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Bokanté

Note: This concert has been canceled.

After a chance meeting in Montreal, Michael League (Snarky Puppy) and Guadeloupean songwriter/vocalist Malika Tirolien swapped song ideas, back and forth, until they had enough material for an album.

For Bokanté, billed as a world-music supergroup, League and Tirolien tapped three guitarists (Chris McQueen, Bob Lanzetti and Roosevelt Collier) and three percussionists (Jamey Haddad, Keita Ogawa and André Ferrari). That’s a lot of skins and strings.

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But “Strange Circles,” the group’s debut album, sounds focused, with tightly wound songs crafted around interwoven, polyrhythmic guitar lines, pulling together funk, blues-based rock, Senegalese popular music and Afrobeat around Tirolien’s woke lyrics (sung in French).

Bokanté performs at Infinity Hall, 20 Greenwoods Road W, Norfolk, on May 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $39 to $59. 866-666-6306 and infinityhall.com

The Foresters, left to right: Liam Nork, Luke Slomba, Hayden Nork, Evan Nork.
The Foresters, left to right: Liam Nork, Luke Slomba, Hayden Nork, Evan Nork.

Locapalooza IV

The Foresters, a young Bethany quartet comprised of three Nork boys (Evan, Hayden and Liam) and one non-Nork boy (Luke Slomba), have a new album coming out called “The Barometric Pressure is On Our Side,” to be released on the group’s own Dord Music Group label.

While you’re processing that information, grab tickets to Locapalooza IV, an all-day local-music festival in Bethany, where the Foresters, 10-year-old Adelaide Punkin Datzuk, Frank Critelli, Gracie Day, Symphonic Bodega, Tracy Jo & The Toads, Fattie Roots and Zillawatt perform in a pastoral setting. There’s also food and a Kid’s Korner.

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Locapalooza IV takes place at Three Saints Park, 112 Miller Road, Bethany on May 19 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tickets are $15-$20. locapaloozaiv.bpt.me

Peter Parcek performs at the New England Blues Guitar Summit at Black-Eyed Sally's in Hartford on May 19.
Peter Parcek performs at the New England Blues Guitar Summit at Black-Eyed Sally’s in Hartford on May 19.

New England Blues Guitar Summit

Guitarists Peter Parcek, Matt Stubbs, Pat Rick and Paul “The Kid” Size bend strings, torture vacuum tubes and basically do their best to honor the genre they’ve chosen: electric blues, honed in American cities like Memphis and Chicago.

Parcek in particular, a guitarist and singer from Boston, brings atmosphere and grit to “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven,” his 2017 album, especially on classics like “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” and the original song “Pat Hare.” Stubbs’ trio (bassist Marc Hickox and drummer Chris Rivelli) serves as the house band for the night.

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The New England Blues Guitar Summit arrives at Black-Eyed Sally’s, 350 Asylum St., Hartford, on May 19 at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15. blackeyedsallys.com