String Theory: Bassekou Kouyate and "Jama Ko"

One of the interesting things about doing the Global Music Show on KUNM is that it has exposed me not only to a wide variety of music, but also a wide variety of instruments. While the ngoni played in our song for today is less exotic than some - think of instruments made with sheep bladders or those that make strange noises with different arrays of holes, baffles and other things. I suppose anything can become an instrument...for example, a music professor at the University of New Mexico used wind blowing through cactus needles as an instrument. I've been at parties where bags of rice, glasses and spoons, and other things become instruments yielding to hours of rhythmic enjoyment.

But one thing that is always fun is listening to different kinds of stringed instruments. I think I like them because I have always thought of picking up a stringed instrument that you strum or pick, and I just have never done it. I seem to like the sound of them all, however. When I listen to the ngoni, it sounds like ukelele and other small guitar-like instruments, but with it's own personality and probably it's own quirks as well. I always envied the players of stringed instruments. They pull them out at parties and everyone loves it. I have never gotten the same adoration when I pull out my tin whistle. So, one of these days before I day, I'll learn to play a guitar or something, however badly, and wait for the women to swoon.

Today's random song is Jama Ko by Malian musician Bassekou Kouyate and his band Ngoni Ba. Kouyati is a ngoni player. The ngoni is a stringed instrument made of wood or calabash and has been in existence for at least 800 years. Kouyate released his debut album in 2007, has collaborated with Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté, and in 2010 toured with noted banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck. In 2013, Kouyate appeared at the BBC Proms, a series of daily concerts held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He has released three albums with his band, was a contributing artist to The Rough Guide to Desert Blues (2010) and received the 2008 BBC 3 Radio Award for World Music in the categories of Album of the Year and African Artist of the Year. Jama Ko is from his 2013 album of the same name.