» Music: Bassekou Kouyate
Mali’s Bassekou Kouyate on West African tradition, clan ceremonies, and why he started playing his ngoni like a guitar by Jeff Hemmings
From his early days in the Malian capital of Bamako, where he played in a trio with Toumani Diabate and Keletigui Diabate, to his time as a member of Ali Farka Toure’s band and the music he makes today, Bassekou Kouyate has transformed the traditional music of the ngoni for the modern world.
“The instrument is now recognized as being the ancestor of the banjo,” says Bassekou via a translator. “It was made out of local materials: a calabash, a wooden post, cow skin to cover the open side of the calabash, and gut strings. However, bit by bit, we began to use a hollowed wooden resonator in the place of the calabash,
goat skin instead of cow skin because it is more accessible, and nylon strings.”
The ngoni, Bassekou explains, is very ancient. “In most of West Africa it is recognized as the working instrument of the djeli praise singers. If they were passing through conflict zones, the djeli had no trouble passing frontiers: people immediately recognized his role in society because of the ngoni slung on his back.”
Ceremony and tradition are important elements to Bassekou’s music, and feature heavily on his last album I Speak Fula, a recording that captures the incredible live energy of their shows.
“It is hard for westerners to realize just how important social ceremonies are to Malians,” he says. “They help us forget the fact our life is often very hard. It is also a time for us to show that we are part of a big clan group, and that there are all these people for whom we mean something in life.”
Now making his name around the world as a very exciting ngoni player, he also made a significant mark in his home country when he went against tradition by suddenly strapping the ngoni over his shoulder like a guitar and playing a solo standing up.
“I felt I had as much to contribute as the other instruments at the time, and I thought it was possible for the ngoni to take its turn playing solos, just like the others. Also I had a particularly sharp white shirt that I thought looked pretty good and I wanted to show my own style, just like the other musicians, so I stood up and played!”
Mali has seen an outpouring of world class musicians in recent years: Oumou Sangaré, Vieux Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate and Rokia Traore amongst others.
“The artists you mentioned represent at least three different types of traditional Malian music,” says Bassekou, “and their modern presentations by creative artists. It may have something to do with the fact people have more time to spend practising their music, or that some musicians are from families that are traditional musicians, so the children learn from their family environment at a very early age.”
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba, Thursday 1 July, Concorde 2
