Malian Music Icon to Grace the Groningen Stage

Screenshot of Kouyate's interview © Anna Milovanovi

Bassekou Kouyate, Mali’s most famous ngoni player, will be performing this Wednesday, 29 January in Groningen. 

It promises to be an entertaining night for lovers of the blues, groove, and music you rarely have the opportunity to hear in the city. The traditional ngoni string instrument, or lute, is a staple of West African music from Mali.

Kouyate has performed with some of the greats — Vieux Farka Touré, Youssou N’Dour, Bono, Paul McCartney to name a few — and will be gracing the stage with singer Amy Sacko, at SPOT Groningen, De Oosterpoort, later this week. 

What Brings Kouyate to Groningen?

“Often I perform with my band, Ngoni Ba, but this time I will be on stage with my wife, Amy Sacko. We have released our album, as a duo, and are excited to perform it during this tour,” he tells The Glass Room.

Djudjon, L’Oiseau de Garana is his first album together with his wife (and no other bandmates). He is from a musical family, and was raised by a mother who sang and father who played the ngoni. Kouyate says he likes to show the African culture through folk music, including sharing stories that date back to the 17th century.

He has been to Groningen before and likes the music from the North of the Netherlands. His message for his Dutch fans is “Dankjewel,” following with, “we are happy to be back here with a new project and with new melodies.”  

Malian Music Scene

Following a few decades of democratic rule, in 2012, Mali experienced a coup as well as a takeover by Islamist insurgents. Music was banned in areas controlled by the insurgents and the music scene was devastated.

Asked about this, Kouyate says that the situation has markedly improved more than a decade on. “One can perform without any problems, everything is going well again. The jihadist issue is almost completely gone. They jihadists are more like bandits now doing some occasional highway robbery,” he says, adding that he has been performing in Mali and internationally.

Inspirations

When asked about the themes of Djudjon, L’Oiseau de Garana, he says it covers, “old themes, some advice - that we must educate our children as they are the next generation, and that conflict is bad -as well as a little about love.” The album further includes tributes to “important people of present and historical society of the Bambara Empire. New texts and re-interpretations of ancient texts, sung in Bambara and Peul,” according to his personal website.

The band that Bassekou created in 2005, Ngoni Ba, is a quartet of different sized ngonis. This follows in the precolonial tradition of Segou (near his hometown) which sometimes had bands of up to 30 or 40 ngoni players.

Looking Forward

Kouyate has been building the Samagera music school in his home village of Garana, on the banks of the River Niger, less than a hundred kilometers from Segou, Mali’s fifth-largest city.

“I am creating a ‘centre de formation,’ for today’s youth,” he says, adding that the students will learn to play the kora and soku, among other instruments.

Kouyate explains that some of the musicians who knew about these instruments are no longer alive, so he will try to provide instruction about these instruments.

Asked about the status of the construction of the classrooms and accommodation, he said, “There were coups and too many problems, so the construction of the school stopped.” The funding ceased during the war, so he is planning for a percentage of the proceeds from this album and tour to help fund it.

The song “Tche Djan” from their latest album, featuring both Kouyate on the ngoni and Amy Sacko on vocals

At the close of the interview, the reporter asked Kouyate who he would like to collaborate with next. He emphasised how much he enjoyed working with Taj Mahal (an American blues musician), recently, in the United States. He followed this by saying that he is always open to collaboration, then after a brief pause answered, “Rihanna.”

*Note to the reader: This article was translated from an interview conducted in French.