Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba are headin’ out on a 58-date US tour to celebrate the release of their newest album I Speak Fula, and they’re stopping in Somerville on March 27th.
Here’s just a lil’ taste of the group performing in Italy this October… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFiict58WZ4
Show details:
Saturday, March 27,2010 in Somerville, MA at the Somerville Theater , 55 Davis Square.
Ph: 617.625.5700
From the Palace to the People: A Global Griot Saves a West African Tradition with Rock ‘n’ Roll Revelations and Blues Muses
«To all the rock ‘n’ rollers of the USA, I’m coming in February, 2010!»-Bassekou Kouyate
On the sandy grounds near the Sahara of West Africa, where the ancient Malian Empire once flourished, where griots have, for generations, sang the praises of local kings and crooned stories of battles long ago, the unassuming musician Bassekou Kouyate stands plucking a small stringed instrument called an ngoni – the ancestor of the banjo. Amidst the urban landscape of Mali ‘s present day capital – Bamako, Kouyate is surrounded by members of his band who wear bluejeans and have ngonis strapped around their shoulders like electric guitars as they sit on motorbikes and cars while talking on cell phones. Like this cosmopolitan city scene, Kouyate’s latest album with his band Ngoni Ba-I Speak Fula ( Next Ambiance/Sub Pop!, iTunesrelease: December 1, 2009; physical CD release: February 2, 2010)-juxtaposes the ancient and the modern, seamlessly melding contemporary jazz, blues, rock, bluegrass, and pop influences with Afro-beat and the centuries-old musical traditions of the griots of Mali.
There is some poetic justice that I Speak Fula is the first release on the new label Next Ambiance, an imprint of Sub Pop! The Seattle-based Sub Pop! label was the original home to such legendary bands as Nirvana , Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, and has enjoyed more recent successes with such artists as The Postal Service, The Shins, Iron & Wine, Band of Horses, Flight of the Conchords, and Fleet Foxes. American audiences will have the chance to witness Kouyate’s innovative and rocking approach to the ngoni during his 47-date North American tour February through April 2010, joining in the first six weeks banjo pacesetter Bela Fleck’s «The Africa Project.» Kouyate appears on the title track of Fleck’s double-Grammy-nominated Throw Down Your Heart. Another Bassekou Kouyate North American tour is in the works for June and July.
It is no coincidence that Kouyate’s music has so elegantly merged with blues-based music. As is well known, American blues has its roots in West Africa, particularly around the Sahel region of modern day Mali. This sonic link became clear to Kouyate in 1990, when a friend who went to Mali in search of the origins of the blues, invited the ngoni virtuoso to play with noted American bluesman Taj Mahal. «I didn’t even know who Taj Mahal was,» Kouyate recalls, «and we had no language but music to communicate. He began playing and I joined in. When we stopped, Taj said: ‘So you already know the blues!’ but it was the first time I had ever heard blues. I was just playing my Ségu (home village) style, and it is the same music.»
Before this meeting, Kouyate had rarely heard music from outside Mali. Born into a family of famous griot musicians, he was steeped in the traditions of his local village, learning to sing its history. «My diet was all live griot music from the Bambara tradition,» he says. «When I was growing up it was rare to hear a radio, and in any case the only station that reached the village was Radio Mali , and they ha
