Music

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba

College of Charleston Cistern Yard

" ...ancient and utterly contemporary...like some African answer to Hendrix."

- The Guardian (UK)

Bassekou Kouyate is a master of the ngoni, an ancient traditional lute found throughout West Africa and the key instrument for griot culture. Unlike the kora, whose history goes back only a few hundred years, the ngoni has been the main instrument in griot storytelling since the 13th century. Kouyate and his dynamic seven-piece group play the pentatonic Bambara music from the region of Segu – the closest form to blues that exists in Africa – and he’s been sought out by musicians ranging from Youssou N’Dour and Taj Mahal to Béla Fleck and Dee Dee Bridgewater.

This program is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts