Tinariwen is a more worldly band now than it was in 2001, when a performance at the Festival of the Desert in Mali introduced its resolute, hypnotic Saharan rock to an audience that carried its reputation beyond Africa. Since then Tinariwen has been on the world-music circuit, performing for audiences who don’t speak its main language, Tamashek. Wearing white robes and head scarves, the band members have made themselves emissaries. One of the band’s leaders, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, has a catchphrase onstage: “Welcome to the desert.”(more at nytimes.com)
