AfroCubism, the new album featuring some of the finest musicians from Mali and Cuba, was released in the US and Canada earlier this week on Nonesuch. The album was some 14 years in the making, having been slated for the recording sessions that produced the Buena Vista Social Club instead. Tonight, the musicians that made it happen—including guitarist Eliades Ochoa of BVSC fame, kora master Toumani Diabaté, ngoni player Bassekou Kouyaye, vocalist Kassé Mady Diabaté, guitarist Djelimady Tounkara, balafon player Fode Lassana Diabaté—begin their three-city North American tour at Metropolis in Montreal, Canada. The group performs at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston on Sunday and at The Town Hall in New York City on Tuesday. For more information, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

The Wall Street Journal, previewing Tuesday's concert at The Town Hall, says of the new album: "The overall results are perhaps even more sonically pleasing than the two BVSC albums, displaying the same kind of creative genre-mixing in world forms that we're accustomed to hearing in North American jazz." Read more at online.wsj.com.

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Boston Globe correspondent Siddhartha Mitter, in a preview of Sunday's show, says the cultural connection between Cuba and Mali "has been renewed by the super-group AfroCubism, whose extravagant lineup—anchored by Cuban guitarist Eliades Ochoa and Malian luminaries Djelimady Tounkara on guitar, Bassekou Kouyate on ngoni, and Toumani Diabaté on kora—is on the road for the most important world-music tour of the season."

Mitter describes the album as "a thrilling and impeccably produced conversation between two musics that have a great deal to do with each other in the first place." In his piece for the Globe, he examines the story behind the project through conversations with Ochoa, Tounkara, and producer Nick Gold, and suggests that "the contribution of younger artists like Toumani Diabaté helps make AfroCubism more current than simply a gorgeous nostalgia project by aging lions."

Read the complete article at boston.com.

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Earlier this week, AfroCubism was featured in a report on PRI's The World by senior producer Marco Werman.

"AfroCubism will undoubtedly make a lot of critics' Best of 2010 lists," Werman predicts in the piece, "and not just because it's a great collection of songs. AfroCubism feels like something that's long overdue has finally arrived. Triumphantly."

You can listen to the segment online at theworld.org.

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Alarm Press reviewer Michael Nolledo says "the album has an electrifying liveliness that stems not only from 15 years of pent-up collaborative energy but more than 100 years of crisscrossing cultural histories."

Nolledo takes a look at some of that history and finds that, even with the differences that remain between the cultures, the music goes beyond them. "Working between several language barriers, the beauty of this particular collective is how individual skills speak to a larger whole in a natural and impulsive collaboration that transcends language," he writes. "It is a seamless integration of quite diverse elements."

The article finds a shared perspective between this musical coming together and the art movement referenced in its title, Cubism. AfroCubism "deconstructs West African and Cuban music in various ways—language, rhythms, intonations, and instrumentations—and pushes them all into one musical plane," Nolledo explains. "Although the outcome may not be as jarring as a Cubist painting, the result still represents the two genres in their greater context. In the end, music lovers will appreciate AfroCubism for its nuances and ability to reflect two musical styles meeting and fusing at once."

Read the complete album review at alarmpress.com.

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Head to the Nonesuch Store to pick up a copy of AfroCubism with high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s included at checkout, along with the exclusive bonus track "Keme Bourama." To watch live performances and behind-the-scenes studio footage of the band, visit nonesuch.com/media.