The Low Anthem tours West Coast ... John Adams leads all-Adams program in Paris ... Carolina Chocolate Drops do Black Banjo Gathering ... Christina Courtin opens in NYC ... Bill Frisell plays Baghdad/Seattle Suite in New Mexico ... Kronos takes A Chinese Home to Notre Dame ... The Magnetic Fields bring Realism to Berlin ... Brad Mehldau plays Mexico City ... Portland, Maine, hosts Chris Thile and Punch Brothers sets ... Allen Toussaint plays Bern Jazz Fest ... Wilco continues sold-out tour ... and more ...
The Low Anthem began its headlining tour of the West Coast, with Timber Timbre opening, last night at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angles. While in LA, the group stopped by the KCRW studios in Santa Monica to talk with Morning Becomes Eclectic host Jason Bentley and perform several songs off their Nonesuch debut album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin—"Ticket Taker," "To the Ghosts Who Write History Books," "Home I'll Never Be," and "To Ohio"—and a few new songs off the forthcoming follow-up. You can listen to the entire segment online now at kcrw.com.
The tour continues up the Coast this weekend with performances at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco tonight, and Doug Fir Lounge in Portland on Sunday.
The San Francisco Chronicle says tonight's show is one not to be missed. "In an age of hi-fi digital recording," the Chronicle's Chloe Roth writes of Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, "it is refreshing to hear the humans behind the sounds." Read more at sfgate.com.
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John Adams conducts the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble in all-Adams program of Son of Chamber Symphony, Shaker Loops, and Chamber Symphony at Cité de la Musique in Paris on Saturday. The concert is the final event in Domain privé John Adams, the hall's 11-day celebration of the composer's music.
The Long Beach Opera gives the final performance of its production of Adams's Nixon in China at the Terrance Theater in Long Beach, California, this Sunday. The Los Angeles Times review of an earlier performance says the "production did Adams proud."
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Timothy Andres is in Albany, New York, for tonight's premiere of his new concerto Look Around You by the Albany Symphony. You can read his thoughts on the experience in his blog at andres.com. The pianist/composer's Nonesuch debut, Shy and Mighty, is due out May 4 and is available now for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.
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Carolina Chocolate Drops conclude their stay at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, for the closing days of the weeklong Black Banjo Gathering Reunion. It was at the festival five years ago that band members Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson first came together to form the band.
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Christina Courtin will be opening for Mike Doughty at New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge Saturday night. Courtin had opened for the former Soul Coughing front man for a two-week tour through the Southwest earlier this week.
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Bill Frisell joins Baghdad-born oud master Rahim AlHaj and violist Eyvind Kang for three performances of The Baghdad/Seattle Suite in New Mexico this weekend: Friday night at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe and Saturday and Sunday at the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque. The piece brings together the worlds of Americana and jazz improvisation with Iraqi maqams.
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Ricky Ian Gordon, fresh from the successful premiere of the concert version of his opera The Grapes of Wrath at Carnegie Hall earlier this week, will perform an intimate set of piano, vocals, and conversation presented by Long Beach Opera, at Art Theatre Long Beach tonight. The opera will follow its current production of Adams's Nixon in China with Gordon's Orpheus & Euridice this June.
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Kronos Quartet and Wu Man continue their frequent partnership with a performance of A Chinese Home, their recent collaboration with director Chen Shi-Zheng, at Notre Dame's Leighton Concert Hall Saturday night.
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The Magnetic Fields continue the European leg of their Realism tour at Babylon in Berlin Saturday night. The tour continues into Hamburg and Frankfurt next week, with a final stop at De Duif in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
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Brad Mehldau performs two solo sets in Mexico City this weekend, tonight and Saturday, at the Auditorio Nacional as part of the Festival de Mexico. Mehldau's new Nonesuch release, Highway Rider, receives an A- from the Boston Herald and was made a CD Pick of the Week from WNYC's Soundcheck.
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Fernando Otero brings his Electric Quintet, featuring Marcelo Woloski on drums, Juan Pablo Jofre Romarion on bandoneon, Eddy Khaimovich on Bass, and Martin Moretto on guitar, to Nublu in New York City Saturday night.
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Mandy Patinkin and pianist Paul Ford are at the Judy Bayley Theater at the University of Las Vegas Saturday night. The program, Dress Casual, includes works by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Harry Chapin, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter.
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Chris Thile wears both of his hats this weekend at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine, when he plays there with Punch Brothers tonight and with the Portland Symphony Orchestra for a program featuring his Mandolin Concerto on Sunday.
The Portland Press Herald calls it "a weekend of mandolin madness," asserting that "few people are more adept at coaxing beautiful sounds from the instrument than Chris Thile." The paper's Bob Keyes spoke with Thile about both performances this weekend. You'll find the article at pressherald.com.
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Allen Toussaint concludes his weeklong residency at Marian's Club in Berne, Switzerland, as part of the International Jazz Festival Bern, with multiple sets tonight and Saturday night.
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Wilco continues its first-ever fully sold-out tour of the US, titled An Evening with Wilco, at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta tonight and the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, North Carolina, Saturday.
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