the album four stars, calling it "a delectable collection." All About Jazz calls it "a thing of rare joy and beauty."

Elliott Carter's centennial celebration continues this Tuesday with the release of a four-disc retrospective of the composer's Nonesuch recordings. The Observer says that "with performances from the 1970s and 1980s by some of his best interpreters," this Carter collection is "covetable and historic." The Guardian gives the set four stars, saying this collection, with "a whole clutch of outstanding performances" that first expanded the composer's reach in the UK, "is a must for all Carter admirers."

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."

The release of Dan Auerbach's solo debut, Keep It Hid, is just a week away now. You may have heard a few of the tracks on the radio or streaming online here on Nonesuch Radio and on Dan's MySpace page. For two days only, today and Wednesday, you can listen to the complete album—all 14 tracks—streaming exclusively on MySpace. Tune in now!

Dan Auerbach's forthcoming solo debut album, Keep It Hid, is featured in the latest episode of NPR's All Songs Considered. The show's host, Bob Boilen, explains that, though it's been a while since he's been a fan of electric guitar–based blues, other than Led Zeppelin, "I may change my mind after hearing a new record by Dan Auerbach." Keep It Hid, says Boilen, has "a good variety of songs that are tinged by psychedelia, at times a bit of gospel, country, and blues."

Nonesuch Records is pleased to announce the release of The Bright Mississippi, Allen Toussaint’s first solo album in more than a decade, on April 21, 2009. Produced by friend and frequent collaborator Joe Henry, the record includes songs by jazz greats like Jelly Roll Morton, Django Reinhardt, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn. Toussaint and Henry created a band of highly regarded musicians for the sessions: clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist David Piltch, and percussionist Jay Bellerose; Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman each join Toussaint for a track as well.

Revolutionary Road has been nominated for four Golden Globe awards. The Sam Mendes–directed film adaptation of the landmark novel by Richard Yates is up for Best Motion Picture, Drama; Best Director for Mendes; Best Actor, Drama, Leonardo DiCaprio; and Best Actress, Drama, Kate Winslet. Nonesuch will release the film's soundtrack on December 23, with original music by Thomas Newman, plus three songs from the film’s era by The Ravens, The Orioles, and The Ink Spots. Also nominated for a Golden Globe, for Best Motion Picture Made for Television, is A Raisin in the Sun, starring Audra McDonald, Sean Combs, and Phylicia Rashad.

To celebrate Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday, Nonesuch will release Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a four-disc set, in February 2009. The discs include most of the recordings Nonesuch made of Carter’s music between 1968 and 1985, with performances by such acclaimed musicians as Paul Jacobs, Gilbert Kalish, the Composers Quartet, Jan DeGaetani, Fred Sherry, Arthur Weisberg, the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine; plus a 58-page booklet with photos, score examples, texts, an essay by Paul Griffiths, and tributes by musicians and composers.