Bassekou Kouyaté is a musician from Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

. His band is known as Ngoni ba.

He was born in Garana, Barouéli Cercle

Barouéli Cercle

Barouéli Cercle is an administrative subdivision of the Ségou Region of Mali. The administrative center is the town of Barouéli.The Cercle is divided into 11 communes:*Barouéli*Boidié*Dougoufié*Gouendo*Kalaké*Konobougou*N'Gassola...

, 60 kilometres from Ségou

Ségou

Ségou is a city in south-central Mali, lying northeast of Bamako on the River Niger, in the region of Ségou. It was founded by the Bozo people, on a site about from the present town...

 in 1966. At the age of 12, he started playing the Ngoni

Ngoni (instrument)

The ngoni or "n'goni" is a string instrument originating in West Africa. Its body is made of wood or calabash with dried animal skin stretched over it like a drum. In the hands of a skilled ngoni instrumentalist, the ngoni can produce fast rapid melodies...

. In the late 80's he moved to the capital Bamako

Bamako

Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...

.

Kouyaté's album Segu Blue was released internationally in 2007 by Out Here Records

Out Here Records

Out Here Records is an independent record label founded in 2004. The label is dedicated to Urban African music. It was set up by German American music journalist Jay Rutledge. The albums the label releases give a first hand view of the local popular music scenes of Africa...

 and distributed in the U.K. by Proper Music Distribution

Proper Music Distribution

Proper Music Distribution is an independent UK music distributor, specialising in contemporary and catalogue folk, Americana, world music, blues, jazz and other roots-based music....

. The album was produced by Lucy Duran

Lucy Duran

Lucy Durán is a ethnomusicologist, record producer and radio presenter. In the 1980s, Durán worked as a curator at the National Sound Archive. She is now a lecturer in African music, an undergraduate tutor and an undergraduate admissions tutor in the Department of Music School of Oriental and...

. He has also appeared on a number of albums by Toumani Diabaté

Toumani Diabaté

Toumani Diabaté is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles.-Biography:...

  and has performed in several European countries. Kouyaté is currently on tour with Bela Fleck

Béla Fleck

Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...

.

Kouyaté's wife, Ami Sacko, is also a musician and performs in his band. His father Mustapha Kouyaté was a ngoni player and his mother Yagaré Damba was a praise singer.

Awards

• 2008 - BBC3 Awards for World Music - Album of the Year & African Artist of the Year.

External links

• Out Here Records
• Bassekou Kouyaté on Facebook
  Facebook
  Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...