Mali Denhou LusAfrica****

Traoré, founding father of Malian desert blues and a strong influence on the late, lamented Ali Farka Touré, is the genuine article. His gentle, trance-like guitar riffs, and soft, keening voice, forged over five decades of hardship and obscurity, have a rare conviction. Old friend Vincent Bucher's liquid harmonica playing is the perfect foil, and makes explicit the musical ties that bind the Niger and the Mississippi delta. For aficionados, the first new recording from Boubacar in more than five years is a major event, and will be downloaded without hesitation. For the merely curious, there may perhaps be a limit to the number of desert blues albums one needs, but for those with none, Mali Denhou– profound, serene and entrancing – could be the start of something beautiful. See lusafrica.com

Download tracks: Mondeou, Minuit