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 ...

There were no Western instruments onstage when the Malian griot Bassekou Kouyate and his band, Ngoni Ba, performed at SummerStage in Central Park on Sunday afternoon. Ngoni Ba is a string band four ...

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 ...

Malian ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate and his band, Ngoni Ba's third album continues the increasingly outward-looking trajectory of its predecessors. The debut, the lovely Segu Blue (Out/Here, 2007), ...

From the moment he picked up the ngoni (a stringed lute popular in Mali) at age 12, Bassekou Kouyate was destined for greatness. Originally from Garana, he moved to the capital Bamako in the late ...

Malian musician Bassekou Kouyate is a master of the the ngoni, and in his hands this very ancient fretless lute has all of the colour and versatility of any modern stringed instrument. He first picked ...