It's one of the coldest days of the year, and Ziggy Marley and his band are in the middle of a sound check prior to their sold-out performance at the Fillmore Theater in San Francisco. Strumming a custom-made rhythm guitar and bundled up in an oversized Love is My Religion tour jacket, Bob Marley's oldest son cuts a striking figure against a backdrop that spells out LO-V-E...

As usual, our contentious panel of experts was all over the map with its choices, but when all the dust settled it was the brilliant Cuban/Congolese fusion of Kekele, glossy Ethiopian techno from Gigi, and then it was all about Mali, with outstanding recordings by Toumani Diabate, Salif Keita and Ali Farka Toure that provided the soundtrack for 2006.