Boubacar Traore

"Kongo Magni"; World Village

Four stars (out of four)

Back in the '60s, Boubacar Traore was a star in Mali. He was a soccer player who wore a leather jacket and sang radio hits praising his compatriots as they built a newly independent nation. Over the next few decades, he would recede from the limelight, reappear and then recede again before reaching an international audience with his majestic harplike Malian blues guitar and his lustrous, plaintive voice. A hardworking life and the deaths of his wife and five of their 11 children have made the realities of struggle and loss palpable in his songs; but at the same time, the music is serene, uplifting and supremely beautiful.

He plays with the barest accompaniments of African instruments and percussion on this album, keeping the spotlight for his own unique, many-shaded talent.

RIYL: Ali Farka Touré; Idrissa Soumaoro; Sekou Touré

-- Jeff Gifford, Reno Gazette-Journal