Bassekou Kouyate

Bassekou Kouyate is a musician from Mali. His band is known as Ngoni ba.

Life and career

He was born into the Kouyate family in Garana, Barouéli Cercle, 60 kilometres from Ségou, in 1966. At the age of 12, he started playing the ngoni. In the late 1980s he moved to the capital, Bamako.
Kouyate's debut album, Segu Blue, was released internationally in 2007 by Outhere Records and distributed in the U.K. by Proper Music Distribution. The album was produced by Lucy Durán. He has also appeared on a number of albums by Toumani Diabaté and has performed in several European countries. In 2010, Kouyaté toured with Béla Fleck.
Kouyate's wife, Amy Sacko, is also a successful solo artist and sings lead in his band. His father, Mustapha Kouyate, was a ngoni player and his mother Yagaré Damba was a praise singer. Kouyate, together with Amy Sacko and Ngoni ba, appeared at The 2013 Proms.