Mali’s Salif Keita Transcends Boundaries

Few in the audience at Salif Keita’s performance Thursday at UCLA’s Royce Hall understood a word that he said, but verbal comprehension has never been a vital factor in the remarkable, international success of the Mali-born singer.

“What is most important is that I communicate with my listeners emotionally,” he has said.

It took a while for that to happen this evening, but when it did--just about at the point at which Keita launched into his melodious “Africa”--the concert was transformed into a musical celebration.

Keita’s high, penetrating voice, rich with emotional nuances, played a dynamic role in the energizing of the program. In songs such as the intimate “Folon” and the reggae-drenched “Dakan Fe,” he used it as a rallying point for the music, cutting through the rhythm with shaman-like intensity, its impact underscored by the frequent, on-his-knees supplications he made to the audience.

Although Keita’s music retained a strong linkage with his African roots, the rhythmic underpinnings were a melting pot of global elements. Often, for example, his band’s in-the-pocket funk-jazz styled grooves (enhanced by whip-saw improvising) were transformed into unexpected--but extremely effective--shifts of meter, creating dance rhythms that made national boundaries meaningless. And the concert’s only drawback was the damper placed on the crowd’s enthusiastic response by the ushers’ excessively vigorous efforts to make sure no one strayed more than six inches from their seats.