There’s a whole wide spectrum of interesting international music events in the D.C. area this weekend. While there’s no denying that some international music is marketed to 50-something white guy NPR listeners, here in the D.C. area many international concerts are instead aimed at emigres from the respective countries. That’s the case with many of this weekend’s shows. But whether or not one fits into a targeted demographic, these shows are worth checking out.

Friday night May 2nd brings the first of a trio of May salsa shows. Orquesta Guayacan from Colombia meshes polished, romantic vocals with booming horns and a percussive clave beat. They’ll be with Los Internacionales del Vallenato con Wilmer Manga & Pete Rodgers at El Boqueron II, 1330 East Gude Drive, in Rockville. Advertised only in the Spanish-language media, expect the club’s large dancefloor to be filled with dancing couples (many familiar with the group from back home).

Meanwhile, back in-town at the Kennedy Center, Luciana Souza, a Brazilian female singer most recently heard on Herbie Hancock’s Grammy album of the year, brings her folk, bossa nova and jazz stylings to the Center’s Family Theater for two shows at 7:30 and 9:30.

Nothing ever starts early at Zanzibar on the Waterfront, but if you’re willing to wait around till well after midnight Friday night (Saturday morning), longtime Jamaican sweet-voiced crooner Luciano headlines a reggae triple-bill. His latest “Jah is My Navigator” has received much acclaim.

Saturday night May 3rd offers a tribute to an artist, the late Andy Palacio from Belize, whose 2007 CD did impress those middle age American world music tastemakers and fans. Sadly, the 40-something Palacio suddenly died in January just as he was preparing for a U.S. tour. So instead Lisner Auditorium will be offering a free homage at 8 p.m. to Palacio’s pop, which combined West African, Arawak Indian and European influences. The show will feature Palacio’s band the Garifuna Collective, all women group Umalali, and others.

Sunday May 4th is the 2nd salsa show of the month–the Spanish Harlem Orchestra at the University of Mayland’s Clarice Smith Center at 7:30(the third one is El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico on May 17th at the Dulles Expo Center). This frequently touring ensemble that includes “salsa dura” (hard salsa) trombonist Jimmy Bosch, is sneered at by some purists simply because they play more crossover gigs and get more Anglo media attention than other salsa combos, but don’t hold that against them. Plus, I’ve seen folks dance in the aisles at the Clarice Smith Center, so this may just as lively a function as the other weekend Spanish-language gigs (none of which have received any Cinco de Mayo related publicity, by the way).

Friday night is apparently retro night at the Velvet Lounge as the three bands on the bill all look back. While revivalism has its drawbacks, this trio appear to reach into the past in interesting ways.

Locals Black & Tan Fantasy, featuring onetime Fugazi percussionist Jerry Busher, bassist Ashish Vyas (who has played with Thievery Corporation), and busy keyboardist Will Rast go for American funk and soul.

B & TF, named after a film featuring Duke Ellington, cite James Brown, Stax, Sly and the Family Stone, although the cuts on their MySpace page remind one of the Meters.
On a visit to Peru, Frenchman Olivier Conan, owner of the Barbes club and indie label in New York City, discovered ’60s Peruvian chicha music. Named after a corn liquor reportedly favored by the Incas, chicha was Latin American cumbia gone garage rock. Conan quickly snatched up all the records in the style that he could find. Last year he released a fine collection of some of these songs entitled “The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru.” Not satisfied with simply reissuing this stuff, Conan was also playing it himself. Soon Chicha Libre was born. With Conan on cuatro and other band members on farfisa, bongos, bass, and guitar, the group recently released “Sonido Amazonico!” At times more loungey than psychedelic, the cd nevertheless is a fascinating look back on an era that most never knew existed.

Os Magrelos, from Richmond, rounds out the night by looking back instead to Brazilian samba and funky ’70s jazz-rock sounds.

The show starts at 10 p.m.

Thanks to the 2003 focus on Mali at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, repeated appearances by Tinariwen, and the recent “Art of Being Tuareg” exhibit (with art and video) at the Museum of African Art, North African desert nomad music is not a complete novelty in this town. But it’s not a sound you hear regularly, so tonight’s Etran Finatawa appearance at Iota should still prove unique. Formed in 2004 from members of the Tuareg and Woodabe tribes that have often feuded in Niger, this ensemble’s second effort, “Desert Crossroads,” melds hypnotic African blues electric guitar with calabash percussion and chanted folkloric vocals. While the vocals are an acquired taste, the guitar and percussion draw you right in.

Lisner Auditorium may not resemble the Sahara, but Thursday night’s “Festival in the Desert” concert featuring Tinariwen and Vieux Farka Toure may at least conjure up some images of that annual event 65 miles north of Timbuktu. A year and a half after his father, guitarist Ali Farka Toure, passed away from cancer, guitarist Vieux Farka Toure has released his self-titled debut, recorded shortly before his dad’s death. Vieux not only attempts to capture his pop’s unique high-pitched Malian-meets-John Lee Hooker technique, he is joined on several cuts by him. Toure responded via a translator to some e-mailed questions that I sent his way:

1. Did your father teach you to play guitar at a young age?

WELL, I USED TO LISTEN TO MY FATHER AND HIS RECORDINGS ALL THE TIME SO I JUST ABSORBED HIS TECHNIQUE OVER THE YEARS. MOSTLY I PLAYED PRECUSSION THOUGH (CALABASH) DURING MY EARLY YEARS, I REALLY ONLY STARTED STUDYING GUITAR SERIOUSLY WHEN I ENTERED THE CONSERVATORY IN 2001.

2. Did you and your father record the songs you played together on, live in the studio, or separately with overdubs?

EVERYTHING WAS RECORDED LIVE, MOST OF IT IN ONE TAKE.

3. Do you listen to rap? Do you ever think you might want to incorporate newer genres into your own?

I LISTEN TO RAP, I LIKE ALL KINDS OF MUSIC …IN SPITE OF MY NICKNAME “VIEUX” (WHICH MEANS OLD IN FRENCH) I AM YOUNG SO I LISTEN TO JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT IS OUT THERE: REGGAE, RAP, ROCK, SALSA,.MY MUSIC IS FIRMLY ROOTED IN TRADITIONAL MALIAN MUSIC BUT I FEEL THAT I HAVE TO ESTABLISH MY OWN STYLE SO I BUILD IN LOTS OF ELEMENTS OF WHAT I AM HEARING ALL THE TIME.

4. Do you feel pressure because of your father’s accomplishments to try to keep up with what he did and to be compared to him?

NOBODY CAN EVER WALK IN ALI’S FOOTSTEPS, MY FATHER WAS A GENIUS.ALL I CAN HOPE TO DO IS SOMEHTING DIFFERENT, HOPEFULLY BETTER . HE WAS ALI, I AM VIEUX…