Bassekou Kouyate and his band Ngoni Ba released their debut album Segu Blue, in 2007 to critical acclaim. Winning praise from the likes of Eric Clapton, Kouyate honed his skills on the ngoni, a “spike lute” at an early age traveling with his mother Yakare Damba, who toured the West African villages as a singer.
When his father Moustapha Kouyate, a praised musician passed away, Kouyate moved to Segu, the regions capital where he began playing with other talented singers and met his future wife Amy Sacko, who now sings with Ngoni Ba. It was then Kouyate began experimenting on the ngoni and forged a technique that would become his trademark.
In Bamako’s legendary venue Buffet de la Gare, Kouyate would redefine the ngoni by supplying a strap to the instrument and stand center stage to command his solo performance.
“Ever since that moment I followed this path," Bassekou recalled to All About Jazz. “Because the ngoni is a great instrument. You can play any sort of music with it. We don't have to stay in the back. That's impossible. This is why I have struggled to create Ngoni Ba, to put this instrument on the international stage. We are a new generation now. I can't just do what my father did and what my grandfather did."
His new style would lead young ngoni players to notice. The note bending, sliding and string manipulation with up and down strokes soon become part of an inherited tradition. His American roots in music would begin to take shape during his first visit to the U.S. in 1990. Blues musician and friend Taj Mahal, was performing at a banjo music festival in Tennessee, and pulled Bassekou onstage to perform, who up to that moment had never even seen a banjo.
“I had never even heard the sound of a banjo. I touched the instrument and found I could play it. It was like the ngoni. I have not had an experience like that with any other instrument,” Kouyate said.
Upon his return to Mali, Bassekou continued his ground-breaking and innovative journey performing in a jazz-inspired instrumental trio with Toumani Diabate and with balafon maestro Keletigui Diabat. In 2006, he performed with Ali Farka Toure and was honored to be a part of his final recording, Savane. While making the record, Bassekou thought about experimenting and grouping the ngonis. The Ngoni Ba band was born.
I Speak Fulu is the band's first American release via Next Ambiance, the record label founded by Sub Pop’s Jonathan Poneman and KEXP’s Best Ambiance host, Jon Kertzer. After seeing Nigerian artist King Sunny Ade, credited with pioneering modern world music, and hearing his infamous juju music played live, Kertzer became a serious fan when he discovered the Mali-native Bassekou whom he describes as exceptional.
Kertzer believes audiences will connect with Bassekou and the band for their tremendous live appeal, as he told Seattle Weekly, “I think seeing it and dancing to it and directly relating to it will help a lot. African music translates because it has the inherent rhythmic roll, just like rock and roll does, [which] comes from African music. That's kind of a roundabout way of saying that African music is more of the roots of our popular music in the West.”
But will Sub Pop audiences buy into the niche market? Poneman isn’t worried and has no plans for a hard sell.
“We put out a lot of different kinds of music. I mean, it's all roughly categorized as rock, I guess, and to that end I think what Bassekou plays is rock as well. We're not in the business of second guessing what people like. We just basically make things available, hopefully market them appropriately, and hope that the customers who find the music that we're putting out agreeable will buy the music.”
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba perform at Slim’s March 18 with special guest DJ Said. Doors 7:30pm/ Showtime 8pm. Tickets $20.
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