Despite being a direct descendant of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Malian Empire, Salif Keita was cast out of his community and ostracized by his family because of his albinism, which is considered bad luck in rural Mali. Luckily for us he persevered, and started the groups Super Rail Band de Bamako (after the capital city, Bamako) and the more popular Les Ambassadeurs. He later fled during military unrest and established a more prominent career in Paris. He has been hailed by many in West Africa as “The Golden Voice of Africa,” and if you live in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Savannah, or New York City (at the Apollo!), he’ll be playing for you soon. Here are his US / Canada tour dates (credit to The Afropop Blog for alerting me to this):

Thursday, March 31: Edmonton, AB – Winnspear Center
Saturday, April 2nd: Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
Monday, April 4th: San Francisco, CA – Yoshi’s
Tuesday, April 5th: San Francisco, CA – Yoshi’s
Wednesday, April 6th: Los Angeles, CA – Conga Room
Friday, April 8th: Savannah, GA – Trustees Theater (Savannah Music Festival)
Saturday, April 9th: New York, NY – Apollo Theater
Tuesday, April 12th: Ottawa ON – Ottawa Jazz Festival
Thursday, April 14th: Quebec City QC – Palais Montcalm

His style of music is largely traditionally West African, a bit like Toumani Diabate and his son Amadou, but his latest album, La Difference, incorporated jazz and similar sounds from such diverse sources as France and Lebanon, whose famous trumpeter Ibrahim Maaluf contributed a different sense of texture to what is normally dominated by such traditional instruments as koras, balafons, djembes, and guitars. Check out a couple of his tracks:

Salif Keita – Folon (Live) by Couleurs Urbaines
Salif Keita – Madan by Imogen