Rokia Traoré's Tchamantché has been nominated for the Victoires de la Musique award as Best World Music Album of the Year. The award, similar to the Grammys in the United States, recognizes the best in music from France. Rokia, the daughter of a Malian diplomat, has lived everywhere from North Africa to the Middle East to Europe, as well as in the Malian capital, Bamako, and now calls Paris home.

The Christian Science Monitor has dubbed Rokia Traoré "Africa's answer to Joni Mitchell." In its staff picks for the week's best arts offerings, the Monitor declares that with Tchamantché, "her exquisite new album," Rokia has created "something timeless. But it's Traoré's voice that pulls one into the musical vortex. Though she sings in Bambara and French, you won't need a translator to discern the joy and ache in her voice."

After performing the second of two consecutive nights at New York's Highline last night, Joshua Redman and his Double Trio head up to Boston to play the Berklee Performance Center tonight, then out to Albany for their last show with all five musicians featured on Redman's new album, Compass. Previewing Friday's show at Albany's The Egg, the Schenectady Daily Gazette writes of Redman's successful venture with the double-trio format: "The idea worked so well on record that now Redman is experimenting with the double-trio format live." Metro Canada gives Compass three-and-a-half stars.

Joshua Redman and his Double Trio—bassists Larry Grenadier and Reuben Rogers and drummers Brian Blade and Gregory Hutchinson—all of whom play together on the recently released Compass, play their second consecutive night at New York's Highline Ballroom tonight. The New York Times calls the new album "superb" and finds Redman "making some of the best music of his career." In last night's set, "Mr. Redman worked fast and fluid, never exhausting his options," says the Times. "At almost every turn he seemed intensely focused but unpressured and completely in command."

Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed wonders what the inclusion of composer John Williams's new Copland-inspired piece in yesterday's official inauguration proceedings might promise for the place of classical music in the new Obama administration. He suggests a number of artists whom the President might invite to the White House to signal his commitment to the arts. On the list of these "rich, wise, inclusive original voices" are many Nonesuch artists and others who have collaborated with them. "Mr. President," Swed asserts, "I guarantee your life will be richer and the tone of America will rise if you listen to them."

Laurie Anderson will lead a special concert tonight at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn, New York, to launch BAM's Next Stage Campaign. Curated by Laurie and titled Laurie & Friends, the show features a diverse group of artists—from the experimental rock of Dirty Projectors to the Latin sounds of jazz master Arturo O'Farrill—who share the common goal of making new and original art. BAM is looking to break ground this fall on an intimate black-box performance space behind the main Opera House.

Allen Toussaint, who celebrated his 71st birthday last week, celebrated once more at the 2009 Celtic Connections festival Monday at Glasgow's finely refurbished Old Fruitmarket. Scotland's Herald gives the performance five stars, exclaiming: "Toussaint produced the kind of gig for which this venue was saved. Funky, celebratory and above all downright real, Toussaint's music has the spirit of a Mardi Gras street party running through it and the Fruitmarket is, after all, only one generation of slight gentrification up from being a street itself."

John Adams led the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, of which he is the Composer of the Year, in two concerts this past weekend at Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall. Featured on the programs were Doctor Atomic Symphony, On the Transmigration of Souls, and selections from Nixon in China. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the composer "has penned some of the best music of the last quarter century" and "gave us a reason to be proud again of the splendor that can emerge from 100 orchestral musicians. He is a composer of our time." The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review calls Transmigration "awesome and haunting to experience" and Doctor Atomic Symphony "a masterly new piece."

Joshua Redman marks the release of his latest album, Compass, in his first live performances with the double trio featured on the record, bassists Reuben Rogers and Larry Grenadier and drummers Greg Hutchinson and Brian Blade, tonight and tomorrow at New York City's Highline Ballroom and in Boston and Albany later in the week. The New York Times recommends the concerts, saying that the album's double-trio format leads to "a result that feels rewardingly loose ... the sort of jazz interaction that can only be further clarified by live performance." The Boston Globe calls the ensemble "a fascinating sonic experiment" that both displays its "supple touch" and creates "churning crescendos."

Bill Frisell's most recent Nonesuch release, 2008's History, Mystery, is up for a Grammy Award next month for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, the same month Nonesuch will release a collection of Bill's work titled The Best of Bill Frisell, Volume 1: Folk Songs. This week, he is the subject of a feature article in the latest issue of The New Yorker, which describes him as "the fearless and adaptable guitarist Bill Frisell, whose varied endeavors have drawn him into free-form extemporizations, symphonic collaborations, hard and soft rock, country, and accompaniments for Buster Keaton silent films ..."

Joshua Redman celebrates the release of Compass with a conversation at CUNY and two concerts ... John Adams conducts the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in two concerts ... David Byrne begins his winter tour in Hong Kong ... Philip Glass plays and discusses his film music at MASS MoCA ... Mandy Patinkin brings his London residency to a close ... Stephen Sondheim talks with Frank Rich at Lincoln Center ... Allen Toussaint continues his 71st birthday celebration at Celtic Connections in Glasgow ... and more ...

John Adams continues as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's Composer of the Year with two concerts this weekend, tonight and tomorrow night, in which he will conduct the orchestra at Heinz Hall. "The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has scored a coup by presenting John Adams, arguably America's leading composer, as conductor," exclaims the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Featured on the programs are The Nixon Tapes, version 3, containing selections from Nixon in China; Doctor Atomic Symphony; and On the Transmigration of Souls.