An excerpt from this week’s ArtsBeat video captures the Malian singer and songwriter Boubacar Traoré playing a song during sound check for a recent show at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Born in Mali in 1942, Mr. Traoré first came to prominence in the early 1960s. His humble background made it difficult for him to make money as a musician. He dropped out of the music scene until he reemerged with a surprise appearance on Malian television in 1987. He has been recording and touring intermittently ever since.

“His music still has a rural acoustic flavor,” Jon Pareles, the chief pop music critic for The Times, says in the segment. “It invites you to come closer to it, it doesn’t thrust itself upon you. You have the feeling that he could be playing this music sitting on his porch somewhere under the stars.”

Watch the full ArtsBeat video, which also includes reports on the new television season and Indian stand-up comedy, here.