News in form Outhere Records : After his award-winning debut album ‘Segu Blue’ (2007) Mali’s ngoni wizard returns with a new offering: ‘I Speak Fula’. The forthcoming album, more up-tempo than its predecessor, captures the incredible live energy of Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba and is the next step forward in the career of one the most exciting and innovative musicians coming out of Africa in recent years.
For Bassekou Kouyate it has been a long journey that started out in Garana, a small village on the Niger river where he grew up, then took him to the town of Segu, capital of his region, and on to Mali’s capital Bamako. And now it is taking him and his music around the world. Welcome to a new chapter of this exciting story.
The back of his new album shows Bassekou Kouyate and his group Ngoni Ba standing in front of the legendary Bamako train station where, in the mid 5Os, a young Bassekou played a concert together with members of the famous Rail Band. During the show Bassekou suddenly stood up and walked up to the front of the stage. For the first time a ngoni player strapped his instrument over his shoulder like an electric guitar and was playing a solo standing up. The audience was stunned. Traditionalists even started a debate after the concert about whether this young man was allowed to change the style of playing ngoni. What was new then has long become common practice in Mall today.
From his early days in Bamako when he was playing in a trio together with Toumani Diabate and Keletigui Diabate, and later becoming a key member of Ali Farka Toure’s band, until today pursuing his own career, Bassekou has transformed the traditional music of the ngoni for the modern world. With his band Ngoni ba he has created a new line-up as a quartet with a rock band’s style of playing. The ngonis they play are still acoustic as in the old days, but Bassekou invented a bass ngoni even lower in pitch than the ngoni ba (low ngoni), added extra strings to make their instruments harmonically more flexible, and even plugs in an occasional wah wah pedal. In the process Bassekou opened up the magic of an age-old music to people all over the world.
The debut album, ‘Segu Blue’, won exceptional critical acclaim, such as being included in the Observer Music Monthly’s Best 50 Albums of 2007 and The
Guardian’s 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die. Bassekou won two BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music (‘Best Album 2008’ and ‘Best African Artist’). In the last couple of years he has collaborated with Youssou N’Dour, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Oumou Sangare, and through his involvement with Damon Albarn’s Africa Express he has played with Mongrel, Franz Ferdinand and many others.
Bassekou Kouyate has become the ambassador of the ngoni and has brought this ancient instrument back to where it used to be: the centre of Malian music. Bassekou Kouyate & Nyoni ba are now rocking the stages from Bamako to London and their success has sparked off a new interest for this traditional instrument not only in the rest of the world, but also in Mali. Today not a week passes in Bamako without Bassekou being approached by young musicians who want to start a ngoni band.
The music of the griots has always been about building bridges between people and Bassekou’s new album expresses the spirit of openness and tolerance. Mali itself is a very multi-ethnic country and the album’s title track “I speak fula” is a playful song about the relationship between the Bamana and the Fula ethnic groups. Bassekou is Bamana but it Is not unusual for him to play Fula music. The song is played in a local style called Koreduga - if Malians hear a Koreduga song that means it is time to let their hair down, dance and enjoy. It is a song for everyone and you do not have to speak Fula to join the party.
The album was once again recorded in Bamako and produced by Lucy Duran and Jerry Boys. It features contributions by Toumani Diabate, Vieux Farka Toure, Kasse Mady Diabate, Harouna Samake and others. Of course key member of the line-up, Bassekou’s wife and main vocalist, the wonderful Amy Sacko, is adding to the magic too. ‘I speak fula’ will be released on 21 September, on CD (including a 20-page booklet with liner notes by Lucy Duran and Jay Rutledge), as a deluxe double vinyl version (180 grammes audiophile vinyl with gatefold cover) and as digital download (through iTunes and all other well-assorted music download stores).
