Politiki

As a guitarist and singer-songwriter who worked alongside the great Ali Farka Touré and Afel Bocoum, Mamadou Kelly is practically Malian music royalty. This is his third album as a soloist, and he is backed once again by his group BanKaiNa, with Brehim Cisse playing the small, mandolin-like djourkel, and Alpha Ousmane Sankaré and Ibrahim Nabo adding calabash and other percussion. But for this set, recorded in the little town of Saugerties in New York state, they are joined by a group of Americans adding guitar, bass and drums, with the Grammy-winning Cindy Cashdollar playing steel and lap-steel guitar. The result is a classy, at times gently hypnotic set.

Mamadou Kelly has an easy, relaxed voice, and his rolling songs are driven on by his own guitar work and restrained backing from the Americans, with Cashdollar adding some fine wailing guitar effects.