As WOMAD 2014 approaches I thought I’d see what worldly wise gems would be gracing their stages this year. I decided to start with a bit of information about Mali musician Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba and bung a couple of videos your way.
Bassekou Kouyate and his band, Ngoni ba are from Mali. His wife and professional singer in her own right Amy Sacko will be joining him.
Kouyate was born in Garana in 1966, but since the 80’s he’s been living in the capital of Mali, Bamako. He started playing the Ngoni at age 12 and has been wearing his knuckles thin ever since. The Ngoni is a West African stringed instrument made of wood or calabash (a sort of melon-like fruit) with dried animal (often goat) skin stretched over it. It’s basically a four stringed lute.
He traces his musical heritage back to the 13th century and the reign of Sundiata Keita who is considered the founder of the wealthy and powerful Mali Empire. Apparently Kouyate’s ancestors entertained the royal court all those moons ago.
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Kouyate and Ngoni ba have played across many a stage, released three albums and in 2008 won the Album of the Year & African Artist of the Year at the BBC3 Awards for World Music.
Here’s another courtesy of the BBC World Service:
Keep you eyes on LAZERHORSE.ORG and I’ll bring you more tidbits as we go along…
Here’s a couple of bits from WOMAD 2013 to keep you going:
