TROY >> Do you think American blues singers had it rough from the time of slavery through much of the 20th century? Wait until you hear the story of Christine Salem, a native of the island of Reunion off the east coast of Africa. She will perform a style of music called maloya at The Sanctuary for Independent Media Tuesday night.

If the blues tells stories of this world, maloya communicates stories of “the other world.” Salem is a trance singer who communicates with her ancestors by transporting herself through the hypnotic and rhythmic sounds of instruments that have been a part of her Creole culture for many millennia.

Speaking from this tiny island, only 39 miles long and 28 miles wide and dominated by an active volcano, Salem’s manager Nathalie Soler said that Christine’s live show is much more intense than her latest album, “Salem Tradition” which, in itself, was eerie enough to give a psychic friend of mine goose bumps.

“When she’s on stage,” Soler said, “she receives the energy of the ancients, and it’s very usual for her to be in trance on stage. When she recorded the different albums, it’s very different because in the studio the energy is very, very different. We know her very well, and when we’re with her and when she’s performing, we know when she’s here and when she’s anywhere else.”

Earlier this year, renowned music critic John Pareles wrote in The New York Times that Salem’s performance was “the clear standout” at the 10th annual Globalfest showcase of world music. Pareles called her “a potent, indefatigable contralto” and her songs “terse chant-like melodies.”

“Christine is very connected with trance music,” Soler said. “Sometimes when she’s on stage and a new song is rising, at the end of the performance she doesn’t remember what she sang. Sometimes Christine is singing in different languages.”

Maloya shares its origins in Africa with the blues. And Salem’s trance singing is similar to speaking in tongues done in some African American churches in this country. Speaking through Soler as translator, Salem pointed out that “for Christians, it’s important to show it is not a musical devil. It is not a music for witchcraft. It can be a very positive sound.”

Recently, the Reunion Cultural National Ministry presented Salem with a medal called Chevalier des arts et des lettres at the same time a Catholic bishop from the island received the same award. As she explained how proud she was of this, I was reminded of a recent interview I did with Bobby Rush, the blues King of the Chitlin Circuit. When I asked him how far we’d come in American race relations and acceptance of the blues, he proudly revealed that he was about to receive the Governor’s Award in Mississippi, a state that 60 years ago wouldn’t allow him as a black man to set foot in a hotel. Maloya was virtually outlawed in Reunion until 1981.

“The church thought it was devil’s music,” Soler said. “That’s the reason why in the beginning it was not really forbidden, but people who played maloya were sometimes put in jail and their instruments burned. It was impossible for this music to be played on the radio.”

As if that weren’t trouble enough, until recently women were not allowed to sing maloya. “In the past, it was the men who sang the maloya,” Salem said. “It was the tradition and the women cooked and organized the celebration of the ancestors. The women organized the party, and they cooked for everybody. The men welcomed people and sang, but that is the reason why traditionally it was the men who sang, but now it’s not a problem for a woman to sing maloya. It’s not a problem at all.”

That said, Firmin Viry, an older male maloya singer, recently was critical of Salem. Speaking in The British newspaper The Guardian, he said, “She is invoking the spirits of the dead, and the way I was brought up, what you do in the house you don’t do outside.” Soler shrugs and dismisses Viry saying, “He’s singing about the story of people who are living and the people’s complaints. He’s not in league with trance music.”

Channeling the ancients

Where: Sanctuary for Independent Media, 3361 6th Ave., Troy

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8

Tickets: Call (518) 272-2390

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