M'bemba

Salif Keita already had a 35-year career behind him before he could record at home, in Bamako, in the studio he'd built near the nearby River Niger. His career had taken him to Abidjan, New York and Paris, and it was inevitable that it would one day take him back to the land where he was born, and his own people. Keita's story is one of many consecutive exiles. As an albino, he was disowned by his own father; as a musician, he was rejected by the aristocracy of his own cast; and as a man with ambition, he had no choice but to leave a country which offered no professional perspectives. The result was a path that wandered, but his strength, talent and clairvoyance enabled him to find fame and fortune. So his return to the fold was symbolic, and something of a triumph. This album marks the real return of the prodigal son to his roots and history.