National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Grammy-winning Malian musician Toumani Diabaté recently announced plans to tour the U.S. with his pan-African Symmetric Orchestra, following up the release of last year's Grammy-nominated Boulevard de L'Indépendance. Diabaté himself took home a statue in 2006 for In the Heart of the Moon, his collaboration with with the late Ali Farka Touré.

The eight city tour will kick off in Minneapolis on March 21st and will mark the debut of the Symmetric Orchestra in North America. Over the last decade, Diabaté and his Symmetric Orchestra have performed almost every Friday night at Bamako's Hogon club. They have become one of the most popular bands in the city's vast music scene, celebrated across West Africa and beyond. Like the album's title—taken from the main road that bisects Bamako—the group's name refers to a balance between tradition and progress: music preserved from the Mandé Empire that once connected West Africa and contemporary dance-music styles.

The Symmetric Orchestra comprises players from Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and Mali, and its instrumentation includes electric guitar, bass, and drums, as well as the more traditional kora, ngoni, and balafon. Boulevard de l'Indépendance captures the Symmetric Orchestra's singular sound, which in nine tracks spans everything from age-old Mandé standards to Cuban-Senegalese salsa. The album was recorded in two weeks of all-night sessions and features a string section, a horn section arranged by Pee Wee Ellis, and singers including the local hero Kasse Mady Diabaté.

Tour Dates:

March 21st Dakota Jazz Club, Minneapolis, MN
March 22nd HotHouse, Chicago, IL
March 24th Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH
March 27th Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
March 28th World Café Live, Philadelphia, PA
March 29th Somerville Theatre, Somerville, MA
March 30th Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall), New York, NY
March 31st Lisner Auditorium, Washington, D.C.