Quoc Pham

"Acoustic Africa" featuring Haibib Koite, Oliver Mtikudzi and Afel Boucoum
BB King Blues Club
Wednesday, April 6

Better than: Buying a plane ticket to Mali.

Western listeners (that's us, if you were wondering) often need comparisons to dig deeper into "world music." If that's what it takes, Wednesday night's sparkling "Acoustic Africa" show at BB King's--featuring African guitar superstars Haibib Koite, Afel Boucom (both from Mali), and Oliver Mtikudzi (from Zimbabwe)--was like watching Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan and Paul Simon picking out each other's tunes on the same stage. Oh, and since name-dropping doesn't hurt: Boucoum was the guy on Damon Albarn's album Mali Music.

Fine, but incomplete. Because while each of the performers may be a superstar in some part of the world--Koite, the nominal headliner, is perhaps the best known, but Mtikudzi (known as "Tuku") is the biggest-selling Zimbabwean artist ever, and aside from playing with a rock star Boucom is also the nephew of Malian guitar legend Ali Farka Toure--this pairing was far more unlikely and inspired than the superstar summit idea implies.

He still gets the ladies. Pics by Vita Generalova.

There is a (probably apocryphal) story about Chuck Berry at a 1980s concert that, like most things from the decade, is just crazy enough to work. The single most important progenitor of rock 'n' roll as we know it was backstage before a major concert, feeling surly and noncompliant to the screaming fans outside. In his hand was a sandwich; further south, on his, er, broken arrow, was the mouth of an eager young groupie.

His manager came in, looked down at the little queenie below Berry's equator, and yelled, "Chuck, get out there! Do your show!"

Berry scowled. "Aw man. Can't I finish my sandwich?"

The bass here is super-pulverizing, but oh boy, is that ever the point. The former Sly and the Family Stone thunder-broom specialist is a longtime Prince cohort, and here they are together, ripping through "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)." Let's just politely note that this show went way better than your typical Sly Stone appearance these days and move on.

DJ Scratch, doing the classics, to robust crowd approval. Pics by Puja Patel, more below.

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The line outside B.B. King's last night for the Roc Raida tribute--celebrating the beloved turntable king who died September 19--took up half an avenue block amid the glaring lights of the Times Square outlands. Some ticketholders waited almost an hour; those without did, too. "We couldn't buy tickets online," Shawn from Philadelphia told us. "So we just drove up to try our luck. Roc Raida was legendary, and this night looks insane." And it was.