journal.nonesuch.com

Nonesuch Events for the Long Weekend of July 3–6

Here is our weekly list of just some of the many events going on across the globe this long, holiday weekend featuring Nonesuch artists:

Randy Newman continues his three-day musical celebration of the Fourth of July with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by conductor Rob Fisher at the Hollywood Bowl tonight and tomorrow night (tickets: hollywoodbowl.com). Also making special guest appearances are two legendary Brooklyn/LA Dodgers icons: former manager Tommy Lasorda and broadcaster Vin Scully. The July 4th Fireworks Spectacular, which also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers in L.A., began last night and made the Los Angeles Times's list of not-to-be-missed events.

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The Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka, led by Norichika Iimori, performs John Adams's Chamber Symphony tonight in its hometown Izumi Hall in Osaka, Japan, and performs the program the following night in Tokyo at Kioi Hall. Info: izumihall.co.jp.

The Carroll Symphony Orchestra out of Carrollton, Georgia, led by Terry Lowry, celebrates Independence Day with a performance of the composer's Short Ride in a Fast Machine at the Carrollton Elementary School. On Sunday, the Brevard Music Ensemble, led by J. Falletta, will perform Short Ride at Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium in  Brevard, North Carolina. On Saturday, the Neue Elbland Philharmonie will perform the piece at Freyler-Halle in Riesa, Germany.

Also in Germany, on Sunday, the piece continues to contribute to performances of choreographer John Neumeier's Parzifal: Episodes and Echo, by the Hamburg Ballet at the Staatsoper in Hamburg, in a score that also includes Adams's Tromba Lontana, Christian Zeal and Activity, The Wound-Dresser, El Dorado, and The Dharma at Big Sur. Tickets: hamburgballet.de.

For another Sunday performance in Germany, Adams's Lollapalooza will be performed by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, led by Benjamin Shwartz in the Theater at the Festsaal in Ingolstadt. Info, auf Deutsch, at ingolstadt.up2city.de.

Back in the States, on Saturday, the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra, led by Carlos Kalmar, will perform Adams's Slonimsky's Earbox as part of its free series of summer concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millenium Park. Bill McGlaughlin, host of Exploring Music on Chicago radio's WFMT, narrates a program of American works spanning 125 years, beginning in the post Civil War era and ending with the music of today. Tickets are not required. Info: grantparkmusicfestival.com.

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On Saturday, The Black Keys take the stage at the weekend-long Rothbury Festival in Rothbury, Michigan. For a complete list of artists and events, visit rothburyfestival.com.

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The Magnetic Fields' European tour, which got under way last week with stops in Spain, Portugal, and Scandinavia, continues this weekend with three performances in Germany: tonight at the Karlstorbahnof in Heidelberg (karlstorbanhof.de), tomorrow night for an Independence Day concert at the aptly named Freiheizhalle in Munich (freiheiz.com), and Sunday night at the Passionskirche in Berlin (akanthus.de).

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Brad Mehldau will be in Europe for Fourth of July and throughout the month as he and his Trio, with Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, tour the continent. On Friday, the Trio will perform in Duisberg, Germany, at the Kraftzentrale in Landschaftspark Duisberg-Nord. They'll then head to Italy for the first of several dates in that country with Saturday's show at the Piazza Grande Polo Della Qualita in Marcianise. For further tour dates, click here.

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Orchestra Baobab performs a free concert tonight at 9 PM in Toronto. The band on the Harbourfront Centre's main stage as part of the city's World Routes free concert series. Info: harbourfrontcentre.com.

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Nicholas Payton performs in his hometown of New Orleans this Sunday  at the weekend-long Essence Festival. Tickets: essencemusicfestival.com.

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Punch Brothers play one more show Stateside, at the Britt Pavillion in Jacksonville, Oregon, Saturday night (brittfest.org), before heading to the UK and Ireland for a two-week tour later this month. For complete tour info, click here.

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Steve Reich's Sextet (1984) will be part of the Cheltenham Music Festival, which kicks off on July 4 and runs through July 19, when Three Strange Angels performs the piece at Town Hall in Cheltenham on Sunday. Tickets: cheltenhamfestivals.com.

Chicago Tribune: Orchestra Baobab Plays for 13,000 in Series' "Most Jubilant Concert Yet"

Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar tour of the States culminated last night with a concert at the intimate Dakota Cafe in Minneapolis that left Minneapolis City Pages reviewer Peter S. Scholtes to exclaim: "Orchestra Baobab is the kind of band that makes critics (at least this one) resort to hyperbole and sociology: They sound like God ..."

