Bassekou Kouyate
& Ngoni ba
Segu Blue
Out Here 2007
01. Tabli Te
02. Bassekou
03. Jonkoloni
04. Juri Nani [ft. Kassé Mady Diabaté]
05. Mbowdi [ft. Zoumana Tereta]
06. The River Tune
07. Andra's Song
08. Ngoni Fola
09. Banani [ft. Lobi Traoré]
10. Bala [ft. Zoumana Tereta]
11. Segu Tonjon
12. Sinsani [ft. Kassé Mady Diabaté]
13. Lament for Ali Farka
14. Segu Blue (Poyi)
>> love it, buy it (Out Here)
02. Bassekou
03. Jonkoloni
04. Juri Nani [ft. Kassé Mady Diabaté]
05. Mbowdi [ft. Zoumana Tereta]
06. The River Tune
07. Andra's Song
08. Ngoni Fola
09. Banani [ft. Lobi Traoré]
10. Bala [ft. Zoumana Tereta]
11. Segu Tonjon
12. Sinsani [ft. Kassé Mady Diabaté]
13. Lament for Ali Farka
14. Segu Blue (Poyi)
«Bassekou Kouyate is a virtuoso of the ngoni (West African lute), approximating the larger kora in sound but with a tougher, more percussive edge. Outside his home country of Mali, where he is widely celebrated, Kouyate is known for work with artists like the late guitarist Ali Farka Touré (being featured on Touré's posthumous album Savane), kora player Toumani Diabete and American roots musician Taj Mahal. Segu Blue, Kouyate's debut recording as leader, ought to fast-track him into the front ranks of African music star exports. It's an album of understated but awesome beauty, full of lush melodies and supple rhythms, deep, peaceful and healing; happier sounding than Ali Farka Touré's music, but equally weighty and mesmeric.
Kouyate's band, Ngoni ba (with "ba" as for "big") is a quartet of ngoni players - treble, mid range and bass - augmented by Kouyate's wife, Ami Sacko, on lead vocals, and two percussionists. The album is almost as much Sacko's as it is Kouyate's (in the Malian capital, Bamako, husband and wife are the musicians-of-choice at wedding celebrations, feast days and other traditional gatherings). She's known locally as "the Tina Turner of Mali", but this must be for her looks more than her voice, which - apart from a cathartic delivery on 'Lament for Ali Farka' - is lightfooted and soft-textured. Behind Sacko, the four ngoni players weave in and out of each other's lines with such intricate intimacy that, pitch aside, it's often hard to tell where one instrument stops and another one starts. The effect is rather like hearing a broader-ranged kora played by eight hands. The treble and mid range players favour crisp, brisk, tumbling riffs, the bass anchors them with more measured ostinatos. 'Segu Blue' itself is one of just two instrumental tracks, and the piece closest to Ali Farka Touré's savannah blues in feel and notation.» -AAJ
>> up.to / ffact (115mb) Kouyate's band, Ngoni ba (with "ba" as for "big") is a quartet of ngoni players - treble, mid range and bass - augmented by Kouyate's wife, Ami Sacko, on lead vocals, and two percussionists. The album is almost as much Sacko's as it is Kouyate's (in the Malian capital, Bamako, husband and wife are the musicians-of-choice at wedding celebrations, feast days and other traditional gatherings). She's known locally as "the Tina Turner of Mali", but this must be for her looks more than her voice, which - apart from a cathartic delivery on 'Lament for Ali Farka' - is lightfooted and soft-textured. Behind Sacko, the four ngoni players weave in and out of each other's lines with such intricate intimacy that, pitch aside, it's often hard to tell where one instrument stops and another one starts. The effect is rather like hearing a broader-ranged kora played by eight hands. The treble and mid range players favour crisp, brisk, tumbling riffs, the bass anchors them with more measured ostinatos. 'Segu Blue' itself is one of just two instrumental tracks, and the piece closest to Ali Farka Touré's savannah blues in feel and notation.» -AAJ
>> love it, buy it (Out Here)
What I said about The Family Elan... Not record of the week, but surely of the w/e.
1 comment:
amazing! thanks
Post a Comment