Bassekou Kouyaté – Sage Gateshead (October 2009)

Ian Wylie shakes his booty

Something troubles me about the music of Bassekou Kouyaté, Malian “griot” and currently hottest ticket in African music. On CD, the cleverly woven melodies and harmonies of his band’s ngonis – wooden lute-cum-banjos with which you’d be happy to thwack a cricket ball – come across as just a little too mannered and polite.

Yet live the Bassekou Kouyaté and Ngoni Ba sound is an altogether different beast – a thumping, writhing but ultimately joyful celebration of African desert boogie and blues that never fails to get this correspondent’s booty shaking.
The hard-working seven-piece have been touring almost non-stop for the last two years – this evening’s gig at a not-quite-full Sage Gateshead is the third time I’ve seen them in 12 months. But on this evidence , Bassekou and friends – not least wide-grinning, high-kicking percussionist Moussa Sissoko – are still having having a riotous time.

Slow burn opener Tabail Te is just an appetiser for the raucous call and response of Juru Nani, the hypnotic rhythm of Ngoni Fola and I Speak Fula, a trad Malian party favourite that’s the title track for the band’s latest album.

The new CD is a more reflective affair than Bassekou’s debut – his younger brother was killed in a motorcycle accident during its recording. But if there is still grieving to be done, the band use tonight’s show as an opportunity to banish their blues.

There is a formula – ngoni players establish the groove before Amy Sacko, Bassekou’s wife, adds shimmering vocals. Then when Moussah Bah’s bass ngoni kicks in, it’s heads down for relentless boogie. But that only sets the stage for the undoubted star. As a teenager, learning his craft in Bamoko’s famous Rail Band, Bassekou upset convention by playing his ngoni standing up, strapping it over his shoulder and playing it like a guitarist.

Still, for someone who has worked with the likes of Taj Mahal and Ali Farka Touré, there are no signs of conceit or bombast in his wig-out solos. His trio of ngonis at the back of the stage may not resemble the usual rack of Telecasters, Strats and Les Pauls, but as he solos one-handed with a foot on his wah-wah pedal and the other on a fall-back amp, he looks to me every bit the guitar hero.

Ian Wylie

www.myspace.com/bassekoukouyate