Bassekou Kouyaté

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Bassekou Kouyaté (2008)

Bassekou Kouyaté (* 1966 in Garana ) is a Malian musician. He became known as a virtuoso ngoni player and modernizer of the music of the West African griots . Kouyaté is the head of the "Ngoni Ba" group.

life and work

Bassekou Kouyaté was born in Garana, about 60 km from Ségou , into one of the most important griot clans in Africa, to which besides Bassekou Kouyaté many other internationally successful artists such as Kandia Kouyaté , Soriba Kouyaté and Habib Koité belong. At the age of twelve, Bassekou Kouyaté began to learn the ngon game from his father Mustapha Kouyaté, which has a long tradition in his family. At the end of the 1980s he moved to the Malian capital Bamako . There he met the kora player Toumani Diabaté , with whom he often works. He also got appearances on recordings by Ali Farka Touré andTaj Mahal , which helped it gain international recognition. In Bamako he also met his wife, the singer Ami Sacko, with whom he founded the group "Ngoni Ba" (actually: Ngoni Batitle, "the great Ngoni"). This group, which besides Bassekou Kouyaté and Ami Sacko also includes two percussionists and three other ngon players, celebrated international success with their debut album "Segu Blu" (2007); Among other things, the record was awarded the BBC World Music Award in 2008 .

Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba at the World Music Festival Horizonte 2014

Kouyaté is considered to be the innovator of traditional griot music. In addition to the way he plays, this also relates to technical developments of the instrument, for example through the addition of additional strings (Kouyaté uses up to seven-string ngonis) and the use of electrical amplifiers. In "Ngoni Ba" he also uses four ngonis in different positions at the same time for the first time (usually only one or two ngonis are played together). Through his collaboration with musicians like Taj Mahal, he also sets points of reference to Afro-American blues and calls to mind the African roots of this music.

With the rock music-related album Ba Power (2015), Kouyaté and his band went on a European tour in April and May 2015.

Awards

  • 2007: Tamani for the best video clip
  • 2008: BBC Radio 3 Awards for 'World Music Album of the Year' & 'African Artist of the Year'
  • 2010: Kora Award in the category 'Best Traditional Artist'

Discography

  • Toumani Diabaté: Songhai (Nuevos Medios, 1989)
  • Toumani Diabaté: Djelika (Hannibal, 1995)
  • Ali Farka Touré: Savane (World Circuit, 2006)
  • Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba: Segu Blue (Out Here Records, 2007)
  • Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba: I Speak Fula (Out Here Records, 2009)
  • Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba: Jama ko (Out Here Records, 2013)
  • Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba: Ba Power (Glitterbeat, 2015)
  • Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba: Miri (Out Here Records, 2019)

Web links

Commons : Bassekou Kouyaté  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/a4wm2008/winners.shtml
  2. ↑ http://www.irieites.de/pkritiken/OtherStuff/2007_bassekou_kouyate.htm
  3. ↑ Bassekou Kouyate and band: Rock with African bourgeois lute , Deutschlandradio Kultur, April 29, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Kouyaté, Bassekou
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Malian musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Garana, Mali