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Bassekou Kouyaté
© Thomas Dorn

I Speak Fula


I Speak Fula

Bassekou Kouyate is fast becoming a household name among African music lovers worldwide. Kouyate has emerged from the shadows of Mali’s illustrious music scene armed with his ngoni, prodigious talent and a broad smile. On top of this, he possesses vision and perseverance. The combination has worked. Kouyate’s career has skyrocketed since 2007.

 

Until recently, Kouyate was more of a supporting musician, playing in the Buffet de la Gare, the legendary hotel bar at the railway station in Bamako, or more famously in Toumani Diabaté’s Symmetric Orchestra in the 1990s, but his passion and modernizing instincts for the ngoni, the small West African lute, has revolutionised the playing and position of this instrument.Kouyate has empowered ngoni players throughout the region, making them aware of the force and versatility of the instrument.

 

“The one big challenge has been to make the ngoni better known,’ says Kouyate. “It has been around since at least the 8th century but our ancestors, the griot praise-singers, were not concerned with publicity, and making the instrument better known was not part of their agenda. That is what I have been trying to do since the 1990s…”

 

Kouyate plays with a thinner, high pitched version of the ngoni with more strings catering for the virtuosity of its master. Naturally the distinct sound of songs dominated by the ngoni produces a form of music easily distinguishable from the kora or guitar associated with Malian maestros Diabaté or the late Ali Farka Touré (with whom Kouyate also played).

 

The fast plucking rhythms produced by ‘the king of the ngoni’, as Kouyate is now being touted, are unleashed in exhilarating fashion in the opening tracks of his second album now on general release. I Speak Fula comes two and a half years after Kouyate’s debut album Segu Blue attracted major critical acclaim.

 


Introduction to Bassekou Kouyate

 

I Speak Fula is an affirmation of Kouyate’s unique skills and his supporters’ belief in the ngoni as an instrument capable of carrying an album on its own merits and producing commercial gains. “Jay Rutledge (OutHere Records) and (producers) Lucy Duran and Jerry Boys have all followed the progress of my band Ngoni ba from the start. They believed in us and have worked to make the albums successful. With their presence and and with all the great musicians involved (Toumani Diabaté, Kassé Mady Diabaté, Vieux Farka Touré, and Kouyate’s wife Amy Sacko), we had a wonderful atmosphere throughout the production of the album. I really feel this shows in the result…”

 

I Speak Fula appears to settle midway through, to slower, more melodic songs, and then picks up again towards the end. While the pace shifts throughout and Kouyate’s instrumentation is often original, the overall soul of the album is located somewhere near the bend in the Niger River. The second album, like the first, is highly traditional in scope. Kouyate prefers to gently explore the boundaries of his region’s music rather than break or bend them and he makes no claims to any direct Western influences: “The music of Mali, especially the Bamana music of Ségu, is the sole source of my music: the two albums show this quite clearly. I listen to lots of music from other parts of the world…and really enjoy it, but I can’t say it influences my style”. When I ask him what inspires him as an artist he replies in a way characteristic of so many of Mali’s greats, like Diabaté, Farka Touré or Oumou Sangaré: “My inspiration is always my family of musicians: my father Mustapha Kouyaté, the ngoni player; my mother Yakaré Damba, the singer; and her father and ngoni-player, Bazoumana Sissoko”.

 

Again the impression one gets is Kouyate’s clear acknowledgement of his heritage. This debt to his people and his land is reaffirmed when I ask him about life outside of music. “The only other thing I’d like to do, and I’m saving it for my retirement (laughs!), is to be a farmer. I have 20 or 30 hectares in my village Garana, on the bank of the River Niger near Ségu and I’m looking forward to planting trees, irrigating the land, producing crops– all sorts of things!” It looks like all that will have to wait, his spectacular ngoni playing keeps Kouyate pretty busy these days.

 

 

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba UK tour:

21 October - LONDON Jazz Café
22 October - MANCHESTER Band On The Wall
23 October - GATESHEAD The Sage
24 October - LEEDS Howard Assembly Room
28 October - BRIGHTON Komedia
29 October - BRISTOL St Georges
30 October - GUILDFORD University Hall, University of Surrey
31 October - PEEL, ISLE OF MAN Centenary Centre

 

Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni ba - I Speak Fula

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba – I Speak Fula
is out now on OutHere Records





Harry Johnstone



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