Mandy Patinkin begins a two-week residency at Manhattan's Public Theater tonight in honor of the 20th anniversary of his first concert at the esteemed New York City venue. Accompanied by pianist Paul Ford, Mandy will alternate among three different programs, beginning tonight with Dress Casual, featuring music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Harry Chapin, and others; Celebrating Sondheim, a journey through the music and lyrics of the legendary composer; and Mamaloshen, an exploration of traditional, classic, and contemporary songs sung entirely in Yiddish.

k.d. lang returns to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening to perform a song from her latest Nonesuch release, Watershed. Also scheduled to appear on tonight's episode are actor Will Smith and Food Network celebrity chef Paula Deen. Coincidentally, Smith recently made Barbara Walters's list of the year's "most fascinating people," a distinction inaugurated in 1993 by, among others, k.d. lang.

Congratulations to Brad Mehldau, who received the prestigious Edison Jazz Music Award (the Dutch Grammy) in the Jazz International category for his latest Nonesuch release, his Trio's Live recording from New York's Village Vanguard. At the ceremony, held at the Frits Philipshall in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on November 28, Brad performed Lennon/McCartney's "Martha My Dear," which the Trio recording on their 2005 Nonesuch album, Day Is Done.

The Glass Box, the new 10-CD Nonesuch retrospective of works by Philip Glass, is recommended in The Republican, out of Western Massachusetts,  among "the more notable box sets" of the year, describing it as "one of the most innovative of this year and certainly one of the most musically fascinating." Glass has also announced the initial line-up for his annual Tibet House Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall in February. Slated to perform are Vampire Weekend, Patti Smith, and The National.

The Grammy nominations are in, and a big congratulations goes out to the many Nonesuch artists whose work has been recognized by the Recording Academy, the organization behind the awards. Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Toumani Diabaté, Youssou N'Dour, Stephen Sondheim, Jonny Greenwood, and Isabel Bayrakdarian were all recognized for their recent Nonesuch releases, as were producers Danger Mouse and Judith Sherman for their work on Nonesuch albums this year.

To celebrate Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday, Nonesuch will release Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a four-disc set, in February 2009. The discs include most of the recordings Nonesuch made of Carter’s music between 1968 and 1985, with performances by such acclaimed musicians as Paul Jacobs, Gilbert Kalish, the Composers Quartet, Jan DeGaetani, Fred Sherry, Arthur Weisberg, the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine; plus a 58-page booklet with photos, score examples, texts, an essay by Paul Griffiths, and tributes by musicians and composers.

Steve Reich's complete musical archive has been acquired by the Paul Sacher Foundation, a research center for contemporary music, with a vast collection of estates from leading composers and performers. The composer's working papers, comprising letters, sound recordings, manuscripts, along with his many audio and program files, will soon be made accessible to scholars at the Foundation's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.

The singer Mariam Doumbia and her husband, the guitarist/vocalist Amadou Bagayoko, have been making music together since they first met and fell in love at the Institute for Young Blind People in Bamako, Mali’s capital, three decades ago. They now perform to crowds of thousands (often tens of thousands) in cities worldwide. Three years in the making, Amadou & Mariam’s new album, Welcome to Mali, has been released in the UK and is being embraced as enthusiastically as its predecessor, the Grammy-nominated Dimanche à Bamako. Because Music / Nonesuch Records releases Welcome to Mali in the US on March 24, 2009.

Ry Cooder recently took New York Times writer Lawrence Downes on a tour of El Mirage Dry Lake in California's Mojave Desert, the inspiration and setting for I, Flathead, the third and final album in Ry's California trilogy, and its companion novella. Downes describes their destination as "a land of spy planes, space aliens, off-road vehicles, sturdy reptiles and people with freaky desert habits, like racing vintage hot rods on dry lakebeds ... in other words, a critical stop on Ry’s California trail." The day's adventure in the desert with Ry, he writes, "was as though I’d been roaming the Delta with Robert Johnson, or gypsy France with Django Reinhardt."

Nonesuch Records has signed singer/songwriter/fiddle player Sara Watkins, best known as a founding member of the Grammy Award–winning, critically acclaimed, and platinum-selling band Nickel Creek. With Nickel Creek on indefinite hiatus, she has made her self-titled debut solo album, recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville and produced by former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Nonesuch will release Sara Watkins on April 7, 2009.

With the election of Chicago favorite son Barack Obama to the Presidency, a considerable amount of outside attention has been paid of late to the city. The New York Times recently talked to another of the city's favorite sons, Jeff Tweedy, a longtime supporter of the President-elect, about changing perceptions of Chicago. Wilco tops the list of nominees for the 28th annual Chicago Music Awards: Songwriter of the Year for Jeff, plus Pop Entertainer of the Year, Best Rock Entertainer, and Most Outstanding Band or Group for Wilco.

Nonesuch Records is pleased to announce that singer/songwriter/guitarist Dan Auerbach, best known as half of The Black Keys, will release his solo debut, Keep It Hid, on February 10, 2009. Dan will begin a national tour with performances in New York City, Boston, and Washington, DC, with opening acts Those Darlins and Hacienda, the latter also lending support as Auerbach’s backing band.