Baaba Maal has always been a musical alchemist.

A superstar in his native Senegal, Maal has long been known for commingling the griot traditions of West Africa with popular music styles from other cultures and nations.

But Maal upped the ante on his latest album, “Television,” his 1st recording of all-new material since “Missing You” in 2001.

Maal primarily wrote and recorded the material on “Television” with singer Sabina Sciubba and keyboardist Didi Gutman of the New York City-based Brazilian Girls. The result is a mix of traditional African music elements — like talking drums and djembes — with percolating electronica beats, computerized blips and synthesized vocal choirs.

That Maal should take such a leap really probably shouldn’t be surprising for an artist who is considered to be a revolutionary figure in Senegal — in more ways than one.

Maal, who comes to the Michigan Theater on Saturday for a show sponsored by the University Musical Society, is also a busy political activist, having worked on such causes as HIV / AIDS awareness, African debt relief by Western creditors, and female empowerment. And as a human rights activist, he’s mingled and worked with the likes of Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela. And his songs have often addressed social and cultural issues. On “Television,” for example, “Dakur Moon” confronts environmental worries, while “A Song For Women” tackles poverty and changing roles within families.

“We people from Senegal are all fans of Baaba Maal,” says Alhousseynou Ba, an Ann Arbor resident who serves as external relations coordinator for the Senegalese Association of Michigan. “But his music is not just for the people of Senegal, it is for all Africans, and for all people.

“But the people of Senegal especially know how important his leadership has been — the way he has taken action in areas where action is needed — his fight against poverty and corruption, and his efforts to provide unity and ring Africans together. And his music, yes, it is very revolutionary — the way he takes the tradition and then mixes in modernity,” affirms Ba. Some Maal longtime fans feel that his use of computerized sounds compromises the tradition of Senegalese music — a feeling that Ba acknowledges.

“Yes, some do believe that if you add too much of the computers to traditional African music, you are losing touch with something that you had before, because so much of Maal’s music is about nature, and the villages, and the everyday lives of the people and the things they see around them every day,” says Ba.

“And I do love the traditional music, but music is a worldwide thing, so when an artist does something to take their music to all races and all communities, this is a good thing.”

Listen to the Baaba Maal album “Television”:

Maal also knows that the electronically generated sounds and dance beats on “Television” came as a surprise to his longtime fans, many of whom probably expected something that hewed more closely to traditional African styles.

“(But) I think that is good,” said Maal in an interview with National Geographic. “Artists need to give their fans new ideas and new sounds or the relationship becomes complacent……On 1 hand, everyone says they want to see Africa progress, to use technology and education to take their place in the world. But on the other hand, many of these same people want African musicians to stay traditional, exotic, tropical, whatever, and not use modern technology in their music.

“They want to put computers in every school in Africa, but they want to forbid African musicians from making music on them! In the west, everybody wants musicians to move forward and break boundaries, but they also want African musicians to stay locked in the past,” added Maal. “This is why I wanted to make this album, to demonstrate that African musicians can embrace the future as well as the past.”

Although “Television” is his 1st collection of new songs since ’01, Maal has hardly been keeping a low musical profile this decade. His Palm Pictures label released 3 compilations of his music since then, and he’s collaborated onstage with the modern-pop band Franz Ferdinand, as well as with Damon Albarn (frontman for Blur and Gorillaz).

And last May, Maal joined U2’s Bono onstage for the Island Records tribute to label founder Chris Blackwell. Then, in July, Maal gathered with Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Carla Bruni and Alicia Keys, among others, at Radio City Music Hall in New York for the Nelson Mandela Day concert.

Regarding the title of the “Television” album: TV has been available to many Africans for a long time, but until recently, the programming was mostly imported from the U.S. or Europe, and much of it was in English or French. But the infrastructure for mass communications in Africa has expanded rapidly in recent years, and the programming is being produced in African countries, and African leaders can now communicate to the masses in their own languages.

And the title song on “Television” addresses the implications of such rapid growth in mass communications in Africa.

Television “is an instrument we can use to make good things,” Maal told National Public Radio. “But at the same time, it’s very dangerous, because if people seem to believe that everything that passes through television is true, it falls down into the hand of bad politicians. (That’s) not good for the continent.”

Maal remains committed to his activism, and exhorts his fellow African musicians to do the same.

“I think African artists in general, and musicians in particular, who get the chance to travel and to have their voice very loud, should use that opportunity to help the leaders from Africa to understand what to do,” he told NPR. “And also, all the people who make the decisions around the world (need) to know exactly what Africa is expecting from them.”

Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.

Baaba Maal performing in Mali earlier this month: