Millennium Park, Pritzker Pavilion; Thu 12

Chicago Folk A Roots Festival; Sun 15

And the beat goes on. When the great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure died last year, it was not only tragically premature -- the African bluesman was just in his mid-‘60s -- but it also marked the end of an era. Toure's majestically serpentine lines spun out of Bamako to the Mississippi Delta and back again, reflecting something at once elemental and ethereal. It's no wonder he reached so many ears in the West.

Now his son Vieux Farka Toure has picked up the family axe and taken to the road, embarking on a solo career after a fruitful apprenticeship with the kora master Toumani Diabate, who enjoyed so many stellar collaborations with the elder Toure (and who headlines Thursday 12's show, part of the city's Music Without Borders series). African musicians take their profession as seriously as blood, and performers of a certain instrument often are linked with synonymous surnames. Ironically, Ali discouraged his son from carrying on the family legacy. He preferred to ship him off to the army. And, in a story the musician relates on his website, Vieux was compelled to practice in secret, playing percussion to his father's records. Later, he grabbed the guitar and began playing it in earnest, encouraged by Diabate, who would later invite him to join his band.

Vieux's recent self-titled debut is a beauty, with appearances by Diabate as well as the late Ali, who contributes his final recorded performances. The signature swirl is there, as is the delicate and impeccable dance of strings between the harp-like kora and the guitar. And, naturally, Vieux extends rather than recycles tradition: His music radiates the pulse of old-school reggae and absorbs the ecstatic longing of North African devotional sounds. The song does not remain the same.

By SD