Jama ko

"On the new album, Kouyate and Ngoni Ba mostly play amplified ngonis, with Kouyate himself also using a wah-wah pedal and other sonic distortion devices to great effect. When Kouyate solos on the electric instrument, he sounds as much like guitarist Muddy Waters on his 1968 psychedelic-Chicago blues outing, Electric Mud (Cadet), as he does a ngoni player from West Africa. But then, as Ali Farka Toure's recordings demonstrated long ago, identifying where West African desert blues stops and American Delta blues begins would be labor worthy of Hercules ... Jama Ko is African culture at its best".

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"A timely third album for the ngoni kings, hitting the racks just as the Mali crisis took an unexpected turn towards some sort of solution, and in part showcasing the participants' rightful anger at what's been inflicted on their culture and its music. Those who've heard word that Bassekou is now sporting a new band need not fear. Still fronted by the big man's virtuoso ngoni shredding, pedals and all, and by the voice of his wife Amy Sacko, this is not only very much business as usual but seemingly an even tighter unit. As usual multiple sizes of ngonis right down to the funky bass version predominate, with snappy calabash and tama percussion ... Recording began in Bamako last March just as the political coup and northern uprising began to seriously hit the country. As a result, songs like Ne Me Fatigue Pas and Kele Magni positively crackle with musical electricity as the musicians and singers vent their feelings about those bringing the country to its knees, trying to banmusicand drive divisions between the different ethnic groups that make up Mali's special cultural chemistry ... It's Bassekou's best yet".