Lecture-demonstration: "Ngoni: the past, the present and the future" - Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba

Bassekou Kouyate's extraordinary musical journey shows that he is unquestionably the most innovative and exciting Malian musician to have emerged in recent years. Having defied tradition, he continues to push the boundaries of his ancient musical heritage, bringing his music to audiences around the world with his phenomenal live band Ngoni ba, comprising of his wife Amy Sacko (a celebrated Malian singer often hailed as 'the Tina Turner of Mali'), and featuring the ngoni in several differing tonal sizes, and percussion (talking drum, Yabara, and Calebasse). He has also released several internationally acclaimed albums; the latest, Miri, earning him ‘Best Artist’ in the Songlines Magazine Music Awards in 2020.

A major star amongst the new generation of African musicians, Bassekou has been revolutionary in establishing a new role for the ngoni, a distant ancestor of the banjo and one of the oldest string instruments in Africa. Comprised of three strings, a calabash gourd and a wooden stick, it has been used for centuries as a secondary orchestral instrument and ceremonial device. By adding strings, developing new techniques of playing and defying tradition by plugging it in and experimenting with sound effects such as the wah-wah peddle, Bassekou has brought the instrument into the musical foreground, where it is now a prominent feature of many Malian bands touring today. In Bassekou's hands, this seemingly limited instrument has grown to accommodate a wider melodic range and versatility, embracing western styles such as jazz, blues and rock and roll, confirming his status as the originator of the electric ngoni, a virtuoso and a visionary. 

Over the course of his career, Bassekou has played with stars such as Bonnie Raitt, Ali Farka Toure and Bono and won praise from legends like Eric Clapton. He also made a foray into blues and country with Taj Mahal and has appeared on line-ups with Africa Express in 2016 alongside Paul Weller and Damon Albarn, and played festivals including Glastonbury, Latitude, Roskilde, Fuji Rock Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, WOMAD. It is his daring reworking of his musical heritage that makes him a truly contemporary African musician - a visionary and a maverick who has completely changed our perception of this ancient instrument. By reviving one of the oldest instruments in the world he has bridged the gap between the music of his forefathers to the 21st Century, distinguishing him as an exceptionally talented artist of international stature.

The band:

Bassekou Kouyate - ngoni
Aminata Sacko - lead vocals
Mamadou Kouyate - ngoni bass
Mahamadou Tounkara - yabara, tama
Moctar Kouyate - calebasse

More information here.

Maureen Mahon is a cultural anthropologist whose research interests include African American music and culture; the construction and performance of race and gender in music; and the relationship between race, class, generation, and culture. She teaches courses on the history of rock and roll, music and the construction of race, genre in popular music, fieldwork methods, and African American women and music. She is the author of Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll (Duke University Press, 2020), an exploration of the pivotal part African American women have played in the development of rock and roll. In 2021, Black Diamond Queens was awarded the Otto Kinkeldey Award by the American Musicological Society, the Alan Merriam Prize by the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the Marcia Herndon Prize by the Gender and Sexualities Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Her first book, Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race (Duke University Press, 2004), is an ethnographic study that examines the ways African American rock musicians used music and activism to challenge the limitations placed on black music and black identity in the 1980s and 1990s.  Her articles on African-American cultural studies have appeared in academic venues such as American Ethnologist, Journal of Popular Music Studies; Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture; Ethnomusicology; Journal of the American Musicological Society; and Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society and online at EbonyJet.com and on the websites of National Public Radio and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.  

She was chair of the Popular Music section of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) from November 2016 to November 2020 and has served on the American Musicological Society’s (AMS) Committee on Race and Ethnicity. Currently, she is a member of the SEM Council and the AMS Council.  She also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Journal of Musicology, Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, and the Cambridge University Press Elements in Popular Music Series. Prof. Mahon was the Chief Academic Advisor to “Soundtrack of America,” a five-night concert series celebrating the impact of African American music on contemporary culture that was one of the inaugural commissions for the April 2019 opening of The Shed. Conceived by British filmmaker Steve McQueen, “Soundtrack of America” was developed with the input of a creative team that included African American composer and producer Quincy Jones and featured 25 emerging artists. She has held fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the American Association of University Women, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  In 2018, she received an NYU Golden Dozen Award in recognition of her contributions to undergraduate teaching.