21 October 2009 (gig)
24 October 2009
Busy week for Kouyate as he and his band launched their new album ‘I Speak Fula’, do ‘Later With Jools Holland’ and played to a packed out Jazz Café on Wednesday.
The Jazz café was absolutely heaving with the temperature inside heading for ‘Sticky’ even before Ngoni Ba started down the stairs to the stage, following their leader who was playing a simple unaccompanied Ngoni. The audience seemed to hold their breath as the musicians took their place and the band began to play numbers from the new album, ‘I Speak Fula’. As the chant started and the band began to warm up one could sense the audience beginning to relax and embrace the music
I’ve been living with the album for weeks and the music has become familiar, like a new found friend who slots perfectly into your life. Live the music seems to take on another dimension in the interplay between Kouyate and the other musicians. He seemed to play a duet with all of them and the playing grew and improved in leaps and bounds since the last time I saw them.
Fosseyni Kouyate on the large Ngoni was playing his socks off and the duet between Bassekou and Barou Kouyate was a rare joy – they both play without excessive flashiness but the result is intense and enervating.
Amy Sacko’s vocals were as pure and expressive as ever and she takes more of the lead on the new material than she has in the past which is no bad thing.
The rhythm and percussion of Alou Coulibaly (calebasse) and Moussa Sissoko is complex and sits at the very heart of the music, both driving the pace and building the hypnotic and insistent melange of sound that is the band at their best.
Tracks like ‘Torin Torin’ or ‘Bambugu Blues’ or the wonderful ‘I Speak Fula’ sit very comfortably alongside the older numbers such as ‘Jonkoloni’ but the mood of the newer numbers is more positive and in Bassekou Kouyate they have a leader who is as comfortable with the complex soloes as he is with the ensemble material and the combination is nothing short of a marvel.
If this band is in your town anytime soon you owe it to yourself to hear the best that Africa can offer
