Tinariwen

The public mourning here for Kirby Puckett and Dana Reeves last month was matched by millions of music lovers in Africa grieving for Ali Farka Toure, the Grammy-winning Malian bluesman. Toure’s powerful, polyrhythmic, multilingual music served in its way as an agent for peace among warring subgroups in that Saharan nation; fortunately, Tinariwen is still around to carry on the tradition. A Tuareg group that draws upon the influences of Toure as well as Arabic sounds, North African call-and-response singing, and even American-style blues, Tinariwen’s music bridges the sound of the past with the concerns of today. As with Toure’s music, the result is hypnotic. 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-338-2674; www.thecedar.org; 612-375-7600; www.walkerart.org