Scholtes distills "last night's fun at the Dakota" into "terms any rocker would get: Their star player among stars, guitarist Barthelemy Atisso, delivers the same giddy, sensual pleasure in mastery as a Van Halen or a Greg Ginn."

Read the concert review at blogs.citypages.com.

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This past weekend, the band played before a rather larger crowd in Chicago: an audience of some 13,000 at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavillion in what Chicago Tribune critic Howard Reich calls "the most jubilant concert yet" in the city's free world-music concert series Music Without Borders.

"Orchestra Baobab gleefully shattered stylistic boundaries that usually distinguish East from West, continent from continent, past from present," writes Reich. "Certainly few ensembles merge musical practices more joyously, or more skillfully, than Orchestra Baobab."

The band made note of that diverse mastery in the title of its 2002 "comeback" album Specialist in All Styles and in the song selection on their new album, which covers their many years of music-making together. What's more, says Reich: "By now, this vocal-instrumental powerhouse does more than dip into an eclectic mix of styles: It fuses them with tautly conceived, finely honed arrangements."

He concludes:

But the crowning achievement of Orchestra Baobab's show lay in the amount of musical information packed into every number. Imagine keening electric guitars, steeped-in-jazz saxophones and multiple layers of percussion interacting with clockwork precision, and you have a basic idea of the textural density of this enterprise.

To read the article, visit chicagotribune.com.

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This Thursday, the band continues its round of free outdoor concerts at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre with music from Made in Dakar, which the city's Toronto Star calls "a lively and surprisingly contemporary disc."

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Last week, during a tour stop in New York City for two free outdoor shows, the band was featured on WNYC's Soundcheck. You can listen to the episode online at wnyc.org.

Orchestra Baobab, "Effortlessly Alive" (New Yorker), Perform Two Free Shows in NYC

Orchestra Boabab continues its US tour, bringing music from its latest release, Made in Dakar, to New York City for two free shows, today and tomorrow. This evening at 7 PM ET, the seminal Senegalese band will perform at Rockefeller Park on the Hudson River in downtown Manhattan as part of the summer's River to River Festival of free outdoor performances (rivertorivernyc.com). Tomorrow, the group will head to Brooklyn's MetroTech center for a noon event as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Rhythm & Blues Festival (bam.org).

You can catch a concert preview today at 2 PM ET, when Orchestra Baobab will be featured on WNYC's Soundcheck with host John Schaefer. Listen live then at wnyc.org.

The New Yorker's music critic Sasha Frere-Jones says that even though it's been nearly 40 years since the band first played together, "time has done nothing to diminish the group's quiet intensity." These days, says Frere-Jones, "Baobab is effortlessly alive and globally indeterminate, a soothing and bewitching puzzle that always feels worth solving." Read more at newyorker.com.

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Following the band's performance at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, last week, which NPR webcast live (listen at npr.org), the Washington Post's Stephen Brookes writes: "[I]t's impossible to sit still when this Senegalese band gets moving, and it gets moving fast ... [I]t kept the crowd jumping all night." While he recognizes the truly collective effort on stage, Brookes points to the performance by the band's guitarist, Barthélemy Atisso (he of the "ferocious musical brain"), as "almost reason enough to see the show ... Attisso's a fascinating musical thinker, as he proved again and again." To read the concert review, visit washingtonpost.com.

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In the Pitchfork review of the new album, Made in Dakar, Joshua Klein says the band offers "seamless style blending" in a way that is "subtle, and always rooted in traditional music ... Orchestra Baobab is so smooth, so deceptively accessible, that for once the liner notes actually significantly enhance the listening experience."

Klein explains:

Each song here ... is equally rich in history, testament to one of the few positive outcomes of European occupation as they deftly incorporate soul and salsa, rumba and jazz, reggae and country, an exercise in cross-pollination made all the more impressive by the near invisibility of the threads connecting it all. That's ultimately what makes Orchestra Baobab such a joy: It's dance music, pure and simple, made for others to have a good time, easily appreciated on the basis of its musicianship alone (Attisso is particularly inspired throughout) but becoming more impressive the deeper you dig into what's actually being done.

To read the full review, visit pitchforkmedia.com.

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Click here to add Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar CD now for $16 and download the album MP3s, including the exclusive Nonesuch Store bonus track, "Mamadou," at no extra charge.

Nonesuch Events This Weekend

Here is our weekly list of just some of the many events going on across the globe this weekend featuring Nonesuch artists:

London Sinfonietta, led by Diego Masson, will perform John Adams's Chamber Symphony tomorrow night at Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore in its second of two performances at the 2008 Singapore Arts Festival. Also on tonight's program: Piazzolla's Tango Seis, Takemitsu's Rain Coming, and Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale. Info: singaporeartsfest.com.

