Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile close out their cross-country tour of music from their eponymous debut duo album tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall, for which they will be joined by special guest, violinist Mark O'Connor. Tonight, the pair's penultimate performance takes place at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Before Meyer and Thile head down to Washington, they'll visit the WNYC studios in New York for a live performance this afternoon on Soundcheck, beginning at 2 PM ET.

Before Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile take the stage at the University of Chicago's Mandel Hall tonight, the pair can be heard live on WFDU-FM's Lonesome Pine RFD this morning. The Washington Post says the duo's self-titled Nonesuch debut "represents the most substantial music Thile has recorded, for the give-and-take between the high-pitched mandolin and the deeply resounding bass is full of dark drama and rigorous musical architecture." The Kansas City Star says "the duo's world-class musicianship" along with "the highly intuitive communication that exists in the music itself ... provide the album's 12 compositions with heart, humor, precision and warmth."

Sam Phillips will be back on the road next week for a short series of dates on the West Coast with songs from her latest Nonesuch release, Don't Do Anything, and from throughout her career. Earlier this week, Acoustic Cafe broadcast a recent live performance, which you can hear online now. Last week, NPR named the title track off the new album its Song of the Day and suggests that when "Phillips sings about the moments that move her heart, [i]t's to her credit that you don't quite know whether it's full to bursting or long since broken."

Today marks the release of the two-CD set Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall, capturing the unforgettable concert event from the legendary Cuban musicians at the esteemed venue a decade ago. To celebrate the release, Ry Cooder stops by WNYC's Soundcheck this afternoon. The Sunday Times (UK) says there's "a poignant air to this recording" of "what was clearly a night of overwhelming emotion ... [T]his was one of those once-in-a-lifetime evenings when the collective spirit of old Havana carried all before it." Nonesuch offers those in the New York City area a rare opportunity to catch the 1999 Wim Wenders documentary about the group, projected onto the big screen at Lincoln Center.

Orchestra Baobab were the featured guests on yesterday's episode of NPR's World Café. The show includes band member interviews and live performances from the group. You can listen online now at npr.org, which says the band, in its early days, created "a gorgeous, unique mix of harmonies, guitar, saxophone, bass, and drums which started a musical renaissance." Host David Dye says they were "the band in Dakar in the 1970s" and attests that "now, their latest album, Made in Dakar, shows that they are as inventive as ever."

Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall, released last week on high-grade vinyl and set for release as a double CD next Tuesday, is featured on the latest edition of NPR's All Songs Considered. The show's host, Bob Boilen, introduces "Silencio," the touching duet between Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo, by saying of the entire set: "What I love about this music is how gently it all hangs together. It's both relaxed and precise at the same time."

Tonight at the 92nd Street Y in New York City: The Composer's Voice: John Adams. John Adams will talk with Juilliard dean Ara Guzelimian about his career; his opera Doctor Atomic, which receives its New York premiere at the Met next week; and his new memoir, Hallelujah Junction, just published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The program also features "musical illustrations" by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, baritone Jordan Shanahan, and pianist Linda Hall.

The Glass Box, Nonesuch Records' 10-CD collection of works by Philip Glass, is due out at the end of the month and is available for pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store. Yesterday on BBC Radio 3, In Tune featured a discussion with Glass plus three excerpts from works in the box, including the seminal Einstein on the Beach. Lincoln Center has announced that its 50th anniversary season, 2009–10, will include a production of Einstein on the Beach by the New York City Opera in its newly renovated New York State Theater.

The kora—the 21-string West African harp—is the focus of tonight's episode of New Sounds on WNYC, New York public radio. Toumani Diabaté, whose solo kora record, The Mandé Variations, was released earlier this year, and who was recently described by the Boston Globe as "the uncontested master" of the instrument, will be among the featured artists on the show, as will Philip Glass, for his work with Gambian musician Foday Musa Suso.

Sam Phillips is on the road with songs from her latest release, Don't Do Anything, as well as past favorites. The BBC says Sam makes "smokey, sassy, sultry, smart-as-a-whip" music, and the new album is "an album to get deliriously lost within." All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen introduced last night's live NPR.org concert broadcast from the tour by calling her songs "miniature pop jewels." The Albany Times Union, reviewing the previous show, says Sam's vocals make "her probing, intelligent lyrics and her vibrant melodies all the more powerful." Previewing tonight's show, the Philadelphia Inquirer describes Sam's sound as "a sophisticated confluence of Kurt Weill, Tom Waits and late-period Marianne Faithfull, without any florid excesses."

Sam Phillips's tour continues with stops in the Northeast this weekend, including a special, free in-store performance at the Newbury Comics store in Harvard Square, Cambridge, celebrating the retailer's 30th anniversary. As the tour continues, Sam's Monday night show in Annapolis, Maryland, will be broadcast live from NPR, for All Songs Considered's online concert series, at npr.org. "Of all of Sam Phillips' roles as a musician," says NPR, "her latest incarnation is the most alluring."

Bill Frisell joins drummer Paul Motian and saxophonist Joe Lovano for a rare two-week stint at New York's Village Vanguard beginning tonight. New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen describes them as "a blue-chip trio that’s shadowy, slippery and as open-ended as a koan," and says, "There’s no better place to see them than at the Village Vanguard." You can listen to Wednesday night's set as it unfolds live, on NPR station WBGO, Jazz88 FM, for the new series Live at the Village Vanguard.