Mali

GREAT ESCAPE

Let the West African Griot Summit take you away

Q&A: Playing For Change's Mark Johnson On Finding Fantastic Music On Streets All Over The World

Ten years ago, audio engineer Mark Johnson boldly decided to part ways with a career that had him recording the likes of Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, and Los Lobos. He decided to chase after a new pipe dream that must have seemed at once both wildly ambitious and thoroughly hare-brained. Spurred into ... More >>

Raya Brass Band

Brightness

7 Walkers

Our 10 Best West African Restaurants in NYC

​The peanut-dusted lamb kebabs called suya from northern Nigeria, available at Brooklyn's Buka In the late 80s, the typical Senegalese immigrant was a guy who furtively sold counterfeit watches and handbags on the street. He took his meals at temporary restaurants set up in SRO hotels rooms ... More >>

Illegal: Laudable but Creaky Look at Undocumented Immigrants

Download Bootlegs Of All 13 Sets From globalFEST 2011

Kinda makes you wonder what the Pedrito Martinez Group sounds like. Pic by Ben Jay.​Last week's globalFEST 2011 blowout at Webster Hall packed 13 acts from Brazil, India, Cuba, Mali, Sengal, Hawaii, Honduras, France, Egypt, Colombia, Peru, the Congo, and New York City onto three stages, a stag ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Weezer's Pinkerton, Taylor Swift, AfroCubism, and More

Weezer in simpler times, or maybe not ​In this week's Village Voice, Mike Powell hails the reissue of Weezer's Pinkerton, Theon Weber reviews Taylor Swift's sneakily great Speak Now, and Tad Hendrickson chronicles the belated emergence of the Mali-Cuba connection finally captured on AfroCubism ... More >>

David Goldblatt, Zwelethu Mthethwa, and 'Retratos Pintados' Evoke Art's Subject-Producer Question

Three photo shows at the Jewish Museum, the Studio Museum, and Yossi Milo Gallery

Vieux Farka Toure

Vieux Farka Touré

Back to 'Africa' With Nas and Damian Marley

Why the blockbuster collusion of Distant Relatives feels so . . . distant

Spring Guide: Shopping With Gang Gang Dance's Lizzi Bougatsos

This Weekend! Leslie & the Ly's, Tinariwen, Lee Fields & the Expressions, Crystal Slilts, Beach Fossils, Sightings, Dum Dum Girls, And More

​If you like your ladies in out-of-this world glittering bodysuits, check out Leslie, a/k/a Mother Gem (the name hints at her collection of shiny jumpsuit splendor, as seen above), and her band the Ly's at Mercury Lounge, where the synth-pop band will induce a keytar frenzy. At the Bell House ... More >>

The 1000TimesYes Top 100: The Top 100 2009 Records Of A Guy Who Listened To More Records Than You

You know, we actually have other shots of Chris, he just won't let us use them. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​As a guy who plausibly could claim he listened to more music than anyone in the last year short of Robert Christgau, 1000TimesYes's Christopher R. Weingarten seemed like the ideal guy to as ... More >>

Interview: Luke Top from Fool's Gold on Being a Paralegal, Singing in Hebrew, and the Lost Art of Improvisation

"I feel really accomplished because I made two records this year, held down the day job, and I didn't have to break up with my girlfriend." Marianne WilliamsThat's a lot of people. Bands that list too many influences tend to sound like a mess. So what does Fool's Gold, a band that's a goulash of E ... More >>

Toubab Krewe

Damon Albarn and His Adventurous Honest Jon's Label

A leading voice of Britpop resurgence flaunts the fruits of his adventurous Honest Jon's label

A Brooklyn Assemblyman's Earmarks Are Political Surrealism

A local pol gets singed for his attempt at pork for Aesthetic Realism

Saturday 5.10

Shopping for Gracie Mansion

John Catsimatidis wants to be the next billionaire mayor

2007 Jazz Poll Ballots: P-Z

New releases, reissues, debuts, and more—each critic's picks

Festival Film: Friend or Foe?

Speaking to the West and its own, Bamako blurs the line

West African Blues Eulogy Conjures Desert Lightning

Ali Farka Touré 1939–2006

"A mechanic, technician, chauffeur, and farmer—all that is before music."

Letters

Royal Portraits

Modernity and tradition entwined in a complex dialogue

Forever Young

The joyous clamor of today's youth punches you in the nose

Hot Couple

Malian marrieds take their most recent newfound success as their long-established due

Sustenance Enough?

Indie-rock heavy hitters get confused figuring out why they're doing it, doing it, doing it

Treasure Hunt Saga Ignores Rules of Space-Time

Traveling Film Festival Brings Third-World Movies to U.S.

Go 'Head, Fred!

Boondocks and motherland sing that song to da rhythm of da boogie da bang bang da bong

Mali's Guitar-Wielding Revolutionary Finds Peace as an Expat

In Through the Out Door

North Africa's Nomads, Zimbabwe's ZANU, Chad's Children

Escape Claus

Africa Talks to You

Film

2001 Gets Better

Goodbye Palm

No Gimcracks

Tounkara Takes It to the Stage

Rock: Festivals

American Bandshell

Ina Dancehall Groove—Finally

Alt Lives!!

Bitches Brew

Bible Studied

Global Village People

Baby Gets Back

Continental Drift