Béla Fleck knows a kindred spirit when he sees one. Just as he has made a career out of taking the banjo into uncharted musical territory, Mali’s Bassekou Kouyate is winning fans across North America ...

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 ...

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, ...

Malian musician Bassekou Kouyate is a master of the ngoni, a small stringed instrument that’s something of a cross between a lute, a mandolin and a banjo….[in March] he brought his band and their ...

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 ...

Bassekou Kouyate is a musical wizard and one of Africa's most innovative bandleaders. He plays the ngoni, the traditional lute from Mali that dates back hundreds of years and is the musical forebear ...

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 ...

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 ...

In the dizzying whirl of feathered masks, electric-blue wigs, psychedelic catsuits and accessories of snake-like proportions, it is the man in a crisp white shirt and neatly-pressed chinos to whom ...

Bassekou Kouyate’s Segu Blue will likely prove 2007’s standout African album. It features his ensemble ’Ngoni ba’ and realises a long-cherished dream. From Mali, Bassekou is the greatest exponent of a ...