Since moving back to his homeland from France some 14 years ago, Malian singer Salif Keita has alternated freely between electric and acoustic settings to showcase his glorious voice. On his most recent album, 2012’s Talé, he twinned them savvily, working with Gotan Project’s producer Philippe Cohen Solal, with contributions from Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango, singer Bobby McFerrin, and jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding that combine with West African traditions.

“I try to blend the best of the past with the best of the present in my words and my music,” says Keita, reached at a club in Minneapolis, and speaking in French. “I will always draw inspiration from the rich musical culture of Mali, but I’ve been deeply influenced by contemporary western music as well. I experience no conflict in reconciling them.”

For his current North American tour, however, Keita has gone rootsier, and is accompanied by an acoustic outfit—two female backup singers, guitar, kora, ngoni, and percussion. The set list will draw on songs from throughout a long career that winds back to the late ’60s.

Gifted with a powerful pair of lungs and unusually elastic vocal cords, Keita learned how to use them to the max as a boy, yelling in the fields near his home by the Niger River. “I used to shout for eight hours every day when I was on summer vacation,” he recalls. “At first people thought I was crazy. But when I shouted, the monkeys who ate all the bananas and fruit kept away.”

Broader approval was much harder to find. Keita had to overcome two major obstacles in his life. Though his parents were not well-off, he comes from one of West Africa’s most noble families, and is descended from Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mandinka empire in the 13th century. Keitas do not play music—it’s played to them. In breaking with that rule of Malian society, Keita faced serious social disapproval.

The other problem proved even more thorny—he’s an albino, associated with bad luck in many parts of Africa, and was shunned by both relatives and community.

Thanks to his dogged determination and immense talent as singer, musician, and composer Keita prevailed, eventually becoming one of the first superstars of world music. Steeped in the traditions of his homeland, he’s also quick to acknowledge his debt to black American artists such as James Brown and Wilson Pickett—white British rockers, too. “When I was young we listened to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, Led Zeppelin. I’ve never cut that umbilical cord. I also listen to music from other parts of Africa and its diaspora. I really like Cuban music, and a lot of stuff from South Africa and Ethiopia.”

But while Keita’s unbridled singing style suggests R & B screamers, it remains—like him—rooted in Malian soil. “That’s just the way our people sing. It’s both very operatic and very wild, and it goes back a long, long time.” With his grounding in Malian music so strong and assured, Keita is able to absorb all influences to create something new and distinctive. “Our music is very open-ended,” he says. “You can really do anything you want with it.”

Salif Keita plays the Vogue Theatre on Saturday (September 13).