Marcel Khalife and the Al Mayadine Ensemble are back on tour, starting in Houston this coming April 20. In the world of Middle Eastern music, that’s sort of like the Beatles getting back together. The group,which includes the iconic oud player/composer along with chanteuse Oumeima Khalil, pianist Rami Khalifé, and Bachar Khalifé on percussion are doing this as a homage to Marcel Khalife’s visionary collaborator, the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. As the Arab Spring has unfolded, Marcel Khalifé’s songs have become part of the movement, no great surprise since he’s been battling censorship, oppression and exile with his songs of freedom over the last forty years. “On the stage, I’m in my natural milieu, saying what I want,” says Khalifé – “There’s no censorship of what I say.”

“I sang for them,” Khalifé said of the freedom fighters across the Arab world, “And they gave me the feeling that they were my kin, that they were the source of strength to bring about the impossible.” For fans of lushly beautiful cross-cultural Middle Eastern music, this is a tour not to be missed – and Khalifé’s forthcoming album, The Fall of the Moon (out at the end of April) is a masterpiece as well. Tourdates below:

Fri, 4/20/2012, 8 PM
Houston, TX
Jones Hall
615 Louisiana St.
713.227.4772

Sat, 4/21/2012, 8 PM
Los Angeles, CA
Orpheum Theatre
842 S Broadway
877.677.4368

Sun, 4/22/2012, 7 PM
Berkeley, CA
Zellerbach Hall
101 Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
510.642.9988

Fri, 4/27/2012, 8 PM
Detroit, MI
Music Hall
350 Madison Street
313.887.8500

Sat, 4/28/2012, 8 PM
Washington, DC
Warner Theatre
513 13th Street
202.783.4000

Sun, 4/29/2012, 7 PM
New York, NY
The Town Hall
123 W 43rd St.
212.840.2824

Fri, 5/4/2012, 7:30 PM
Chicago, IL
Copernicus Center
5216 West Lawrence Avenue
773.777.8898

Sat, 5/5/2012, 8 PM
Boston, MA
Berklee Hall
136 Massachusetts Avenue
617.747.2261