Tinariwen @ Le Poisson Rouge (more by Tim Griffin)

Tinariwen are touring North America in the first quarter of 2010. Tickets recently went on sale for 2 NYC shows. It's a long journey for the band from Northern Mali (assuming they still live there), and it's a chance for us to again see the artists who made the "best world music album" of the decade (according to the Times Online)...

"The Tuaregs' debut, recorded in a Saharan radio station, is the sound of the sands, stones and emptiness, filtered through a woozy wall of guitars. Today they are genuine rock stars, but this, in all its ragged glory, is the one."

Their whole list is below...

Continue reading "Times Online picks the decade's 'best world music albums'"

photos by Fresh Bread

Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab is one of the pioneers of Afro pop and they have impacted many artists to come, like Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal. Their new album, "Made in Dakar" has new songs, as well as a collection of pieces from the band's 20 records, some of which were only available on tapes. [WNYC]

Orchestra Baobab played their first of two free NYC shows at Rockefeller Park (part of the River to River festival) last night (June 25th). Their next show is today in Metrotech at noon. More pictures from yesterday below....

Continue reading "Orchestra Baobab @ Rockefeller Park, NYC - pics"

Orchestra Baobab is a Senegalese Afro-Cuban, Son, and Pachanga band. Organized in 1970, as a multi-ethnic, multi-national club band, Orchestre Baobab adapted the then current craze for Cuban Music (growing out of the Congolese Soukous style) in West Africa to Wolof Griot culture and the Mandinga musical traditions of the Casamance. One of the dominant African bands of the 1970s, they were overshadowed in the 1980s and broke up, only to reform in 2001 after interest in their recordings grew in Europe. [Wikipedia]

Orchestra Baobab play two shows in NYC this week. Both of them are free! The first one is Wednesday afternoon in Rockefeller Park. The second one is Thursday at Metrotech in Brooklyn at noon. All dates below...

Continue reading "Orchestra Baobab - 2008 Tour Dates (2 free NYC shows)"