Also tomorrow night, the Holland Symfonia, led by Henrik Schaefer, performs works from South America, including Adams's orchestrations of Piazzolla's La Mufa, Tango and Todo Buenos Aires. The Symfonia continues its South American program Sunday night with more works by Piazzolla. Info: hollandsymfonia.com.

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The Black Keys' tour of New Zealand and Australia winds down this weekend, jumping from the eastern to western coasts of Australia. Saturday, the band will play at the Manning Bar in Camperdown, Sydney (manningbar.com), then fly to Perth for a show at Metro Fremantle on Sunday, before heading home.

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T Bone Burnett continues to cross the country with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss as part of the Raising Sands tour. This weekend it brings them to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver, Colorado. Info: redrocksonline.com.

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Bill Frisell has had to cancel his appearance tonight at the 8 Days in June festival in Detroit, Michigan, due to a family illness. For information on refunds and ticket exchanges, call the Orchestra Hall box office at 313-576-5111.

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Emmylou Harris played the second of two nights yesterday at New York City's The Town Hall and heads out to Long Island tonight for the Opening Night Gala performance the The Planting Fields Arboretum's summer season of concerts in Oyster Bay, New York (fotapresents.org). She'll then perform at the Wolf Trap Filene Center in Vienna, Virginia, on Sunday (wolftrap.org).

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The Brad Mehldau Trio joins the festivities for the annual JVC Jazz Festival New York with a performance Sunday night in Carnegie Hall's intimate Zankel Hall. Info: festivalnetwork.com.

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After a rocking performance last night at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, broadcast live on npr.org and now available at npr.org/music, Orchestra Baobab heads up to the Boston area to play the Somerville Theatre tomorrow night. (somervilletheatreonline.com). "There are few summer sounds more breezily soulful than those wafting north from Cuba," says the Boston Herald, "unless they make their way here via a detour through Africa." The Herald calls the band's sound "an infectious mix of high life, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and Congolese rumba that made it legendary in West Africa."

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Tonight, Nicholas Payton joins drummer Roy Hanes and fellow Birds of a Feather participants Donald Harrison on sax, Christian McBride on bass, and Dave Kikoski on piano, paying tribute to John Coltrane, for the finale concert in the Gene Harris Jazz Festival in Boise, Idaho. The concert will take place in the Morrison Center at Boise State University. Info: boiseevents.com.

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Punch Brothers perform at the Sheridan Opera House for the closing-day events of the 35th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado, on Sunday. Tickets and info: bluegrass.com/telluride.

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This weekend, the Cincinnati Conservatory at the University of Cincinnati will conclude its weeklong Music 08 festival, showcasing new works and masterworks of the 20th and 21st centuries. Frederic Rzewski and Steve Reich are guest composers at the event, leading master classes today and tomorrow. The festival's culminating events include an all-Reich concert tomorrow night in the school's Corbett Auditorium, featuring Cello Counterpoint and Music for 18 Musicians, and a Sunday afternoon performance of Double Sextet by eighth blackbird, which held a master class yesterday. Info and tickets: ccm.uc.edu.

Reich's New York Counterpoint will be on the program tonight in the London Sinfonietta's first of two performances for the Singapore Arts Festival at Esplanade Concert Hall, in which the music will be accompanied by original visuals by video art collective Flat-e. Info: singaporeartsfest.com.

Also tonight, pianist Stephen Drury joins performers from the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice for Reich's Sextet at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston. Info: sicpp.org.

Orchestra Baobab Concert to Air Live on NPR.org Tonight

"The Orchestra Baobab experience of today is a masterful trip through the rhythms of the continent where Spanish, Portuguese Creole, Wolof, and Mandinka seamlessly interact," says the Washington Post. "And the group can still generate sizzle for rumberos y salseras." 

The band continues it US tour tonight in Alexandria, Virginia, bringing songs from the latest release, Made in Dakar, to the Birchmere. NPR will be there, broadcasting the show live online. Tune in to npr.org tonight at 7:30 PM ET to hear the band that, after nearly 40 years of making music, says NPR, "remains one of the world's foremost purveyors of Afro-Cuban pop."

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Click here to add Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar CD now for $16 and download the album MP3s, including the exclusive Nonesuch Store bonus track, "Mamadou," at no extra charge.

Boston Globe: Orchestra Baobab "More Soulful Than Ever" on New Album, Tour

Orchestra Baobab are currently touring the States with songs from their latest release, Made in Dakar, stopping at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee this past weekend to perform a set that PopMatters calls "the gem of the festival."

