Thursday and Friday at the Kennedy Center, the special offer was two-acts-in-the-time-for-one as the Millennium Stage presented Vive la World!, an annual tour spotlighting music from France and the Francophone world. The second night, featuring the duo of Mamani Keita and Marc Minelli as well as So Kalmery, was far from expansive, but it wasn't quite as hurried as the first one. Each act performed for roughly 35 minutes, and -- in an outbreak of bureaucratic abandon -- the entire show was permitted to run almost 15 minutes past the 7 p.m. curfew.

Keita, a Malian singer-drummer, and Minelli, a French keyboardist-producer based in Britain, mixed traditional West African music with gambits from techno and acid jazz. Although the music was largely recorded, it came alive whenever Keita sang -- or shimmied. The playful, garrulous Minelli didn't entirely abandon such cheesy touches as synthesized horn riffs, but he was noisier and freer than on "Electro Bamako," the duo's recent album.

Singer-guitarist Kalmery, who was born in the former Zaire and now lives in Paris, performed solo. Such strong melodies as "Bendera" needed little instrumental support, and Kalmery's fluid, bluesy finger-picking largely compensated for the lack of accompanists. The songs did suffer a bit, however, from the lack of call-and-response vocals. Kalmery remedied that for his final tune, "D.M. Crazy," for which he arranged a simple but effective audience singalong.

-- Mark Jenkins