POP AND JAZZ REVIEWS : L.A. Debut by Golden-Voiced Keita

It took Salif Keita all of three notes at the Wilshire Theatre on Saturday to show why phrases like “the golden voice of Mali” are constantly attached to the veteran singer. High and pure, full-bodied and piercing yet not shrill, his voice was the centerpiece of an impressive, 90-minute L.A. debut before 1,500 enthusiastic fans

But Keita’s seamless African-jazz-funk-Europop-R&B; hybrid hardly qualified as a typical African music performance. The intricately woven vocal parts and the complex, shifting rhythms induced constant movement in the audience, but were equally compelling on a pure listening level.

On “Mandjou,” Peter Tholo Segono’s muted trumpet solo strongly evoked the late Miles Davis--a reminder of Keita’s high standing among jazz artists. The most clearly recognizable African “roots” elements surfaced in Ousmane Kouyate’s spidery guitar lines.

Every musical and dramatic nuance in the finely honed set was delivered with split-second precision. Keita was a canny showman--one moment, he was on his knees in supplication, the next striding across the stage with the mike stand over his shoulders, then standing still in a devotional stance with hands clasped as if in prayer.

But for all the sophistication, power and drama of the music, it was the stop-’em-dead-in-their-tracks quality of Keita’s voice that ruled.