One of the most celebrated groups from the country of Guinea and the so-called “Afro-pop” scene in general, Bembeya Jazz returns to the U.S. following their 2002 reunion album Bembeya and, more recently, Guitar Fo, the just-released solo album of one of their primary members, guitarist Sekou Diabate.  Bordering Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea lies along the northern part of Africa’s West Coast.  Though it is a well-known fact that the music of the region is forever linked through the slave trade to the various musical forms that subsequently sprang up in the Americas, the 20^th century saw the influence begin to travel in two directions.  Afro-Cuban and jazz in particular have repollinated the work of many artists on the African continent.

The Bembeya Jazz ensemble sprang up in 1961, following Guinea’s abrupt transition to independence from French rule in 1958, Guinea’s alliance with Cuba paved the way for Bembeya to tour Cuba in the 60s.  Reportedly, Cuban singer Abelardo Barroso was moved to tears by one of their performances.  By the late 60s, the group, which at one time numbered 12 members, including a horn section with overt Latin influences, had achieved international acclaim, and they soldiered on even after vocalist and leader Aboubacar Dembar Camara was killed in 1973 in an automobile accident on the way to a concert in Dakar, Senegal.

Functioning in Guinea’s impoverished economy proved too difficult, and in 1988 the members were forced to find work outside the country.  Interestingly, during the band’s formative years, Diabate, a member of the “griot” artist class of the Mandingo ethnic group didn’t want to join the band at first but was forced to do so by his uncle, who threatened to turn him in to the authorities.  (A more precise label for Bembeya’s music is “Modern Manding.”  Manding is a region that straddles Guinea and Mali.)  Nicknamed “Diamond Fingers,” Diabate ended up becoming a primary contributor to the band’s trademark four-guitar sound.

Despite their native country’s intense poverty, Bembeya’s music is buoyant and light on its feet, forgoing the density preferred by American jazz groups of all sizes.  Blending jazz, Hawaiian slide and other styles, the guitar work of Diabate sparkles and drifts like a fine mist through the light layers of sound laid down by the rest of the ensemble.  An animated performer of stage, Diabate employs the services of Bembeya’s rhythm section – drummer Conde Mory Mangalan, bassist Aziz Dielygui Diabate, percussionist Papa Kouyate and vocalist M’Bemba Camara – and revisits some well-know Bembeya numbers on his solo album, so it makes sense that Bembeya appears in full at this show.  Dancing, it is said, is irresistible at a Bembeya concert.  At a recent Central Park Summerstage appearance, even heavy rainfall couldn’t deter people from moving their feet.

S.O.B.’s, 204 Varick St. (Houston St.), 212-243-4940, 9 & 10, $25, $22 adv.

­-Saby Reyes-Kulkarni