Afrobeat legend Tony Allen's new album, Secret Agent, has been featured on NPR's All Songs Considered. The album comes from "the man who helped create Afrobeat with Fela Kuti," says NPR's Robin Hilton. "Tony Allen is easily one of the most gifted and influential percussionists of all time. He turns 70 years old this year, and his new solo album shows that he has no intention of slowing down."

Natalie Merchant and her new album, Leave Your Sleep, were featured on the PBS NewsHour. The Daily Beast chose the album for its Yes List, saying "Merchant’s voice is both soothing and electric on the album." Pop Matters says "this labor of love (so exhaustively researched, so musically collaborative, so many years in the making) is ... just beautiful and special." The LAist says "Merchant's voice was in top form" at a recent tour stop in LA.

Philip Glass is being honored at the Danspace Project Gala tonight in New York City. The organization is celebrating Glass for what it describes as "his significant contributions to American dance and his major impact on international art and culture." Laurie Anderson will give introductory remarks. Now in its 35th season, Danspace aims to offer choreographers a nurturing environment in which to develop and show challenging new works.

Rokia Traoré kicks off a ten-day UK tour in London tonight, with Sweet Billy Pilgrim opening all along the tour. Traoré spoke with The Times, which calls her latest album, Tchamantché, "easily one of the best albums of 2008," and the Evening Standard, which calls it "a wondeful work" that "deserves to belong in every home." Time Out recommends the live show, as does the Guardian, which calls her band "both intricate and melodically accessible, her impressive singing voice pointing the way."

The recent Louis Andriessen-curated concerts at Carnegie Hall show the composer to have "an undiminished capacity for making mischief," says The New Yorker's Alex Ross. Ross looks at other contemporary composers creating outside "a stylistic party line," and calls Timothy Andres’s forthcoming Nonesuch debut, Shy and Mighty, "the kind of sprawling, brazen work that a young composer should write," achieving "an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene."

Caetano Veloso and his latest Nonesuch release, zii e zie, are the subject of a feature profile on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. Veloso "is consistently one of the most literate and beguiling forces in music," says contributor Jacki Lyden. She describes Veloso's songwriting as "always fresh and original and very unfettered," saying simply of an album track: "It's beautiful."

The CBS Sunday Morning profile of Pat Metheny and his Orchestrion album and tour, scheduled to air on yesterday's episode of the program, has been postponed to an unspecified later date. In the mean time, Metheny's Orchestrion tour continues its western run this week. The Santa Cruz Sentinel, in a preview of tonight's show, says "Metheny's one-of-a-kind genius takes another evolutionary step forward with his latest project."

The celebrations of Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday continue with tonight's New York City Center Gala honoring the composer, featuring the stars of A Little Night Music—just nominated for three Outer Critics Circle Awards—along with a host of performers who, collectively, have appeared in over 75 Sondheim shows. John Doyle directs. The benefit will help fund New York City Center’s artistic and education programs and Young Playwrights Inc.

The Black Keys are on a bill with Snoop Dogg ... Shawn Colvin, Allen Toussaint are in New Orleans ... Christina Courtin opens for Mike Doughty in NYC ... Bill Frisell, Punch Brothers play Seattle ... Richard Goode, Joshua Redman play in Chicago ... Kronos Quartet comes to Carmel ... The Low Anthem plays Portland, Maine ... Natalie Merchant takes Leave Your Sleep to eTown ... Pat Metheny's Orchestrion tour continues in California ... Sara Watkins guests with Garrison Keillor in NYC ... Wilco tours Tokyo ... and more ...

Pat Metheny and his Orchestrion are due to be the subject of a profile on this weekend's CBS Sunday Morning. The tour continues this weekend after a performance in LA Variety described as "more fun visually than pretty much any jazz show one might attend," creating "a remarkably pure and organic musical sound." After last week's show in Austin, the American-Statesman describes it as "a musical happening of the highest order—a jaw-dropping confluence of jazz, technology and visual art."

Natalie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep was released last week to a number of milestones, including the No. 17 slot on the Billboard pop chart and No. 1 on the folk chart. Merchant continues to tour this weekend, including a live-audience taping of NPR's eTown. Utah's The Spectrum calls the album "a rich collection of music and poetry," on which "there's not a bad apple ... For an album this big that's quite an accomplishment." The Cleveland Scene recommends the complete album, declaring it "well worth the investment."

Legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen's recently released World Circuit / Nonesuch debut album, Secret Agent, finds Allen "continuing his late career high," says Pitchfork, "never more confident." The Boston Herald gives it an A, calling it "the real thing." Time Out New York says Allen is "sounding at once gracious and cool," and Dusted says the album "bears witness to his development of Afrobeat beyond the shadow of Fela Kuti."