Salif Keita

After years of less-than-successful fusion experiments, Salif Keita has struck a rich vein late in his career, thanks in no small part to producer Jean Lamoot, who produced 2002's stellar Moffou. Returning to Bamako to record for the first time in decades, Keita continues along the acoustic path, littering it with traditional instruments like ngoni and kora and coming up with a luscious, luminous release that ranks among his best. The languid title track crowns the album, featuring Toumani Diabate's stunning kora.

One of Keita's better conceived and executed albums presents a familiar vexation to the world music appreciator: exactly how to relate to a supremely expressive voice singing about we-haven't-the-foggiest. One attraction of beat-driven Afropop is that it runs this question over with a herd of kudu, as in Keita's years with the Ambassadeurs, a dance band and proud of it. Continuing the big man's recent return to Malian instrumentation, musical overseer Kante Manfila rewards connoisseurs of pop arrangement for its own sake--traditional soloists piling on their flourishes at the close of "M'Bemba," accelerating repetitions at the climax of "Moriba," the look-mama-no-synth washes of the one I know translates "I'm Going to Miss You" because it's in French rather than Bambara, the hard grooves of "Kamoukie" and "Ladji" to stir the blood. When Keita tacks on a "keyboards and programming" dance remix, it's just one more fillip. (Grade - B+)