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CD Review in "Sound Check" column
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Boston Globe, CD Review in "Sound Check" column >>
Much of the world has become crueler in the six years since Habib Koite's last studio album, "Baro". But on the richly textured "Afriki," the guitarist sings from a better place, kinder and gentler if sometimes sadder: his native Mali. Sung in the Bambara language and delivered with a griot's charisma, the album is a call to countrymen to forget dreams of the West and bring their hearts back home. Crisp and organic, its understated sonic majesty mirrors the smiles and beauty Koite sees in his poor country and makes old traditions--antelope horns, a wooden balafon, Malian lute--sound like the future. "Massake" is an energizing swirl of polyrhythms, melody, and chants, while "Nta Dima" updates an African marriage ritual and "NTeri" pulls elegant melancholy from duets of Koite's soulful vocals with strings and a female choir. The 11-song disc features James Brown trumpeter Pee Wee Ellis and electroacoustic nods to modern rock and Latin grooves, but "Afriki" is all about rallying around Mali's roots. As "Titati," Koite's softly shaded acoustic guitar finale, convincingly argues, it's a mission worth the effort.
-by Tristram Lozaw 10/02/07
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