by Robert Leeper

John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards in the early 1980s

Le Poisson Rouge's festival tribute to American icon John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards, Strange & Beautiful: A Celebration of the Music of John Lurie, the Lounge Lizards, and Marvin Pontiac, concludes its festivities at The Town Hall this Saturday. In their merger of pop forms with funk-styled vamping and more avant-garde and jazz tendencies, Lurie and his group represent a mixture of popular culture's pleasures and experimentation's thrill, and theirs is a career that deserves celebration.

The stacked roster of performing guests includes John Zorn, Flea (of Red Hot Chili Peppers), John Medeski, Evan Lurie, Billy Martin, and Michael Blake among many more. Read about the whole line up here. Ticket info here.

Over the past half-century, West Africa has yielded an incredibly rich crop of musicians who have merged the indigenous music of the Griot tradition with rock, blues, and R&B, including Femi and Seun Kuti (sons of Fela), Salif Keita, Vieux Farka Touré, and, of course, Youssou N'Dour, who recently appeared as part of the ongoing Nonesuch at BAM festival.

Add to that list Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré, who appeared at the Howard Gilman Opera House Wednesday night with her band for a two-hour set. Traoré, 40, had a serene, almost regal bearing, her hair cropped in an anrogynous buzzcut. Her voice wasn't particularly beautiful, but it did penetrate the haze of psychedelic cowboy electric guitars and lute-like Ngoni.

Traoré sang in three languages: her native French and Bambara, as well as English. When she wasn't accompanying herself on guitar, she danced around the stage in a Dervish-like trance, flowing along with the loungey groove. Most of the crowd stayed seated for the performance, save for one inspired audience member who approached the stage during "Mélancolie" (from Traoré's 2013 release Beautiful Africa) to do a traditional African dance while Traoré accompanied her in a seemingly endless torrent of lyrics. It was rapturous, transporting. 

Continuing the ongoing panorama of music at the Nonesuch at BAM Festival, Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour performed to a pair of packed houses last week that turned the Howard Gilman Opera House into something resembling a revival meeting. Wearing bright orange and green kaftans, N'Dour charmed the largely expat African audience on Saturday with a 2 1/2 hour performance of mbalax songs from across his three decade career. His high, pure voice was carried straight up into the rafters by the members of his veteran band, Super Etoile. It was a concert, a call to arms, and a spiritual awakeneing, all at once. As his James Brown-style MC kept telling us, without the slightest bit of pretense: "He is the King of African Music! He is a minister of the people!," an oblique reference to N'Dour's recent appointment as Senegal's Minister of Culture and Tourism. From my vantage point in the midst of an ecstatic crowd of women dancing in heels and sequinned dresses, and men who threw dollars at N'Dour's feet like a religious offering, it didn't feel like much of an exaggeration.

More pics on the photo page.