Folon

One of Mali's many excellent cultural exports (alongside Ali Farka Toure and Oumou Sangare), Salif Keita is a significant figure on the world-music stage. FOLON finds Keita's voice--a rich tenor that is sensual, nimble, and fierce all at once--in excellent form. (His soulful, looping embellishments sometimes recall Islamic prayer calls.) Keita's music is a synthesis of styles drawing heavily on African elements, Latin music, Europop, and American idioms such as jazz, soul, and funk; and FOLON brings this blend on strong.
"Tekere" starts the disc off with an undulating bass line that intertwines with a percolating guitar, vibrant rhythms, and punchy horns. One of Keita's trademark vocal techniques is the call-and-response he conducts with his female backing singers, and this vocal interchange is key to the chant-like "Mandela" and the bright, danceable "Sumun". However, the mellow groove of "Mandjou" (one of the disc's highlights) showcases Keita's solo voice. In musical breadth and its smart, propulsive mixture of global styles, FOLON is an excellent example of this Malian star's work.|