Album Review: So Kono by Salif Keita

Seven years after his retirement from recording, the Malian superstar releases an acoustic album recorded in a hotel room in Japan Mali music legend Salif Keita has enjoyed a storied career that has blended traditional African and modern sounds, taken him many times around the world, and seen him collaborate with everyone from Santana and Mory Kanté to Burna Boy. Yet he had always declined to record an acoustic album. "I'm not a guitarist," said the man known as 'The Golden Voice of Africa'.

Full Review >>

It’s not all that surprising that Salif Keita’s 2018 farewell album Un Autre Blanc was not the end of his recording career. After all, as Keita himself has explained over the years, music is his life, a path for which he gave up his standing in Mandinka royalty, a mode of expression through which he has found global renown. It hasn’t been an easy road, and his deeply rooted relationship to Mali and Mandinka society remains complex-he was appointed as an advisor to the country’s ruling military junta in 2023-but there’s no denying he’s earned his sobriquet as the “Golden Voice of Africa”.

Full Review >>