Senegalese star Baaba Maal, who played at the United Nations earlier this month, is touring West Africa. Playing concerts in cities and rural areas, Maal plans to meet with village youths and elders to increase understanding of AIDS and HIV via screenings of the video Staying Alive, an Emmy-winning documentary produced by MTV, UNAIDS and the World Bank. The tour wraps in Farafenni, Gambia, on June 24. ...

Eccentric Argentine pop star Charly Garcia, jailed over the weekend for skipping a court hearing, is in good spirits and has even performed for some of his fellow inmates, his assistant said on Monday, as reported by Reuters. Garcia was arrested on Saturday after failing to show up in court to answer charges that he and a bodyguard beat up a newspaper photographer outside a bar last month. ...

Ricky Martin finished production of a Pepsi commercial for Latin America. In the ad, Martin serenades an old woman who steals his bottle of the soft drink. A Pepsi spokesperson told the World Entertainment News Network that Martin "sings a cappella on the park bench so everybody can see he really does have a great voice," a possible allusion to the controversy surrounding Enrique Iglesias for his alleged vocal failings. ...

Latin-pop star Marc Anthony will perform June 27 at New York's Radio City Music Hall as part of a benefit concert for the Ronald McDonald House. ... Enrique Iglesias will play Poland for the second time this year when he performs at a benefit concert Sept. 2 in Warsaw's Gwardia Stadium. On his first visit in February, screaming fans awaited him at the airport, but when he performed on a TV program at least one critic said "his voice is weak, and he lacks the ability to improve."

Medium4.com's AllLatinJazzTV.com is paying tribute to late mambo king Tito Puente with a music-video retrospective that includes the broadcast of Puente's Grammy-winning "Mambo Birdland," Hilton Ruiz's "Mambo for Vibes" (with Puente on vibes) and Celia Cruz's video "Mia." ... Haitian electric rara band Boukman Eksperyans will release its sixth album, Kanaval Rasin — Vodou Adjae: A Spiritual & Political Anthology 1990–2000, on their own Balenjo Music label. ...

Singer Susana Baca will highlight material from her new Eco de Sombras CD, on erstwhile rocker David Byrne's Luaka Bop label, June 14–16 at Joe's Pub in New York. Guests at the shows will include organist John Medeski, guitarist Marc Ribot and Byrne. ...

Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba joins Brazilian vocalist Ithamara Koorax (pronounced ee-ta-MAR-ah KOR-ax), 35, on Serenade in Blue, her fifth album and U.S. debut. Other players on the disc include percussionist Dom Um Romao, Eumir ("2001: A Space Odyssey") Deodato, who co-produced two selections, and pianist/composer Marcos Valle. ...

June is National Accordion Awareness Month. The accordion is the official musical instrument of San Francisco, which celebrates the Day of the Accordion with free performances from 1–5 p.m. June 18 at the Cannery on Fisherman's Wharf. ... Latin fever will hit Britain on July 16 when Celia Cruz, Ruben Blades and Oscar D'Leon perform together for the first time at the Salsa 2000 festival in London. Also on the bill are Jose "El Canario" Alberto and Alberto De La Fe. ...

Latin-pop idol Ricky Martin will team up with comeback star Carlos Santana, soul legend Chaka Khan and R&B singer Montell Jordan to record an album promoting racial harmony for the Oneness Project. ...

The ninth annual Zimbabwean Music Festival, with concerts and workshops, takes place Aug. 18–20 at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Visiting musicians include mbira player Musekiwa Chingodza, singer Julia (Tsitsi) Chigamba and the group Savannah Jammin'/Decent Gang from Harare. Zimbabwean chimurenga star Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited will perform the day before the festival at Eugene's WOW Hall.