Anyone given the choice between Malian singer-guitarist Habib Koite's new album, "Foly! Live Around the World," and a performance by Koite and his quintet, Bamada, should definitely pick the latter. The music on the CD is exhilarating -- and endlessly replayable -- but it's not the whole show.

Equally crucial is the group's powerful connection to its listeners, many of whom end up becoming dancers as well. At two shows Wednesday night at National Geographic's Grosvenor Auditorium, fans got the complete package.

Koite plays in a finger-picking style that to Western ears sounds like a combination of the blues and Bach. Most of the other musicians -- usually on guitar, bass, percussion and balafon, a xylophone -- also produce rippling, melodically percussive tones. The result is less emphatic than much of West African music, but no less exuberant. A natural showman who engages and sometimes invades the audience, Koite led singalongs, sidled up the aisle and swayed along with fans who strutted onstage to sprinkle the musicians with money. When Koite was too busy playing and singing, the MC role went to the buoyant Mahamadou Kone, whose principal instrument was a small tama (talking drum).

The set began gently, with Koite performing solo as the other members entered and began to play, and even as its most energetic, the music was more lilting than frenzied. Still, things got a bit more heated than on the group's recordings during the lengthy encore set, which included the anthemic "Wassiye" and an easygoing protest song, "Cigarette Abana."