Bassekou Kouyaté Rocking the Ngoni
NPR has a great report on the new album “I Speak Fula” from Bassekou Kouyaté and his band Ngoniba.
Kouyaté is a master of the West African fretless lute, the ngoni, which is hugely popular in traditional music all across Mali. I think that he’s doing for the ngoni what Toumani Diabate and a young generation of young players did for the kora: experiment, push the boundaries, incorporate new influences, and wow audiences around the world.
Update: Bassekou and band are playing a bunch of gigs in the US, sponsored partly by the National Endowment for the Arts. Thanks, federal government!