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”. On his new album So Kono, which was recorded in a hotel room in Kyoto, that voice is front and center.
So Kono is all but a solo LP for Keita, who typically records with a full band. Longtime collaborators Badié Tounkara and Mamadou Koné contribute touches of ngoni and percussion, respectively, but by far the most prominent elements here are Keita’s voice and acoustic guitar. They come together in starlit combinations. Keita is at his gentlest, his warmest, his least occluded. No longer tied to bouncing pop rhythms, he gets to set his own pace and play with breezier sounds, a refreshing change from much of his more recent work. This is Keita as an artist and storyteller rather than simply as an icon.
Keita’s voice is by far the most versatile of his instruments. As he starts So Kono with the ballad “Aboubakrin”, his cadence changes easily between quick and intense verses and velvet choruses. He brings gravity to “Awa”, sweetness to “Chérie”, reverence to “Soundiata”. By the time he hits the French- and English-language verses of final track “Proud” (“Am what I am and proud / Am African and proud / Am albino and proud / Am different and proud”), the pride he takes in his work is already abundantly clear through the vocal range he has shown, with tremendous passion, throughout So Kono.
Laid bare is perhaps not Keita’s most highly favored performance style, but it allows his skill to take the spotlight over his reputation. That’s no small feat for a figure so prominent in his field. For Keita to take that kind of risk at 76 years of age is admirable, and the result is good music in its own right rather than staying mired in nostalgia. He attributes his inspiration partly to the spiritual energy of his surroundings, but certainly, his steady presence at the center of this record is where the magic finds its footing.
In his many decades of making music, Keita has had to push against the social grain personally and professionally. He has sacrificed status and family connections. It has been a tale of high-stakes self-determination as an artist, and he has supported the same for his home nation. If Un Autre Blanc was his music coming to a head, then certainly So Kono makes for a soothing and stunning denouement to Keita’s recording work, at least for the time being. At the same time, it’s unlikely to be the end of his public life. May whatever comes next for him be at least as thoughtful as So Kono.
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