Bassi Kouyaté "Songs of Bambara Griot"

Bassi Kouyate was born in 1968 in Banamba, region of Koulikoro, Mali. The third son of griot Djiguy Kouyate, he is the only professional musician in his family. Soon spotted out for the warmth of his voice and his virtuoso n'tamani [1], later n'goni [2], later guitar playing, he was hired at the age of 10 by the instrumental ensemble of the Koulikoro circle, where he remained until 1984. Like a good number of Malian artists, he then decided to try his luck in Abidjan, and to live off his art.

Yet it was in Bouaké, the second main city in the Ivory Coast, that Bassi Kouyate met djembefola [3] Soungalo Coulibaly, like himself originating from Mali, who made him his own griot and took him on tour to Europe. There, like it had happened in Africa, his special way of playing the guitar soon won him the respect of his fellow musicians. He took part in the recording of the first album by Soungalo Coulibaly, as well as in the production of the show Tyanaba by the Djinn Djow ballet, a "mixed" Troupe from Switzerland. In August 1992, ethnomusicologist Laurent Aubert devoted two sessions of his radio programme "Resonance" on Espace 2 (French Switzerland Radio) to him. On that occasion, he made the recordings presented on this CD (Mali: Songs of Bambara griot).

The inheritor of a secular tradition, Bassi Kouyate can be considered as one of the greatest guitarists playing today's traditional Bambara repertoire, as well as a worthy emissary of the new griot generation. "My father was a great n'goni fola, a player of n'goni and, after the n'tamani, my first instrument was naturally the n'goni. It is otherwise the instrument used to accompany chronicles and epics... When I was hired in the Koulikoro circle's instrumental ensemble, it was because of my voice and the way I played the n'tamani; but once they found out I also played the n'goni and they heard me play, they would not let me go for the next six years. As I spent all my time playing, I was well known in Banamba, and often asked to go and perform at celebrations.
In 1982, a dignitary from Banamba, Madou Kagnassi, married a local girl named Aïné who invited me to play at the wedding party. Madou Kagnassi was very pleased with my performance and recorded several cassettes of my songs. He then travelled to Guinea and brought me back a guitar as a present. This is how I started playing the guitar.

But for my father, who is traditionalist, the guitar appeared as a danger. It was the instrument of drug addicts and alcoholics and certainly not that of griots. He was afraid that in taking it up I would drop the tradition and abandon the griot repertoire. So first he for bade me to play. I therefore went underground and started learning it at night. Every night, around 2 or 3 in the morning, I would get up and take my instrument. But one time when he could not sleep, Ba Djiguy got up and heard my music. He decided to drop in on me unexpectedly but suddenly he realized that the piece I was playing was one of his favourite in the whole griot repertoire. It was a piece that my aunt Kani Kouyate, who was a great singer, had taught me: the "Tara". At once, my father entered into my room and took me in his arms asking me to forgive his behaviour towards me. From then on, he would often ask me to play him his favourite pieces on the guitar [4]".

[1] An hourglass-shaped talking drum, very common in West Africa. Bath ends are covered with carefully prepared kid skins, tensed together by a system of straps. The pressure on these straps changes the tension of the skins and the tone of the drum. The Bambara tamani differs from its Bobo cousin (Mali and Burkina Faso) in that it is smaller and played different). The Bambara griots play with bath the palm and the fingers of the left hand as well as a small curved stick held in the right hand. The musician is sitting or crouching. The drum held under his armpit and his left leg, which frees the right arm, while most instrumentalists from other ethnic groups playing the tama use the left arm to hold the instrument and press on the straps
[2] A traditional four-stringed lute
[3] Literally, "he who makes the djembe talk".
[4] See Zanetti Vincent "La Nouvelle Génération des griots", in Cahiers de Musiques Traditionnelles, vol 6, "Polyphonies", Genova, Ateliers d'Ethnomusicologie, 1993, pp 210 & following.