For sheer ethnodiversity, however, it’s hard to beat the roster of internationally respected local promoter World Music. (See www.worldmusic.org for ticket information on all shows.) On March 31 WM presents Portuguese diva Cesaria Évora at the Orpheum Theatre. On April 9 the Kronos Quartet and India film-music master Asha Bhosle team for “India Calling: Songs from R.D. Burman’s Bollywood,” a touring tribute to film composer Burman’s soaring, quirky scores, at the Berklee Performance Center. Afropop grandpappy Hugh Masekela hits the Somerville Theatre on April 14; Celtic group Solas follow on the 15th. Aptly named music and dance troupe Children of Uganda are at Berklee on the 22nd; Polish folk sextet the Warsaw Village Band are at the Somerville on May 13. On May 18 at Berklee it’s the popular Zakir Hussain & Masters of Indian Percussion, whose local stops are always driven by breathtaking virtuosity and lightning tempi. But watch the local rock clubs’ schedules too. For example, new-wave ska pioneers the English Beat will be at the Middle East (472 Mass Ave, Cambridge; 617.864.EAST) in Central Square on March 21.
Scullers Jazz Club (DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston; 617.562.4111) also has a diverse line-up; it includes the world fusion of Natraj on March 15, youthful bluesman Joe Bonamassa on March 21 and 22, Afro-British-Caribbean singer Tessa Souter on April 11, and the enduring Tower of Power April 12-15.
Bluegrass continues to bustle in the clubs and some larger halls. Tuesdays at the Cantab Lounge (738 Mass Ave, Cambridge; 617.354.2685) hosts the area’s hippest open jam, each week with a national or high-profile regional headliner. It’s the premier bluegrass networking event in New England. And on April 22 the Boston Bluegrass Union (www.bbu.org; 617.782.2251), which sponsors concerts throughout the year, will present IIIrd Time Out at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington.
Notable blues artists with local ties will be making the rounds. Handy Award winners Paul Rishell & Annie Raines, a guitar-and-harmonica duo who rank among the country’s finest performers in the idiom, will be at the First Encounter Coffeehouse in Eastham on April 22 and at the famed Club Passim (47 Palmer St, Cambridge; 617.492.7679) in Harvard Square on May 20. One of the kings of modern blues-based guitar, Rhode Island’s Duke Robillard, will headline the Regattabar (1 Bennett St, Cambridge; 617.395.7757 ) in Harvard Square on April 27, hot behind the release of his new six-string blow-up Guitar Groove A Rama (Stony Plain). Blues-based singer-songwriter JohnShain, whose roots run deep in Lowell’s blue-collar culture, will be returning from his current North Carolina home for dates at the Rose Garden (1 Milford St; 508.529.7776) in Upton and the Burren (247 Elm St; 617.776.6896) in Somerville on May 6 and 7, respectively. And leather-voiced roots generalist Frank Morey, the only New Englander who records for the prestigious Delmark label, will be at the Times (112 Broad St; 617.357.8463) in Boston on March 16, 23, and 30 at Vincent’s (49 Suffolk St; 508.752.9439) in Worcester on March 29. On the 22nd he headlines T.T. the Bear’s.
