Artiste: Mama Sissoko
CD: Soleil De Minuit (Buda Music, June 2000)

Mama Sissoko is a veteran guitarist from Mali, who played lead guitar for the legendary band Super Biton.

Super Biton was one of the original big electric bands in Mali, and even when only accompanied by percussion and another guitarist, the supremely talented Djeli Moussa Kouyaté, Sissoko's playing evokes the big band sound.

Soleil De Minuit is the pop music face of Mandingo culture performed in acoustic style, and it is very good. While the guitar work is predictably excellent, the album suffers slightly from that common condition where lead instrumentalists attempt to become lead singers, forgetting that their voice is what made them instrumentalists in the first place.

Still, Mama Sissoko is a fresh presence on the world stage, his songs are compelling, and the stellar guitars produce rolling Mandingo grooves that are hard to resist, especially "Bee Ni' Danyan," which is wonderful.

Robert Ambrose produces "The Rhythm Connection" for public radio, and he writes about African music for The Beat magazine. The curious can reach him by e-mail at rambrose@alaska.net.