As Youssou N'Dour prepares for the last stop on his US tour, tonight at the Somerville Theatre outside Boston, Siddhartha Mitter, the Boston Globe correspondent, reflects on the impact the "wildly talented" Senegalese singer/songwriter has had as a key figure in contributing to and re-defining the genre of world music.

Paramount to Youssou's musical life as an "international treasure" has been the sorts of exchanges that take place across borders and even within a culture, so it's only fitting that that back-and-forth should figure in his latest album, Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take):

[H]is own work, exemplified by his newest album, Rokku Mi Rokka, and its 2005 predecessor, Egypt, is as fresh and searching as it has been in years ... On the strength of his soaring, grace-drenched voice and his insatiable appetite for rhythmic and melodic experimentation, he has rewritten the book several times over on what "world music" ... is and can be.

To read Mitter's complete article, click here.

In a separate article in the Globe, writer Tristram Lozaw reviews the new album, writing that, most profoundly, Youssou has created "striking new tribal hybrids" of rural and urban sounds within Senegal and the surrounding countries rather than between the East and West. He writes:

The 48-year-old N'Dour's voice resonates with the clarity of a singer decades younger, his high notes transcendent over the acoustic pulse of his pared-down Super Étoile band ... Together, their adrenaline-powered grooves are warmly melodic, attractive in their simplicity ...

Ultimately, Rokku Mi Rokka is, in Lozaw's words, "a defining album that showcases N'Dour at his organic best."

To read the review, click here.