Tonight they're in Western Massachusetts to play Northampton's Pearl Street Nightclub and head further east at the end of the week for a set at the Somerville Theater, outside Boston, on Saturday. The Boston Globe's Andrew Gilbert says the band is "sounding more soulful than ever" on the new album. He writes:

Rather than updating its insinuating blend of Cuban son, jazz, and Senegalese folk melodies, Baobab has refined its sound, locking into the gentle grooves with precision and infectious delight ... [T]he album makes a strong case that Baobab's resurgence is one of undiminished musical inspiration.

To read the review, visit boston.com.

The Boston Herald gives Made in Dakar an A- with reviewer Nate Dow saying that these "Afro-Cuban sytlists' renaissance is now unmistakable." He points to lead guitarist and songwriter Barthelemy Attisso, finding his playing "at its height as he juices his band's redefined vision, which even includes delicious dashes of calypso and ska." Read the review at bostonherald.com.

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In between the two Massachusetts shows, Boabab will head down to New Haven, Connecticut, for the annual, citywide International Festival of Arts & Ideas tomorrow night at the Yale Law School Courtyard, and the Birchmere outside Washginton, DC, in Alexandria, Virginia on Thursday.

The Washington Post's Mark Jenkins points to a few of the select tracks on Made in Dakar:

Highlights of the new disc include "Ndéleng Ndéleng," built on the mbalax rhythm (the popular dance music of Senegal and Gambia), and "Nijaay," highlighting Barthelemy Attisso's lithe guitar and the gliding vocals of Assane Mboup (joined by his mentor, Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour).

Even with those standout performances, he concludes, "if those are among the album's most irresistibly syncopated offerings, any of these songs is capable of filling the closest available floor with dancers."
To read the review, visit washingtonpost.com.

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Click here to add Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar CD now for $16 and download the album MP3s, including the exclusive Nonesuch Store bonus track, "Mamadou," at no extra charge.

Nonesuch Events This Weekend

Here is our weekly list of just some of the many events going on across the globe this weekend featuring Nonesuch artists:

John Adams's opera Nixon in China, the first work to be dubbed a "CNN opera" upon its debut in 1987, closes the Denver Opera's season with four performances beginning Saturday night and continuing through Sunday, June 15. The production is directed by James Robinson and conducted by Marin Alsop, both of whom were involved in the staging's premiere at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Choreography is by Seán Curran, who is featured in a Denver Post profile at denverpost.com. Free pre-performance lectures begin one hour prior to curtain time and are open to all ticket holders. The Rocky Mountain News offers a preview of the event, including interviews with the cast. Tickets: operacoloardo.org.

Also on Saturday, Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine will be performed by the Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra, led by Mark Finch, at the Cathedral in Gloucester, England. Info: gloucestercathedral.org.uk.

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Laurie Anderson's performances of Homeland at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, continues for the third night in a row tonight. The Festival runs May 23 through June 8 and includes works of opera, dance, theater, and music. Information: spoletousa.org.

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T Bone Burnett continues to lead the band on the Raising Sand tour with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, which stops at the CMAC in Canandaigua, New York, outside of Rochester (cmacevents.com), Saturday night, and at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Sunday night (theborgata.com).

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Bill Frisell plays close to home in a number of shows in the Pacific Northwest over the next several days with his trio, featuring Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston. Tomorrow night, they'll be in Eugene, Oregon, to perform at the Jaqua Concert Hall at The Shedd (theshedd.org), and Sunday night they'll be in Portland to play at the Aladdin Theater (aladdin-theater.com). They'll continue in the Northwest early next week with two shows at the Tractor Tavern, Monday and Tuesday (tractortavern.ypguides.net).

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Emmylou Harris takes the songs of her forthcoming Nonesuch release, All I Intended to Be, on the road this weekend, performing tonight at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado, with John Prine (redrocksonline.com). On Sunday, she'll head to Lawrence, Kansas, to play the Revival Tent at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival (wakarusa.com).

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k.d. lang continues to bring the songs of Watershed across Canada with a show at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium Sunday night in Edmonton. Information: jubileeauditorium.com.

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Brad Mehldau brings his Trio, drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier, to California this weekend, with a performance at at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, tonight for SFJAZZ's spring season (sfjazz.org), and at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles Sunday (theelrey.com).

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Orchestra Baobab plays the second US show of its Made in Dakar tour at Yoshi's in Oakland, California, Saturday night, after having kicked off the tour in Yoshi's San Francisco venue last night. Tickets: yoshis.com.

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Nicholas Payton and his Quintet continue their five-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard through the weekend, with 7:30 and 9:30 PM sets each night, as well as additional late-night sets tonight and tomorrow night at 11:30 PM. Tickets: jazzstandard.net.

