Bassekou Kouyate and Tony Allen at Queen's Park... for free!

Since Sunjata Keita founded the Malian empire back in 1235 and declared that the ngoni would be the only instrument played in his court, there haven't been that many real innovations with the way the lute-like ancestor of the banjo is played in West Africa. That is, until Bassekou Kouyate came along and re-wrote the ngoni rule book.
Although the legendary Malian djéli Bazoumana Sissoko (1890-1987) from Segou – who composed what became the fledging Republic of Mali's national anthem in 1962 – is generally considered to be the greatest ngoni maestro that ever lived, he still plucked away in a soulfully slow style while seated just as his forebears had done. And over the course of seven centuries, the kora and more recently, the guitar have both eclipsed the ngoni as the axe of choice for aspiring young West African musicians relegating the ngoni to the background.
That all changed one night in the mid-80s when Kouyate, then gigging with the Rail Band,  finally got fed up with the group's guitarists enjoying all the female attention up front at Bamako's train station hot spot Buffet de la Gare. So he jury rigged a strap for his ngoni and moved into the spotlight and he's never looked back.
Kouyate, born into Mali's griot caste in the small village of Garana on the banks of the Niger River, was schooled in the cultural traditions of playing the four-stringed ngoni from age 12 by his father Moustafa Koyate. As his proficiency grew, the young Kouyate started experimenting with adding more strings to the consternation of his dad who bristled at the blasphemous concept.

Once the teenage Kouyete moved to Bamako however, his forward-looking approach to the ancient instrument earned him the respect of Mali's next generation of superstars, namely kora king Toumani "Too Much Money" Diabaté and guitar slinger Ali Farka Toure. It was actually Koyate's breakout appearance on the late great Toure's final studio album, 2006's Savane (World CIrcuit) that led to the recording of Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba's critically acclaimed 2007 debut Segu Blue (Out Here) which won the praise of everyone from Damon Albarn and Fatboy Slim to highly influential broadcaster Charlie Gillett.
Suddenly Bassekou Kouyate  was being hyped as "the Jimi Hendrix of ngoni" and soon Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and Bono were ringing him for studio collaborations while other fan club members such as banjo boy Béla Fleck and Bill Frisell have been seen trying to jump on stage with Kouyate at every opportunity.
After even more effusive plaudits were heaped upon Kouyate's follow up release I Speak Fula, the once mighty mid-level indie label Sub Pop, which never before showed the slightest interest in anything remotely African sounding, jumped on the Ngoni Ba bandwagon by forming a world music subsidiary called Next Ambiance to issue I Speak Fula for the North American market.

While rhe Segu Blue album, produced by Lucy Duran with a low-key field recording vibe, focused more on Kouyate's traditional side, the super-charged I Speak Fula no longer denies the American influences – it revels in them. The album has clearly been designed to suit the tastes of the global roots music buyers as well as those of the Bonnaroo generation which might be a turn off for those wishing to hear the simple beauty of the ngoni but the amped up developments were inevitable. Considering Kouyate chose to call his band Ngoni Ba – which means "Big Ngoni" – rocking sports stadiums and open fields filled with muddied hordes was probably always part of the plan. And now he's living the dream.
You can see Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba on stage with the mildly annoying Béla Fleck as part of the Luminato Festival's free performance program (astutely assembled by Derek Andrews) at Queen's Park in Toronto on Saturday (June 12) from 1 pm until 11 pm. Also be sure to check out the kick-ass Rachid Taha at 4 pm, Mr. Something Something at 6:30 pm and don't dare miss Fela Kuti's Afrobeat engine Tony Allen at 7:30 pm with Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba closing the show starting at 9 pm. Once again, it's all FREE!

Rock the Casbah
1:00 pm - Lo'Jo (France)
2:00 pm - Maryem Tollar Ensemble
3:00 pm - Karim Saada (Monteal)
4:00 pm - Rachid Taha (Algeria)

An African Prom
6:30 pm - Mr. Something Something (Toronto)
7:30 pm - Tony Allen (Nigeria)
9:00 pm - Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba (Mali) with Bela Fleck's Africa Project (USA) 


Ngoni Fola by Bassekou Kouyate


LINKS
Bassekou Kouyate myspace http://www.myspace.com/bassekoukouyate
Luminato Festival 2010 http://www.luminato.com/2010/
Out Here Records http://www.outhere.de/
Sub Pop http://www.subpop.com/