Keita’s energy overcomes muddy Royce Hall acoustics

Close to the end of his 90-minute set at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Saturday, Salif Keita, the veteran singer from Mali, picked up his microphone -- along with its stand -- and launched into a soaring declamatory vocal.

His high, penetrating voice, one of the marvels of African music, broke through the morass of low-frequency sound that dominated the program. Alternating intense high notes with rapid, dramatic phrases, his performance came alive, a hypnotically gripping manifestation of the rich storytelling tradition of Malian griots.

The balance of the show was something else. Although Keita came out at the opening to offer a few quiet guitar and voice samples from his new acoustically oriented album, “Moffou,” the program quickly moved into what was essentially a collection of music for dancing-in-place.

The evening ended with a number in which crowds of audience members eluded Royce’s determined usher crew and climbed on stage to wiggle and twist among Keita and his 11 musicians and singers.

Although the program was nominally acoustic, superficially reflecting the laid-back intent of “Moffou,” the amplification was so loud that results differed hardly at all from the more electronically oriented programs Keita has offered in the past. And the Royce sound system’s continuing over-emphasis on bass and low-frequency sounds largely buried Keita’s vocals while wiping out the subtle presence of various acoustic African instruments.

That was no problem at all for most of the crowd, who -- given a mandate to dance by Keita shortly after his quiet opening -- remained on their feet for the entire program. Seemingly oblivious to the muddy sound and the absence of musical subtleties, they appeared content to cheer the two female singers and dance back and forth to the music’s energized, but repetitive, bass-dominated rhythms.