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Sam Phillips continues her Don't Do Anything tour of Borders stores with a free performance and signing at the New York City store at Columbus Circle, in the Time Warner Center overlooking Central Park. The show begins tonight at 7 PM. Also this weekend are stops at the Bryn Mawr / Philadelphia store at the Rosemont Shopping Center Saturday, at 2 PM, and the Tyson's Corner store, just outside Washington, DC, on Sunday at 3 PM. For more dates, click here.

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Steve Reich's music remains the centerpiece of the Ojai Music Festival, which continues this weekend in Ojai, California, after last night's all-Reich opening concert. Today's events include a full-day symposium, featuring conversations with The New Yorker's Alex Ross this morning and conductor David Robertson this afternoon, and culminating in a conversation with the composer at 2:15 PM PST. On Sunday morning at 11 AM, Reich will join the Nexus and So Percussion ensembles and percussionist Wade Culbreath in a performance of his seminal 1973 piece Drumming. Closing the festival, at 5:30 PM on Sunday, the Ojai Festival Orchestra, led by Robertson, and Dawn Upshaw perform Reich's Tehillim.

Dawn, the Festival's featured musician, also performs in a recital tomorrow morning with pianist Gil Kalish. The two perform works by Foster, Seeger, Ives, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, Schumann, Wolf, Berg, Weill, and Bolcom. Also in the aforementioned closing concert Sunday night, she'll join mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey in a performance of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater.

For the complete Ojai Music Festival schedule, visit ojaifestival.org.

Elsewhere this weekend, Düsseldorf Percussion performs Reich's Sextet tonight at the Clara Schumann Musikschule, in Düsseldorf, Germany; and the Conservatorio de las Rosas's Conservatory Ensemble performs Drumming in Sala Ninos Cantores, Morelia, Michoacan, in Mexico, Saturday night.

Orchestra Baobab to Appear Live on KPFA's "Music of the World" Today

Orchestra Baobab kicked off their US tour in support of their latest album, Made in Dakar, last night at Yoshi's in San Francisco and will play at the club's Oakland venue tomorrow night. Today, at 11 AM PST (2 PM EST), the band will appear live on the listener-supported Berkeley radio station KPFA, 94.1 FM, program Music of the World.

Fans around the world can tune in live at kpfa.org.

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San Francisco Examiner's Derk Richardson understatedly suggests that "there would be a lot less meaningful ways" to spend one's hard-earned money than "to spring for the new Baobab CD, Made in Dakar, or ... to see this phenomenal band when it plays live in the Bay Area over the next several nights."

The band, with its Afro-Cuban roots, is in good company with its label mates in the Buena Vista Social Club, and then some. Baobab, says Richardson,

has enough Cuban feel to please fans of the late Compay Segundo, Rubén González and Ibrahim Ferrer, plus there's lead guitarist Barthélemy Attisso unraveling solos that rival B.B. King, Peter Green and Carlos Santana for fluid emotional expression, and original singer/percussionists Balla Sidibe and Rudy Gomis as well as Wolof singer Ndiouga Dieng ... casting indelible vocal spells and inducing ecstatic swoons.

Read the article at examiner.com.

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Spinner.com's Steve Hochman spoke with Attiso, the band's guitarist, about how life has changed for the band since their early days in the 1970s, when they first came together and were "key in the development of West African music," in Hochman's words. As the writer sees it:

On the new album, the rumba lilt is as persuasive and seductive as ever, woven with the various shades of Afrobeat, and Attisso's guitar retains the distinctive fluid sting that was crucial to the old recordings. And throughout there is a sense of deep appreciation for both past and present successes and the people who have been parts of that.

Read the interview at spinner.com.

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The Christian Science Monitor's Stephen Humphries examines the rise in popularity in the US and Europe of the music of West Africa. Writes Humphries:

West Africa may be one of the poorest regions in the world but it boasts a natural resource of astonishing wealth: its music. In recent years, the aural riches of Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Gambia have been gaining currency in America and Europe through several ambassadors.

Including among those the Monitor cites in this group: Orchestra Baobab, Amadou & Mariam, Ali Farka Toure, Oumou Sangare, and Toumani Diabate.

To read the article, visit csmonitor.com.

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The Monitor's Norman Weinstein reviews two new records from that set of West African luminaries: Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar and Diabate's The Mandé Variations.

"Named after a sturdy African tree with healing properties," writes Weinstein of Orchestra Baobab, "this 11-piece Senegalese band proves as life-affirming as its namesake." The band, he says, "uncannily merge Caribbean rhythms, American soul mannerisms, and Congolese dance styles into a spectacular display of brash virtuosity."

