Amadou & Mariam are set to take Chicago by storm tonight as they begin the first leg of their summer tour bringing music from their latest Because/Nonesuch release, Welcome to Mali, through the US and Canada. The duo performs at Chicago's Park West tonight, along with the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International and DJ Warp. Today also marks the release of Welcome to Mali on vinyl. The double LP includes the music on CD and, in the Nonesuch Store, as an instant download of the full album as MP3s as well.

The two-week headlining tour continues through Toronto, Montreal, and Boston this week, then on to New York, Philadelphia, Alexandria, and finally Manchester, Tennessee, where Amadou & Mariam will take the stage at the Bonnaroo Festival. The couple returns to the States in July, when they'll join Coldplay for a second two-week tour, this time through the Western states. For complete tour information, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

During their stop in New York City this Monday, June 8, before a gig at Webster Hall, Amadou & Mariam will make their way to NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, whose own house band, The Roots, will no doubt make its own unique contribution to the duo's performance.

The Decider Chicago, in recommending tonight's show, writes: "The blind duo have crafted an intriguing hybrid of blues, rock, jazz, and African music on their album Welcome to Mali."

The Chicago Sun-Times previews tonight's tour kick-off with a profile of the couple writer Mary Houlihan calls "one of Africa's most renowned music acts" and "a favorite of Chicago audiences (who can forget their enchanting 2006 performance in Millennium Park?)."

Houlihan traces their recent rise to international stardom with the release of their Nonesuch debut, 2005's Manu Chao–produced Dimanche à Bamako, which she describes as "breezy and infectious ... more hook-filled and up-tempo than the couple's earlier recordings."

Their latest release, says Houlihand, "shows Amadou & Mariam once again exploring different musical ideas," referencing the Damon Albarn–produced opening track, "Sabali," and the "intriguing roster of artists and sounds" they've integrated into the recording.

And, as fans will witness on the upcoming tour, they bring those sounds to their live sets as well. "Amadou & Mariam front a fiery band that provides a kaleidoscope of music filtering rock, blues, reggae and hip-hop through a Malian sensibility," says Houlihand. "Her vocals are innocent and welcoming; his blues/rock guitar style is commanding and nimble."

Read the complete article at suntimes.com.

---

The couple were the subject of a feature in the Chicago Tribune late last week. Music writer Greg Kot writes that the couple has "been making beautiful music together ever since they met 30 years ago at Mali's Bamako Institute for the Young Blind." And, he suggests, the breakthrough that was Dimanche à Bamako and the recent, "equally potent" follow-up of Welcome to Mali were not necessarily radical departures from the duo's deep-rooted musical stylings, but rather have offered opportunities to spread their joyful sound. These albums "didn't change the couple's music so much as expose it to the audience it has always deserved," he asserts. "The couple exudes humility and joy, whether performing or speaking to an interviewer through a French translator."

For the article, Kot spoke with Amadou about his life with Mariam and the music they have made together all these years. As Kot sees it:

If the duo's vocals are a life-affirming sound that transcends language barriers, [Amadou] Bagayoko's guitar is an instrument of mind-altering eloquence. His style echoes the fleet-fingered virtuosity of his countryman Toumani Diabate on the 21-string kora and blends it with myriad Afro-Caribbean and Western influences.

Read the article at chicagotribune.com.

---

Time Out Chicago also takes a look at the couple's career and the global success that has followed their most recent releases. Indeed, it is Welcome to Mali, writes the magazine's Sophie Harris, that confirms their status while also redefining—or rather, undefining—the very notion of 'world music.'"

Harris describes the album this way:

Recorded in Dakar, Paris, London and Bamako, Welcome to Mali sounds as if it was made, variously, in 1970s flare-wearing New York, in a timeless stretch of desert, and at the kind of party you’d most like to be asked to. The album’s guests include rising hip-hop artist K’naan, kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté and reggae smoothy Tiken Jah Fakoly.

She too singles out the Albarn-produced album opener, which she calls "the jewel in its crown ... a blissful amalgam of electronic arpeggios and Mariam’s sweet, ethereal vocal, which sounds as if it’s being beamed in from outer space."

Read the article at chicago.timeout.com.

---

For video clips of Amadou & Mariam discussing the new album and their life together, visit nonesuch.com/media. You'll also find there an animated video for the album track "Masiteladi," which The Guardian has described as "an attractive, well-made piece of animation." As the paper's Anna Pickard exclaims in a scene-by-scene analysis of the piece:

[T]his, for once, is one of those videos that not only perfectly matches the ebullience and joy of the rhythm of the song, but manages to contain the idea of performance without being a straightforward "the band stand on a stage play the song" type of video ... And it just keeps on being completely pleasant and enjoyable, every time you watch it.

Read more at guardian.co.uk.