Salif Keita
Old Fruitmarket
SALIF Keita's music works like this: the five musicians explore the song's main theme before the groove slowly emerges, takes over and almost hypnotises the audience, before the main man brings it to a halt – usually too early.
It's a beautiful, almost magical sound; the haunting themes played by the kora propelled by pounding drums and often mystifying contributions from two Apple computers.
But it is those moments when the drums take centre stage – and particularly the gourd drum featured prominently in the Celtic Connections-Mali link which has proved a highlight of this year's festival – that take the audience from restrained shuffle to hands-in-the-air joy.
The ingredient which really takes this set to the heights is, of course, Keita's unique voice, combining Islamic inflections with often spine-tingling courseness. It is a strange, even spooky instrument, combined tonight with the softer tones of an enthusiastic backing singer in increasingly enthralling call-and-response routines.
This concert, and others by Mali musicians during Celtic Connections, took place under the shadow of war in their homeland, referred to only briefly. That the music retained an infectious joy in the face of repression and violence gave it a strange and impressive dignity.
It was a slow-building set, with the band first leaving the stage barely an hour after walking on. Thankfully the four-song encore delivered many of the night's best moments in a performance which must rank among the best of this year's Celtic Connections.
Richard Walker
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article