In trying to conceptualize the unique artis that is Toumani Diabate, Weinstein suggests imagining a kora player who "listens carefully to Jimi Hendrix, UB40's reggae-rock, blues, and flamenco" then "invents a technique of playing bass lines and melodic embellishments that suggest hearing two or more musicians simultaneously." What Diabate has created from such an undertaking on The Mandé Variations:

An astonishing tour de force: a solo kora recital of exquisite delicacy, breathtaking improvisational skill, and elegiac stateliness.

Those reviews can also be found at csmonitor.com.

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Click here to add Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar CD now for $16 and download the album MP3s, including the exclusive Nonesuch Store bonus track, "Mamadou," at no extra charge.

Click here to add Toumani Diabate's The Mande Variations CD directly to your Shopping Cart for $16, along with the album MP3s at no additional cost.

Philadelphia Inquirer Rates Orchestra Baobab's Newest an A

Orchestra Baobab's latest release, Made in Dakar, earns an A from Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer Jonathan Takiff, who writes:

Senegal's virtuoso Orchestra Baobab really won my heart with the subtle vocal harmonies, polyrhythmic beats, deliciously tart guitar licks and soaring, sax-driven jams all over Made in Dakar.

Relix magazine says the band has done something "very right" with the new album, making music that is "upbeat and danceable," and recommends watching the video at nonesuch.com/madeindakar.

The band's monthlong tour of the United States kicks off at Yoshi's in San Francisco this Thursday, June 5, before heading to the other side of the Bay to play Yoshi's Oakland venue on Saturday. For all the tour dates, click here.

The Napa Valley Register previews the band's Wednesday, June 11, set at the Napa Valley Opera House by calling the music "sublime" and the band "Africa's soul survivors, with their classic 1970s lineup largely intact and their diverse mix of styles and influences sounding as fresh and relevant as ever."

The article concludes:

Orchestra Baobab is one of the world's most enduring musical stories, the saga of a group of musicians who have wowed audiences in stadiums, festivals and concert halls around the world, but who have retained the warmth, spontaneity and essential humanity of the truly local band.

To read the complete story, visit napavalleyregister.com.

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Click here to add Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar CD now for $16 and download the album MP3s, including the exclusive Nonesuch Store bonus track, "Mamadou," at no extra charge.

Billboard: Orchestra Boabab's New Album "A Major Thrill"

Made in Dakar, Orchestra Boabab's first album of new recordings since 2002's Specialists in All Styles, was released last week. Billboard magazine says the collection of new songs and new takes on classic Baobab tunes proves to be "a great retrospective" on the band with "no shortage of stylistic turns."

Reviewer Philip Van Vleck calls it "a major thrill" to have the chance to rediscover some of the many hard-to-find classics, "retracked in grand fashion" for the new album, including the "quintessential" Baobab tune "Nijaay," with its special guest turn from Youssou N'Dour on vocals.

To read the complete review, visit billboard.com.

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Click here to add Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar CD now for $16 and download the album MP3s, including the exclusive Nonesuch Store bonus track, "Mamadou," at no extra charge.

Click here to add 2002's Specialist in All Styles  to your Cart for $16 and download the album MP3s at no extra charge.

Rolling Stone: Four Stars for Orchestra Baobab's New Album, "Made in Dakar"

Made in Dakar, Orchestra Baobab's first album of new recordings since 2002's Grammy-nominated Specialist in All Styles, hits stores in the United States today. Rolling Stone gives Made in Dakar four stars, with reviewer Will Hermes writing that "with this collection of burbling grooves, these Senegalese legends recapture the Afro-Cuban bliss of their 1982 classic, Pirates Choice---imagine the Buena Vista Social Club weaned on motherland polyrhythms." Hermes points to guitarist Barthélemy Attisso as the band's "secret weapon," calling him "a guitar giant with a touch as delicate and melodically sublime as Jerry Garcia's" and describing his performances on two particular tracks as "so chill they'll buckle your knees."

To read the review, visit rollingstone.com.

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Click here to add Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar CD now for $16 and download the album MP3s, including the exclusive Nonesuch Store bonus track, "Mamadou," at no additional charge.

Click here to add Specialist in All Styles directly to your Cart for $16 and download the album MP3s at no extra charge.

Click here to add the 2002 two-CD reissue of Pirates Choice directly to your Cart for $20 and download the album MP3s at no extra charge.

Time Out NY: Orchestra Baobab Prove to Be Specialists in Many Styles on New Album

With Orchestra Baobab's new album, Made in Dakar, due out on Tuesday, the group's co-founder Barthélemy Attisso spoke with Time Out New York about the new album, the forthcoming tour, and the joys of bringing their music to the rest of the world.

