Kita Kan (1999)

"Kandia Kouyate is the most famous female singer inside Mali, a female griot with a voice so powerful you're more likely to think of Salif Keita than Oumou Sangare. Although her recording career dates to the early '80s, Kita Kan is her first full-fledged solo CD -- the informative liner notes reveal how private patrons love her singing so much she has no financial need to record. Kouyate and producer Ibrahima Sylla kinda went the whole hog, too. The tracks are pretty evenly divided among those featuring a European string orchestra, an electric Euro-Afro-pop rock band, and others with the more traditional kora, balafon, and ngoni. All the arrangements basically revolve around cascading strings of some kind weaving a melodic bed underneath her commanding vocals." (Allmusic)