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Deep
Roots
By
Mike Hotter
Bassekou
Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
The
Sanctuary for Independent Media, March 24
In the remarkable documentary travelogue Throw Down Your
Heart (2008), American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck travels
to where his instrument is believed to have originated, to
central and western Africa. One of the first musicians he
visits upon arrival is his Malian friend Bassekou Kouyate,
a master of the lutelike instrument named the ngoni. His guest
spot in the film seems to have sparked something extraordinary,
for since that time, Kouyate recorded an album (I Speak
Fula) released under the aegis of Sup Pop Records, and
embarked on a whirlwind tour of the States that would see
him grace one of the stages at Carnegie Hall two days after
last week’s stop in Troy. Luckily, the word got out about
what a special privilege it would be to see Kouyate and his
band in action, for the Sanctuary was filled to capacity with
an all-ages crowd ready to dance and be bedazzled.
An unassuming stringed instrument usually made from goat skin
and wood, the ngoni is said to be the direct precursor to
the banjo, brought to America over the Atlantic in the evil
days of the slave trade. If blues begat rock & roll, it
could also be said that the blues sprang from Malian roots.
Kouyate’s band, Ngoni Ba, includes three fellow ngoni players,
each playing permutations that covered the mid, high and bass
frequencies. All used Western style tube amplifiers, which
together with two percussionists made a sound comparable in
size and heft to any rock band worth their salt. Kouyate started
the show by introducing a lilting piece on his own from offstage;
he then nodded each instrument in to create a deep and lissome
funk that had heads bobbing and people leaving their seats
looking for a place to move around in conjunction with the
rhythm.
Kouyate is a griot, or a storyteller, but the language
he is most fluent in is French. While he seemed needlessly
abashed about this, when it comes to universals, Kouyate is
a master of his craft. All watched amazed and befuddled as
unending streams of complexity were unleashed by Kouyate’s
extraordinary right-hand picking technique. But he left plenty
of room for the other players to take the lead, often deferring
to a younger protégé with a choppier but still entrancing
ngoni technique of his own. Together the four ngonis sounded
like one grand kora, the harplike instrument that also calls
Mali its home. The two percussionists were joy and passion
personified, one of them giving big leg kicks from time to
time when the rhythm reached a particularly roiling head of
steam.
In any other band, Kouyate’s wife, Ami Sacko, would have been
the star of the show. At times she would sing in a soothing,
pixie-ish voice, while elsewhere she would unleash a muezzin-like
wail that could make your breath catch in your throat. Throughout
it all, one could hear how deep the confluence of Western
and Malian music runs—not only a source for the blues, but
also bluegrass, rock and country. When Kouyate would dapple
his ngoni with traces of wah-wah pedal, the only player I
could think to compare him to was Jimmy Page in his early
prime, with their similar abilities to improvise at a frenetic
pace at length, all while keeping the thrill of scaling new
musical heights.
As the night ended after an hour and a half of musical joy
of the highest order, smiles rained down from all around.
Kouyate and company join the ancient and the modern, and leave
one with a feeling of having the soul cleansed. Keep your
eyes and ears open for the next time they come around.
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Six-String
Section
Photo:
Joe Putrock
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Georgia
band Manchester Orchestra rocked Northern Lights on Monday
night. The U.S. tour that brought the band to the Capital
Region, in support of their latest LP Mean Everything to
Nothing, also includes fellow Atlanta band O’Brother,
Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro, and southeastern favorites the
Features.
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