Time Out's K. Leander Williams writes that Attisso has "been singled out as one of the most distinctive guitarist-arrangers the African continent has produced." In 2002, that singular sound met with another iconic musical ambassador when Youssou N'Dour produced what Williams calls the group's "triumphant reunion album," Specialist in All Styles. N'Dour's guest vocals on the new album leads to the "gorgeous update" of the band's classic song "Nijaay" and proves another example of the band's effort to showcase as many of their musical interests as possible:

Along with the harder-edged album tracks "Sibam" and "Ndeleng Ndeleng," the new version of "Nijaay" has been subtly outfitted with rhythmic flourishes that mirror the griot music N'Dour turned into the Senegalese rock style mbalax.

To read the article, visit timeout.com/newyork.

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Click here to pre-order Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar CD now for $16 and download the album MP3s, including the exclusive Nonesuch Store bonus track, "Mamadou," on release day, May 20.

Click here to add 2002's Specialist in All Styles  directly to your Shopping Cart for $16 and download the album MP3s at no extra charge.

NY Times: Orchestra Baobab's New Album Likely Year's Most "Buoyant, Affirmative-Sounding"

"There isn't likely to be a more buoyant or affirmative-sounding release this year than Made in Dakar by the legendary Orchestra Baobab," writes the New York Times music critic Nate Chinen of the forthcoming collection of classic tunes from the Senegalese group, due out next Tuesday and available now for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. He continues:

The beguiling guitar work of Barthélemy Attisso would be enough to recommend the album, were it not for a breezily amalgamated babble of grooves (high life, rumba, calypso, guajira) and dialects (Wolof, Malinké, Portuguese Creole).

An additional highlight Chinen points to is the song "Nijaay," "a reinvigorated classic" that features a guest vocal from Youssou N'Dour. Read the review at nytimes.com.

You can listen to "Nijaay" now at Pitchfork, which is streaming the tune through imeem. Pitchfork's Drew F. Hinshaw says that "the enduring international popularity of the band and their Spanish-speaking cousins in the Buena Vista Social Club" shows that the combination of cross-cultural, Afro-Cuban sounds in which both bands excel, "just works."

Hinshaw writes of the updated version of "Nijaay" recorded for Made in Dakar:

No matter what corner of the Afro-Cuban continent you hail from, there's something to dig, be it Nigerian saxophonist Peter Udo's Coltrane impression, the swirling guitar runs spilling out of Togolese Barthelemy Attisso, or the vocal contributions of Youssou N'Dour. The conga flutters even tell an interesting story, about ocean crossings and musical adaptations.

To listen, visit pitchforkmedia.com.

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Click here to pre-order Orchestra Baobab's Made in Dakar CD now for $16 and download the album MP3s, including the exclusive Nonesuch Store bonus track, "Mamadou," on release day, May 20.

Orchestra Baobab, Fernando Otero to Play Chicago's Millennium Park This Summer

Chicago's Millennium Park has announced this summer's season of its free outdoor world-music series, Music Without Borders. Performing this summer at the Park's Jay Pritzker Pavillion are Orchestra Baobab, who will play on June 28 at 8:30 PM, and Fernando Otero, who will open for the Bajofondo Tango Club, led by composer Gustavo Santaolalla, on August 27, at 6:30 PM. You can read more about the series in today's Chicago Tribune or by visiting milleniumpark.org.

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Click here to add Fernando Otero's Pagina de Buenos Aires CD directly to your Shopping Cart for $14, along with the album MP3s at no extra cost.

Click here to add Orchestra Baobab's 2002 album Specialist in All Styles to your Cart for $16, along with the album MP3s at no extra cost. For more options, visit the Nonesuch Store.

NPR Previews Orchestra Baobab's "Made in Dakar" Among Season's Best

Orchestra Baobab's forthcoming album, Made in Dakar, is among the upcoming releases previewed this week on All Songs Considered. Host Bob Boilen is joined by NPR's Stephen Thompson, KEXP's Cheryl Waters, and The Current's Mark Wheat to share the music they're most looking forward to this spring.

About 19 minutes into the show, Boilen introduces Orchestra Baobab as "one of my favorite world music bands" and intros the track "Cabral," off the new record, as a "song I'd love to hear and love to play for you all." As the song excerpt comes to a close, Boilen asserts: "Oh, man, I love that music. I could listen to it all day long." His guest hosts concur.

You can listen to this week's All Songs Considered episode and play the full track "Cabral" off Made in Dakar at npr.org.

Punch Brothers, Orchestra Baobab to Perform Free Summer Concerts in NYC

Punch Brothers will be performing in a free concert this summer at New York City's Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City, as part of a series of free outdoor concerts, BrooklynVegan reports. The show will take place on Wednesday, July 23, at 7 PM.

