Noura Mint Seymali gives a thrilling concert at Crossroads

Shortly after Mauritanian vocalist Noura Mint Seymali stepped to the microphone in West Philadelphia on Sunday night, it became clear just how special the closing event of Crossroads Music's 2014-15 concert season would be. As the full-bodied electric bass of Ousmane Touré and the drumming of Philly's own Matthew Tinari began to pump behind her, Seymali delivered trilling and thrilling lines of exotic vocalization.

Her confident control of melisma was impressive; her youthful power was well-measured (although it did require some quick sound-mix adjustment so she wouldn't overwhelm everything). Most of all, it became readily apparent that she was in a near-perfect, balanced pairing with her husband, the outstanding electric guitarist Jeiche Ould Chighaly, whose bold, deftly fingerpicked, subtly psychedelic North African ax tones had already begun to entrance.

The ensemble's opening number, "Hebebeb (Zrag)," with its classic pan-Arabic vocal flavors and idiosyncratic desert-blues guitar tropes (both Sahara and Mojave) gave validity to the description posted by music website Noisey: "Modernized, transcendent combination of Umm Kalthum and Captain Beefheart."

Seymali and Chighaly have a creative synchronicity that makes them stand out. Her assertive singing sometimes was matched by the guitar melodies, sometimes embellished, sometimes taken to unexpected places. (There have been serviceable comparisons to Hendrix and Richard Thompson, but Chighaly cites Mark Knopfler as a key guitar influence - and you can hear it.)

In the second of Seymali's 11 live offerings, she sat down and manipulated the ardine, a kora-like Mauritanian gourd-harp played by women. It set up a deceptively more traditional sound, harking back to the Moorish griot roots of her musical family. But ultimately it resulted in another captivating fusion of old and new. Like the rest of the show - and like Seymali's fabulous debut album, Tzenni - it was an enthralling meld of timeless, keening quarter-tone sounds both human and instrumental, and exceptional modern music-making. It's fit for international concert stages as well as the Beydane Moorish wedding circuit back in the married couple's hometown of Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania.

The Philly hometown angle was provided by drummer and band manager Tinari, a 2000 graduate of St. Joseph's Preparatory School. He lived two blocks away from the Calvary Center venue before moving to Dakar, Senegal, in 2007 to study Wolof and French - and to play music.

Noura Mint Seymali and company finished their North American tour here - and the excellent Crossroads Music series concluded its 13th season, as well, due to return in September. Not soon enough.