Corey Harris
Mississippi to Mali (Rounder)
Although Martin Scorsese’s recent PBS series “The Blues” wasn’t as consistently powerful as blues fans had hoped, the “GoodFellas” director’s personal installment was an exotic exception. With unprecedented depth on the subject, Scorsese and his traveling narrator, adventurous Virginia singer-guitarist Corey Harris, explored the links between American blues history and contemporary African music. Harris’ discussions with West African guitarist Ali Farka Toure help answer crucial historical questions like “what happened to African music after Muddy Waters’ ancestors were wrenched from their homes and deported into slavery?” Harris, 34, continues the musical exploration here with more focus and rich rhythm than his previous CD — 2002’s spotty “Downhome Sophisticate” — collaborating with Toure and Mississippi fife-and-drum masters and covering Waters’ “Catfish Blues.” It’s a terrific cultural merger, of a piece with Taj Mahal’s “Kulanjan.”