Bassekou Kouyaté’s innovation in expanding the possibilities of what can be done with the ngoni, a form of west African lute, cannot be underestimated. With his group Ngoni Ba he has developed a, ...

Bassekou Kouyaté and Ngoni Ba is authentic traditional Malian music at its best. Continuing a dynastic line of griot musicians, this exceptional family group has performed together for decades. This ...

There’s something special about the annual summer gathering that is Earagail Arts Festival. It is now in its 37th year, and its deliciously eclectic programme is spread across the county, and features ...

When a leading London daily, the Independent, tags Mali’s Bassekou Kouyaté and Ngoni Ba as “the best rock and roll band in the world”, you know there’s something very special about the seven-piece ...

Growing up in the West African country of Mali, Bassekou Kouyate recalls the tradition of the Ngoni running through the veins of his culture since he was a child. An instrument dating back nearly ...

Bassekou Kouyate knows exactly what his place is in this world, and he knows where he came from and where he wants to go. That existence is inseparable from the instrument he plays, the ngoni. It is ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. After years as a sideman — to Toumani Diabaté, Ali Farka Touré — Bassekou Kouyaté made his solo recording debut ...

Ba Power is an album which again showcases the incredible dexterity of Malian heavyweight Bassekou Kouyaté’s ngoni instrument. Kouyaté affectionately describes playing the banjo-like lute as his ...

Béla Fleck curated — and performed at — a stunning showcase of traditional and contemporary African music at the Boulder Theater last night. Photo by Nathan Rist. Béla Fleck has mastered all sounds on ...

The Malian lute master is back with a harder sound that makes his previous recordings sound positively polite, says Mark Hudson Bassekou Kouyaté: the Malian master of the five-string ngoni Credit: ...

Bassekou Kouyate is a virtuoso of the African lute called the ngoni. His groundbreaking technique has made him a legend at age 44 in his native Mali. These days, Kouyate fronts the group Ngoni Ba, ...

The ngoni isn’t much of an instrument to look at. Four strings, traditionally cut from lengths of fishing line, are pulled across a hollowed-out, canoe-shaped piece of wood with dried animal skin ...