Amadou & Mariam - Tje Ni Mousso (1999)

Malian husband-and-wife team Amadou et Mariam pull a neat turn on their second release. Instead of drawing on modern styles like hip-hop as a way of unfurling their pop moves, or mining Cuban nostalgia, they tap into the spirit of American radio music of the 1960s, when rock and R&B were so tightly twined together, you couldn't get a guitar string between them. True, the pair may have arrived at their sound by a distinctly local route. But the churchlike organ underpinning the songs, the whining electric guitar solos, and the Manding rhythms cloaked in proto-funk give this set the vitality and grandeur of classic roots music. Blind singer and guitarist Amadou Bagayoko got his start with the Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako, later known for launching superstar Salif Keita. His wife Mariam Doumbia, also blind, joined him professionally for a series of cassette recordings that paved the way for their current success. Though Mariam's voice lacks the acrobatic muscle of Malian divas like Oumou Sangare, she has an appealing, almost East Asian fragility to her delivery. When dueting with Amadou on "Chantez-Chantez" or the reggae-flavored "C'est Comme Ça," she adds soulful depth reminiscent of Black Uhuru's Puma Jones. Nice touches include the Indian violin riff on "Laban," the smooth sax section gracing "Djagneba," and the '60s-style flute accompaniment on "Beki Miri," which sounds like a funked-up Ian Anderson.