Also slated to perform in the series is Orchestra Baobab (pictured at right), who'll take the stage earlier in the summer, on June 25, at 7 PM; the group's new album, Made in Dakar, is slated for release on May 20.

In other Punch Brothers news, Chris Thile has scheduled some solo dates over the next few weeks while the band gears up for the next leg of its tour in May. Chris will perform at The Living Room in New York April 19 and 21 and May 4. For the April 21 show, he'll be joined by guitarist Michael Daves. For more information and tickets, visit livingroomny.com. For more tour information, click here.

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Click here to add Punch Brothers' Punch CD plus free album MP3s, including the bonus download "Bailey," directly to your Shopping Cart for $16.

LA Times: Amadou & Mariam's "Dimanche à Bamako" Is One of Century's Sunniest

In an effort to expand the musical palate of Vampire Weekend fans newly taken to the sounds of Afro-pop, which the band references in its work, the Los Angeles Times offers some "relatively recent gems" from Africa's diverse musical offerings. Included is Amadou & Mariam's Manu Chao-produced album Dimanche à Bamako, which the Times' Ann Powers says "ranks as one of the sunniest musical outings released this century." She writes: "Some tracks boogie like classic rock, others roll along on those gloriously languorous Malian rhythms, some flirt with hip-hop. Every one will make you jump up and dance."

And, the article concludes, "that's just the tiniest foray into African pop—we didn’t even mention such obvious notables as Vieux Farka Toure [Ali Farka Toure's son], Orchestra Baobab, Youssou N'Dour, and Rokia Traore."

For the complete article, visit theguide.latimes.com.

Guardian Names 1,000 Must-Hear Albums (Part 2: N-Z)

The Guardian has revealed the last batch of albums on its list of the 1,000 all-time must-hears. Earlier this week, we brought you Nonesuch artists A through M on the list. Here are N through Z, along with the Guardian's take on each:

• Orchestra Baobab: Specialist in All Styles (World Circuit/Nonesuch; 2002) "Until the arrival of Youssou N'Dour and his frantic mbalax style in the 80s, Orchestra Baobab dominated the Dakar music scene with their fine harmonies and blend of Latin and African styles. Invited to reform after a break of 16 years, they sounded as fresh and engaging as ever—and this time around, the quality of their recordings was vastly improved."

• Astor Piazzolla: Tango Zero Hour (1986, r. 1998) "It's impossible to summarise up the career and influence of the great Argentine nuevo tango composer and bandoneon-player. However, this Kip Hanrahan–produced studio album caught Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet at the height of their powers."

• Radio Tarifa: Rumba Argelina (World Circuit/Nonesuch; 1993, r. 1997) "For more than a decade, Radio Tarifa were the quintessential world music band, mixing Moorish and African sounds and rhythms with catchy tunes. Singer Benjamin Escoriza adds a gritty charisma to the cleverly crafted studio concoctions of Vincent Molino and Fain S Duenas."

• Oumou Sangare: Moussolou (World Circuit/Nonesuch; 1991, r. 1999) "One of the finest female singers in Mali, Oumou Sangare is a national celebrity both for her songs and for the messages behind them. On this early recording, she was backed by a small band dominated by guitar, kamelngoni and a mournful violin that matches her fine, thoughtful songs of advice to women."

• SF Jazz Collective: SF Jazz Collective (2005) "Under Joshua Redman's leadership, the SFJC pioneered a new approach to jazz repertoire that complements their better-funded counterparts in the 'straight' world. This is the first of a series of beautifully recorded live concerts that uses Ornette Coleman's compositions as a springboard to new work."

• Taraf de Haïdouks: Band of Gypsies (2001) "International success for these gifted Romanians took their government by surprise. This generous and energetic live album boosts the collective's family core with guests including Kocani Orchestra and Bulgarian clarinetist Filip Simeonov, resulting in exultant tracks such as 'Bride in a Red Dress' and the breakneck 'Carolina.'"

• Rokia Traoré: Bowmboï (2004) "The most bravely experimental female performer in Africa, Rokia Traoré started out matching her cool, clear vocals against her own acoustic guitar and traditional instruments such as the ngoni. Here she is joined by the strings of the Kronos Quartet."

• Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) "By their fourth album, Jeff Tweedy's once stoutly country-rock group had spread their wings. Frazzled Krautrock, shortwave static and Tweedy's lovelorn melodicism formed the basis of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, to stunning effect."

Also listed were Youssou N'Dour (Immigres), Scritti Politti (Songs to Remember), and Caetano Veloso (Definitive Collection [UK]).

Check out the complete list at music.guardian.co.uk.