Cécile McLorin Salvant has released the title track to Mélusine, her new album, due March 24, along with a video she created for it. You can watch it here. The album features a mix of originals and interpretations of songs dating as far back as the twelfth century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl. The title track was written by Salvant.

Rhiannon Giddens addressed an audience at The Juilliard School’s Glorya Kaufman Dance Studio on January 23 for the tenth annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Speaker Series at Juilliard, where she is a Creative Associate. Giddens, who opens her speech with a performance of the traditional tune “Pretty Saro,” centers the talk around artists' responsibility to themselves, their creative process, and their community. You can watch it here.

Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar, OBE, of the film Paddington 2 and the dramatic series Unforgotten, gives an unforgettable recitation of the lyrics to Rachael & Vilray’s song “Hate Is the Basis (of Love),” from their new album, I Love a Love Song!, out now on Nonesuch Records. You can watch it here.

Brad Mehldau sat down with Qobuz’s Marc Zisman to discuss his new live solo album, Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles, and the challenges of translating the Beatles into solo piano music, as well as his childhood listening habits, moving to Los Angeles in his twenties, what makes a song universal, chasing inspiration, his influences and mentors, and more. You can watch the video here. 

Chicago-based percussionist, composer and producer Makaya McCraven stopped by Amoeba Music in San Francisco for a shopping trip and a chat for Amoeba’s What’s in My Bag? series, in which he picks up music by Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Billy Cobham, Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela, Yusef Lateef & Archie Shepp, NNAMDÏ, Charles Stepney, Thelonius Monk & John Coltrane, Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers featuring Wynton Marsalis, Harvey Mason, Augustus Pablo & King Tubby, Bobby Broom, Joshua Abrams' Cloud Script, and Miles Davis. You can take a look inside here.

Hurray for the Riff Raff—aka Alynda Segarra—has released an acoustic version of “SAGA,” a song from their acclaimed 2022 Nonesuch debut album, LIFE ON EARTH. You can watch a lyric video for the track here. 

Natalie Merchant's new single, “Come On, Aphrodite,” featuring singer Abena Koomson-Davis (Resistance Revival Chorus), is out now. It's the first track released from Merchant’s upcoming album, Keep Your Courage, and establishes the record’s themes of love and passion as essential to the human experience. Merchant’s ninth solo studio album, and the first new material since 2014’s self-titled record, Keep Your Courage is set for release on April 14 on Nonesuch. She will tour the US starting this spring; European dates will be announced shortly.

Composer John Adams, in two new videos from his publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, talks about his early experiences with music and finding his voice as a composer. In the first video, he shares some childhood experiences that led him to want to become a composer. In the second, he recounts a crisis of musical identity he went through in his 20s and 30s and how he found his own musical language, informed by the minimalist pioneers, jazz, Stravinsky, and others.

Brad Mehldau has shared videos of him performing and discussing "Golden Slumbers" from his new album, Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles, at New York’s Village Vanguard. You can watch both here. It's the third and final in a series of such videos from the album, following the title track performance and discussion and his "I Am the Walrus" performance and discussion. “'Golden Slumbers,’ certainly ‘Hey Jude,’ ‘Let It Be’ are songs that, for me, feel like ... something church like. Maybe it has something to do with the cadences that are in there. They’re just so righteous,” Mehldau says. “For me, it has a healing quality.”

Rachael & Vilray—the duo of singer/songwriter Rachael Price (Lake Street Dive) and guitarist/singer/songwriter Vilray—have unveiled a video for “Any Little Time,” a song from their new album, I Love a Love Song!, that features Vilray on vocals. You can watch the video, filmed in the studio in Los Angeles and directed by Jacob Blumberg, here.

Cécile McLorin Salvant’s new album, Mélusine, is due March 24 on Nonesuch; vinyl is due May 19. Mélusine is a mix of five originals and interpretations of nine songs, dating as far back as the 12th century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl. They tell the folk tale of Mélusine, a woman who turns into a half-snake each Saturday after a childhood curse by her mother. The track “D’un feu secret,” Michel Lambert’s 1660 air de cour, is available today, along with an animated video by Amanda Bonaiuto that may be seen here.

Natalie Merchant, whose new album, Keep Your Courage, is due April 14, performs the title track to her 2001 album Motherland in a new Blackberry Sessions video. She was joined by guitarist Erik Della Penna in making the video while at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee in November as part of its annual Americana Music Association weekend. You can watch it here. Merchant will tour the US tour this spring, going into the fall. European dates will be announced shortly.