Speaking with Habib Koite will remind you that what's "exotic" is a very relative thing. Calling him a practitioner of world music might be true in the broadest sense, but, at 47, the guitarist-singer from Mali, West Africa may actually be edging closer to the role of global pop icon, as much as any individual who seldom sings in English can be in a fragmented musical world.

It's significant that since he spoke to The Journal during a visit here in 2000, Koite (say KWA-tay) has become confident enough to drop the need of an English translator. He continues to sing a bit in French and English in addition to his native Bambara. Just as he shifts between specific western tunings and the open tunings of the African kamale n'goni (four-string harp) to fashion grooves on his electric axe, the man himself straddles ancient traditions and contemporary cultures. Since his childhood he's been absorbing the legacy of his ancestors just as he drank in the exotic sounds of western music at the same time.

"When I was a kid my friends and I would get together with a cassette player and a big pot of tea and go sit under a large tree," Koite recalls. "Then we would listen for hours to the music of Pink Floyd, James Brown, Genesis, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding and people like that until you learned it perfectly."

At the same time he was being ex posed to the traditional tribal sounds of West Africa's legendary griots, the storyteller class of his Jeli . Koite initially taught himself guitar to ac company his mother's folk singing.

Blessed with the ability to pick up tune by ear, he enrolled in Mali's National Arts Institute in Bamako at age 20. Six months later he was the conductor of the school's band and he joined the faculty upon his graduation in 1980. Within a few years he gradually began pulling together the nucleus of players that became Bamada in 1988. They soon became known as one of the more important groups in Mali, but it would be most of another decade before the group was able to record their debut album Musa Ko (1995).

Koite's debut quickly hit the top of both African and European charts.

The subsequent releases Ma Ya (1999) and Baro (2001, both on Putamayo), his first tours to North America, notice in publications such as People magazine and Rolling Stone, appearances on Letterman, and the active support of American musicians like Bonnie Raitt further confirmed Koite's position as one of the highest-profile artists in world beat music. His records even went beyond college radio success to break into rock radio in the U.S., and a couple of discs have sold over 100,000 copies world wide.

Most recently, the double-disc album Foly! Live Around The World is a brilliant example of Koite and Bamada in concert featuring their best material from the previous studio recordings for mesmerizing 2.5 hours (on World Village).

Alongside the electric guitar and bass, traditional instruments like kamale n' goni, balafbn (wooden xylophone), and talking drum are still crucial to the sound of his vibrant sextet Bamada (named after Mali's capitol Bamako, translation: mouth of the crocodile).

The fact that Koite chose to make ancestral sounds just part of the mix in Bamada speaks volumes about the shedding of class structure in a nation that is still shedding the last vestiges of European (French) colonialism.

Mali is a land-locked country about twice the area of Alberta with a population approaching 12 million and more than 30 languages in use, reflecting its place at the heart of Africa's tribal past.

About two-thirds of its citizens live below the poverty line and the prevalence of AIDS is nearly two percent among adults. Given such conditions Koite admits he feels a certain responsibility.

"For whatever reason I have become famous among my people so I do feel responsible if I can use that to tell the rest of the world about Mali and Africa. I've been helping the trade campaign for Mali, helping to promote the cotton crop, and trying to help the work of the Oxfam people and the United Nations. The factor of AIDS among children at home is very bad."

Koite still draws on the experiences of everyday life but the underlying themes of his song lyrics can be very serious.

As he says: "It's all about the exercise of money and power."

-Roger Levesque