BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA (Mali) - 2023

A MWLDAN | JAZZHAUS ARTISTS CO-PRODUCTION

Mali’s Bassekou Kouyate is one of the true masters of the ngoni, an ancient traditional lute found throughout West Africa, and is respected as one of Africa’s premier global artists. His band, Ngoni Ba, includes ngoni players (featuring ngonis with differing tonal sizes), percussionists (talking drum, Yabara, Calebasse) and the fantastic singer Amy Sacko. Together they have revolutionised the sound of the ngoni, and radically fired centuries of griot tradition into the future. Bassekou has collaborated with the likes of Ali Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate, Taj Mahal, and The Kronos Quartet, and joined the Africa Express tour in 2016 along with Damon Albarn and Paul Weller. Bassekou's latest album “Miri” ('dream' in Bamana) topped the World Music Charts Europe in February 2019 and was voted “Best Album of the Year” by Songlines magazine.

Incredible dexterity and stunning music from one of Africa’s music visionaries.

 

UK TOUR 2023:

May

30   Canolfan Y Cefyddydau Aberystwyth Arts Centre

31   The Stables, Milton Keynes

 

June

1    Howard Assembly Room, Leeds

2    Neuadd Ogwen, Bethesda

3    Liverpool Phil Music Room

4    Band On The Wall, Manchester

5    Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry

6    Lakeside, Nottingham

7    Taliesin, Swansea

8    St Georges, Bristol

9    The Apex, Bury St Edmunds

10  Union Chapel, London

11  Weston Studio Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff, part of Dathliad Cymru-Affrica Festival

 

Defiant, angry new music from Mali, by the world’s greatest exponent of the ngoni, the ancient West African lute
THE GUARDIAN
Ngoni virtuoso Bassekou Kouyate can make notes bend like light rays in the desert heat
Time Out magazine

Browse more shows tagged with: