Music Notebook: Erykah Badu at SDSU, Sharon Katz & The Peace Train in Tecate, Marc Anthony at Pechanga Arena

Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu is on a roll.

Never mind that it’s been 11 years since the release of her most recent full studio album, “New Amerykah, Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh,” and several decades since she, Maxwell and D’Angelo ignited the neo-soul movement of the mid 1990s.

In September, Badu walked the red carpet at the annual Met Gala in New York and modeled at Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty fashion show — at Rihanna’s request.

In late October, Sonos Radio will debut “Badubotron Radio,” a new channel curated by Badu to showcase “psychedelic funk, retro soul, classic rock, spiritual jazz and experimental hip-hop.” Not coincidentally, she has dubbed the concerts on her San Diego-bound tour “Badubotron Live.”

Her current tour repertoire mixes favorites from her Grammy Award-winning 1997 debut album, “Baduizm,” including “Appletree” and “On & On,” along with “Tyrone” from her subsequent live album, more recent material from her 2015 mixtape, “But You Caint Use My Phone,” and distinctive cover versions of Snoop Dogg’s “Ain’t No Fun” and Todd Rundgren‘s “Hello It’s Me.”

Badu’s musical influence extends from Janelle Monáe to Ari Lennox, although it remains to be seen if either will also emulate her avocational activities as a doula.

8 tonight. Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU, 5500 Campanile Drive. $45-$65, plus service fees. ticketmaster.com

Sharon Katz & The Peace Train, with special guests

South African singer-songwriter Sharon Katz started making borders-leaping music since even before the fall of her homeland’s brutal apartheid government.

The name of her band, The Peace Train, mirrors her devotion to using her songs to unify people of different nationalities and backgrounds. She has done that, in part, by teaching South African songs to school children in Tijuana, where she also works as a musical therapist and has lived since 2018.

That same year saw Katz launch her Peace Train Transcending Barriers Project, a daylong affair that began at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park and culminated with a parade to, and free concert at, the Tijuana Cultural Center (CECUT). She and her band performed there with a local children’s chorus and members of the Promotora de las Bellas Artes choir.

Now, three years later, Katz is expanding her reach to Tecate, where she and The Peace Train are doing a free outdoor concert Saturday.

It’s a major undertaking that is even more challenging to stage during a pandemic. Katz and The Peace Train will be joined by members of Tijuana’s Promotora de las Bellas Artes community choir, conducted by Rubi Ramirez; CEART Tecate Children’s & Youth Choir, conducted by Armida Olachea; and the Kumiai Singers, featuring Mountain Empire High School and Camp Lockett Middle School singers, conducted by Jarod Sills.

The Peace Train will then move on to Mexico City, Puebla and Oaxaca. From Dec. 11-17, Katz will lead a series of concerts and workshops at Rancho La Puerta.

5 p.m. Saturday. Plaza de las Artes, Centro Estatal de las Artes, Tecate. Free admission. (664) 290-0951; sharonkatz.com/transcending-barriers/

Marc Anthony, with Cami and Joey Vega

A protégé of Panamanian salsa vocal giant Ruben Blades, multi-Grammy-winner Marc Anthony is the top-selling tropical salsa artist in Latin music history.

As such, his name is seldom heard in the same breath as that of Menudo, the Puerto Rican boy band that helped propel Ricky Martin and Draco Rosa to fame in the 1980s.

But maybe it should, even though Anthony was never a member of Menudo.

Or, as he told me in a 2000 Union-Tribune interview: “I’d sing background vocals, live, from the back of an 18-wheeler truck while they (Menudo) danced onstage. Their microphones were on, but they were on very low (volume). I had four microphones. Why? So that I’d sound like four people... That experience is what made me fight for the opposite with my music.”

So, don’t expect any canned tripe when Anthony performs here Sunday. Don’t expect to hear him sing in English, either. His repertoire for his current “Pa’lla Voy” tour is sung entirely in Spanish.

7 p.m. Sunday. Pechanga Arena San Diego, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd. $66-$196, plus service fees. VIP packages are $998. axs.com