West Africa’s Rhythms Pulse in Traore Concert

The Skirball Cultural Center’s sixth season of outdoor “Sunset Concerts” opened with a burst of West African excitement Thursday. Singer-songwriter Rokia Traore, an energetically charismatic performer, galvanized an overflow crowd.

Although Traore was born in Mali, she was raised with a global perspective, living at various times in Algeria, Saudi Arabia, France and Belgium. Her music, as a result, is tinged with global references without losing its essential West African characteristics. Working with two backup singers and a four-piece acoustic band, Traore devoted most of her program to selections from her albums “Mouneissa” and “Wanita.”

Initially, the selections varied between quiet numbers in which she accompanied her expressive voice with her own guitar playing, and more expansive pieces with the full ensemble. Traore is an important member of a generation of African artists who emphasize contemporary social issues in acoustic musical settings that differ in substance and texture from the electronically underscored sounds of Afro-pop. But the thoughtfulness that is at the heart of her style in no way diminished the exhilarating qualities of her musical impact.

In the closing segment, she emphasized those qualities by revealing yet another aspect of her talent--remarkably lithe, sensuously graceful dance movements, rooted in African style but thoroughly invested with her own originality.

Her audience, urged on by Traore’s insistence that the open space in front of the stage be filled, quickly joined in the rhythmic display--a wonderfully amiable example of the power of good music to reach beyond barriers of language and culture and simply bring people together.