Bassekou Kouyate is one of the true masters of the ngoni, an ancient traditional lute found throughout West Africa, and is respected as one of Africa’s premier global artists.
His band, Ngoni Ba, includes ngoni players (featuring ngonis with differing tonal sizes), percussionists (talking drum, Yabara, Calebasse) and the fantastic singer Amy Sacko. Together they have revolutionised the sound of the ngoni, and radically fired centuries of griot tradition into the future.
Bassekou is recognised as both an innovator and a stronghold of traditional Malian music, and has collaborated with the likes of Ali Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate, Taj Mahal, and The Kronos Quartet, and in 2016 joined the Africa Express tour along with Damon Albarn and Paul Weller.
Bassekou’s recent album Miri (‘dream’ in Bamana) topped the world music charts, and was voted ‘Best Album of the Year’ by Songlines.
‘Defiant, angry new music from Mali, by the world’s greatest exponent of the ngoni, the ancient West African lute’
The Guardian
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