Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour, whose album Joko (From Village to Town) was issued on Sony Globetrotter July 4, is set to sign a deal with the Nonesuch label and release Joko (The Link) on Sept. 12. The Nonesuch album will consist of cuts from the Globetrotter disc, along with new material. A U.S. tour is also in the works. ...

Ska pioneers Carlos Malcolm and His Afro-Jamaican Rhythms, best known for their instrumental version of the "Bonanza" TV show theme in the early 1960s, will be presented with a Lifetime Award for Musical Achievement on Aug. 7 by Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson. The band's seminal Skamania album will be reissued by Rough Stuff in August, too. ...

Black Uhuru, Maxi Priest and Toots and the Maytals are among the 15 artists who have contributed new tracks to Reggae Blitz Allstars (Music Blitz), a compilation assembled by "Native" Wayne Jobson. The album, due Tuesday (July 11), also will include fresh performances from toaster Yellowman and dancehall star Shabba Ranks. ...

Miami Sound Machine, the mid-'80s band that launched Gloria Estefan with such hits as "Conga" and "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You," will release a new album, MSM, in September on Sony Discos, the news agency EFE reported. The reformulated group will feature "a new generation of Miami musicians," said Emilio Estefan Jr., creator, producer and sometime member of the original Latin-pop crossover band. Included among the six vocalists replacing Emilio's wife, Gloria Estefan, is Tati Blades, the 16-year-old daughter of producer Roberto Blades and niece of salsa performer Rubén Blades. ... The Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will honor Emilio Estefan Jr. as Person of the Year during a tribute dinner and concert Sept. 11 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. The tribute, recognizing Estefan's professional and philanthropic accomplishments, is the first of its kind to be bestowed by the Latin Academy. ...

Zimbabwe's Thomas Mapfumo has had two songs from his new album Chimurenga Explosion effectively banned in his homeland. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation refuses to play "Disaster" (RealAudio excerpt) and "Mamvemne" (RealAudio excerpt) because of their condemnation of President Mugabe's policies. Mapfumo begins a North American tour July 13 in New York. ...

Googoosh, the reclusive queen of Iranian pop, has announced an international tour. The shows will be her first public performances since 1979, when Iran's Islamic revolution brought religious fundamentalists to power. The singer, who still sells more records in her native land than any other artist, will hit the road July 29 in Toronto. Other dates in Europe, Azerbaijan and Morocco are planned, with U.S. dates possible. ...

Chilean rock band La Ley's lead singer, Beto, Colombian dance-rockers Aterciopelados' Hector Buitrago and Andrea Echeverri and Mexican singer/songwriter Julieta Venegas will participate in the Latin Alternative Music Conference's Writers-in-the-Round showcase Aug. 14 in New York at a venue to be announced. Mexican rock-hoppers Molotov will headline the conference's Watcha showcase later the same day at Irving Plaza. ...

Reggae Sumfest will take place July 30–Aug. 6 in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The nightly lineups, which encompass roots reggae and dancehall, include Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Britain's Steel Pulse, Beenie Man, Beres Hammond, Bounty Killer, Capleton, Third World, Luciano, Shaggy and the legendary Bunny Wailer. ...

Dancehall superstar Shaggy will release Hot Shot next month on MCA. The record, which is produced by Rob Livingston and the hit-making team of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, will include "Hope," featured on the soundtrack of the Kevin Costner film "Love of the Game," as well as "Luv Me Luv Me," which Janet Jackson sang for the movie "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." ...

French DJ/producer Frédéric Galliano and the African Divas are on the road in July supporting Galliano's recent remix record, Frikyiwa Collection 1. Galliano and his six-piece ensemble will perform at Chicago's House of Blues July 15, followed by a free show at New York's Central Park SummerStage on July 16. Galliano then makes a West Coast DJ jaunt July 20–22. Billed as "Six Degrees Nights," Galliano, DJ Cheb i Sabbah and DJ DaLua play Los Angeles' Viper Room on July 20, San Francisco's Storyville on July 21 and a yet-to-be-determined venue July 22 in Seattle. (SummerStage is sponsored in part by sonicnet.com.) ...

Maná, the top Mexican rock band that collaborated with Carlos Santana on "Corazón Espinado" for his super-selling, Grammy-sweeping Supernatural, have lined up the guitarist to play on their next album, due in 2001. "Santana committed to play on a song for our new disc, which gives us great pleasure because after our participation in the production of Supernatural we became very good cuates (friends)," Maná guitarist Sergio Ballín told Reuters.

— sonicnet.com staff report