"Perhaps the most influential living composer, Steve Reich's legacy represents one of the most seismic influential shifts in what we hear as modern music," says The Line of Best Fit ahead of Reich's conversation with Ólafur Arnalds for its Nine Songs series. Reich shares nine songs that have impacted his life and work, by Stravinsky, Bach, Pérotin, Bartók, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, and Radiohead, and the Balinese gamelan. You can read their conversation and hear the songs here.

Saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill, pianist Vijay Iyer, and drummer Dafnis Prieto have released "Gently Trapped," composed by Prieto, from their upcoming debut album, Fifteen, due August 21 on Nonesuch. The video was filmed during the recording session at Oktaven Audio.

Flea performed an NPR Tiny Desk Concert of songs from his debut solo album, Honora, with the musicians on the record—album producer saxophonist Josh Johnson, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Anna Butterss, and drummer Deantoni Parks: "Traffic Lights," "Morning Cry," and "A Plea." "Working with the musicians that I've worked with has been the most exciting part," Flea told NPR's Kara Frame, "just jamming, connecting and feeling who they are."

Chavis, "the king of zydeco," performs a rollicking set of mostly original compositions, joined by his band The Magic Sounds. Feathers, who first learned to play guitar from Junior Kimbrough, this self-titled album more than three decades into his career as a pioneer of rockabilly and country music. Gilmore's After Awhile features some of his most beloved songs, on which he “stamps himself as a great American songwriter,” says Rolling Stone. Johnson, perhaps best known as the pianist for Chuck Berry, here leads various bands that include Keith Richards and Eric Clapton for a rollicking set of country and jazz tinged-blues.

Here's "Peter Pumpkin Eater," from Cabinet of Wonder, Natalie Merchant's collaboration with Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Children's Theatre. You can pre-order the album, due August 21, here.

Mary Halvorson is on the cover of DownBeat! She has won its Critics Poll for Artist of the Year, Guitar, and Group (Amaryllis). And congrats to her fellow winners Ambrose Akinmusire, Trumpet; Cécile McLorin Salvant, Female Vocalist; Darcy James Argue, Arranger; and Rhiannon Giddens, Beyond Artist.

Happy birthday, Gabriel Kahane!

Here's "Little Miss Muffet," from Cabinet of Wonder, Natalie Merchant's collaboration with Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Children's Theatre. You can pre-order the album, due August 21, here.

Flea, who performs with his Honora band at North Sea Jazz in Rotterdam this Saturday, is on the latest episode of Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud to talk about his album Honora, his childhood, finding freedom in music, and more.

Cabinet of Wonder reimagines Mother Goose and her rhymes for a new generation of young children through modern interpretations of the classic children’s canon and three originals by Merchant—performed by her, musicians from the CSO and special guests—in orchestral arrangements by Megan Gould. Two songs from the album, “Little Miss Muffet” and “Peter Pumpkin Eater,” along with their videos, are available today. Cabinet of Wonder represents three years of behind-the-scenes work among the project’s collaborators and the culmination of Merchant's four decades of involvement in children’s arts and education. 

Cécile McLorin Salvant has shared the official music video for her performance of Stephen Sondheim’s “Being Alive” with Metropole Orkest and conductor Jules Buckley, arranged by Darcy James Argue, from her new album, With Every Breath I Take.

Punch Brothers were on CBS Mornings' Fourth of July episode to perform Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" plus two songs from their upcoming instrumental album, The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers, out July 24. You can watch the performances, filmed at beautiful Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride, Colorado, here.

Happy July 4th weekend! Celebrate America's 250th with 25.0% off in the Nonesuch Store now through Sunday. That's 25.0% off our everyday low prices on just about everything—vinyl, CD, HD, MP3, hats, t-shirts, and more; pre-orders excluded.

Emmylou Harris stopped by for the Nonesuch Selects video series, in which artists visit the Nonesuch office, pick some of their favorite albums from the music library, and share a few words on their choices. She chose recordings by Bulgarian State Television Female Choir, Laurie Anderson, Nonesuch Explorer Series, Ry Cooder, The Low Anthem, and Kate & Anna McGarrigle.

Composer John Adams says: “Dylan Mattingly is a true original whose music fills the listener with a sense of overflowing abundance ... He’s a genuine American Maverick in the true sense of the term.”

Cécile McLorin Salvant’s album With Every Breath I Take, her first with orchestra, is out now. You can get it and hear it here. On the album, Salvant and Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley perform timeless songs—by Coleman, Coward, Ellington, Sondheim, Strayhorn, and Salvant—newly arranged by composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue. “Salvant’s first orchestral album immediately announces itself as a Desert Island Disc,” exclaims Jazzwise. “It’s an album full of nuance and lyricism, and one of the most hauntingly beautiful things you’ll hear this year. Magnificent.”

Rhiannon Giddens has shared “Carolina Rain,” a song from her upcoming album, Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, and an animated video for it by Nespy5euro & Valeria Weerasinghe.