1 - Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Bala - Live in the studio - Mali
2 - Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Bassekou - Live in the studio - Mali
3 - Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Jonkoloni - Live in the studio - Mali
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At the time of this session, I had not yet heard Bassekou and his band playing live, and had only his impressive debut album Segu Blue to go by. In the week afterwards, I learned how versatile they could be, first witnessing Bassekou and his vocalist wife, Ami Sacko, playing together at a private party and then watching the whole band in full swing on the Siam Stage at WOMAD, where they stole the weekend.
The first surprise was the confidence and quality of Ami Sacko. On the album, Segu Blue (*), she is very good; live, she is great, liable to let rip and sing with that classic sound that only Malian women can deliver, but also able to turn down the volume, lower her register, and sound gentle and intimate. Which is the voice she brought to this session in our radio studio.
Bassekou himself is truly a master musician, charismatic and effortless, playful in his interchanges with the rest of his group, in which his brother Andra is the rhythmic fulcrum, playing the big seven stringed bass ngoni.
Special thanks to:
1. engineer Richard Froggatt, whose ingenuity was put to the test by having so many musicians in a small space, each requiring individual amplification for their instruments, but with only three microphone channels to work with.
2. interpreter Lilly Ladjevardi
and
3. producer Oliver Jones, who stitched it all together so seamlessly
CG, Ami Sacko & Bassekpou Kouyate, at WOMAD Charlton Park, July 28, 2007
[photo by Lucy Duran]
* Bassekou Kouyate & Segu Blue (Out Here Records)
Record of the month, February 2007 - see home page