Habib Koité, by many accounts Mali's most promising young musician, more or less chanced upon stardom. He was born to a griot family, but his parents had chosen to leave aside their ancestral role as musicians and praise historians. Indeed, parental disapproval had nearly led Koité to give up on his own musical ambitions when he found himself invited to complete the four-year program at Mali's National Institute of Arts. He later taught guitar and music theory there, exploring professional avenues his griot ancestors could scarcely have imagined. Koité played in groups that did everything from Malian folklore to Pink Floyd covers and "Autumn Leaves," and there he reluctantly began singing, and soon writing songs.

Koité formed his band Bamada ("mouth of the crocodile") in 1988, and began playing around Bamako's underdeveloped club scene. Koité had chosen to play a nylon string guitar because he didn't consider himself good enough to compete with Mali's powerhouse lead guitarists, but he ended up developing a unique picking technique that quickly defined his band's sound. Avoiding the universally African, thumb-and-forefinger picking technique, Koité struggled to play music from traditional instruments like the doso ngoni and the kora in his own way. "My way of playing comes from my training in classical guitar," he says, "where I learned to pick with all the fingers on my right hand. This along with my research in traditional music has given my playing this certain color."

Koité won the prestigious Radio France International African Discoveries award for a playful anti-smoking song called "Cigarette Abana." The prize was the chance to go to France and record an album, and the result, Musa Ko, made him an overnight sensation in Mali. From the start, Bamada was unique. Boubacar Sidibe's harmonica playing gave the songs an original color, and Baba Cissoko's splendid outings on traditional instruments like talking drum and balfon met and exceeded Bamako's high performance standards. (Baba has since been replaced by Keletigui Diabaté, the grand old man of the Manding balafon.) The band rehearsed with diligence and quickly surpassed more itinerant traditional acts for tightness and unity of sound. For all that, Malian tradition came through strongly in every song.

"My songs are full of Malian ethnic elements," Koité says, "But people don't hear that. They hear the song. To me, that says it's a good mix." When Koité tried his hand at the Songhoi takamba style from the Malian north, he made a huge hit in the southern capital, where Songhoi are a small minority. Koité's song, "Fatima," outdid even the best-selling records made by actual Songhoi artists! Koité's ability to operate both inside and outside tradition found still more powerful expression in his understated, brilliant second release, Ma Ya. Engaging important social issues, such as the role of women in African society and the influence of foreign culture on youth, Koité cemented his hold on both his local and international audiences. After a number of successful tours in Europe, Koité and Bamada debuted in the U.S. in 1999. The reaction they got leaves no doubt that they'll be back.