Mali’s Bassekou Kouyate, the master ngoni player, the ancient African 4-string lute made from animal hide has discovered two things on his latest album. Distortion and the wah wah pedal. This is probably a by-product of touring with the likes of Bela Fleck, though also repeated international touring even as far afield as Australia, and to be honest from a guy who carries himself musically like Mali’s answer to Neil Young, this is not a bad thing at all.
The ngoni is one of the most beautiful textured instruments – particularly on recordings, nothing else approaches it’s remarkable twang. Kouyate has built a band around its incredible sounds, mostly comprised of his family. The music here is rock and roll, partially elongated hot summer jams and partially urgent screes informed by the continued dire circumstances in Mali. Whilst the vocals come in the main from his wife, there is plenty of time for instrumental workouts, and when Kouyate is in full flight it is one of the most majestic and inspiring things in modern music. We saw it Womadelaide a couple of years ago, with Kouyate just leaning back and making his unique instrument sing. To be fair he’s extended and developed this approach since then and it’s his desire to draw out the solo that makes Ba Power so remarkable.
For the first time too he’s enlisted guests, such as Malian blues guitarist Samba Toure, US guitarist Chris Brokaw (Come/ Codeine), as well as Jon Hassell’s droning trumpet and Robert Plant’s drummer Dave Smith who offers some metronomic rhythms for Kouyate to solo over. Ba Power is much less urgent than its predecessor Jama Ko, In fact there’s a kind of relaxed stretching out on Ba Power. This is Mali’s most expansive jam band, the ngoni soaring above elongated instrumental moments, creating these searing hypnotic lines of textural bliss that will just stay with you.
