Description
Malian maestro Bassekou Kouyate is a virtuoso picker and musical visionary whose work blurs the lines between West African and American roots music. Bassekous instrument, the ngoni, is a spike lute and an ancestor of the banjo, sharing its taut-skinned drum body, percussive attack, and varied picking techniques. Since 2005, Bassekou has led Ngoni Ba, the first-ever group built around not one but four ngonis-all played by members of his family.
Bassekous longtime friend and booster Lucy Duran (a BBC radio host, record producer, and Mande music scholar) produced the bands debut, Segu Blue. Before long, Bassekou and Ngoni Ba were touring Europe and in high demand. I Speak Fula builds on the success of Segu Blue. Its 11 tracks provide a star-studded tour of pan-Malian music, including collaborations with Toumani Diabat, griot vocal legend Kasse Mady Diabat, master of the horse-hair soku fiddle Zoumana Tereta, and guitar phenomenon Vieux Farka Toure, Alis precociously talented son. The release of I Speak Fula and Ngoni Bas first U.S. tour mark the latest leg of an extraordinary musical journey.
I Speak Fula is the first release on Next Ambiance, a new label founded by Jon Kertzer host of KEXPs Best Ambiance Radio show and Sub Pop co-founder Jon Poneman, and the newest addition to the Sub Pop family. Next Ambiance continues the musical exploration of Best Ambiance, with an emphasis on mind-blowing and life-changing artists with no particular regional or cultural bias.
Contender for African album of the year. (5 stars) Uncut
This is a cracker. (4 stars) Mojo
Spectacular. BBC online
Truly irresistible. Music Week
Fizzes with energy. (4 stars) Observer Music Monthly
Theres unlikely to be a better African album this year. (5 stars) Evening Standard
Ferociously powerful album Superb. The Independent (Album of the Week)
Soon the world will speak Fula. Metro
If you like vinyl and want this record on vinyl, go here.
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