French worldbeat pioneers Lo'Jo mark a rare return to North American stages this summer with a short tour that includes gigs in both the U.S. and Canada.

For the uninitiated, the Angers-based sextet has been going strong for over 25 years, with a rotating cast of literally hundreds of musicians. The current lineup, led by founder Denis Péan (vocals/keyboards) combines traditional French street sounds - chanson, gypsy fiddle and street theatre, mostly - with the music of the Sahara and the Caribbean to come up a borderless, polyglot sound that's all their own. Described as playing "truly traditional music in a modern context", the group engineers a glorious clash of piano, harmonium, soprano sax, bass, African koras, trap drums, violin, accordion, and djembe, while their lyrics veer between French, Spanish, Arabic, Creole, and English.

And the band's communal, anarchic spirit of adventure has helped them make musical history on more than one occasion - in 1999 the group made a fateful trip to Bamako, Mali to record Boheme de Cristal, where they first discovered now-legendary Tuareg guitar-rockers Tinariwen. The group as asked to return and help coordinate and perform at the very first Festival In The Desert in Essakane, Mali in 2001. To this day, Lo'Jo frequently tours with Tinariwen.

Don't miss the rare opportunity to see these legends live on this all-too-short tour.

Lo'Jo 2010 Summer Tour:

June 12th: Luminato Festival, Toronto, ON
June 13th: La prise de la Bastille, Montreal, QC
June 18th: Zebulon, Brooklyn, NY
June 20th: Central Park SummerStage, New York, NY