World Music Institute & Met Museum to Welcome Ngoni Master Bassekou Kouyate, 10/30

World Music Institute, in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, presents Mali's Bassekou Kouyate on Thursday, October 30, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. in the Met's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.

Bassekou Kouyate is a master of the ngoni, an ancient West African lute and the key instrument of griot culture. Armed with a dynamite dexterity and remarkable lineage-he is descended from generations of griots on both sides-Koutaye is the full embodiment of his tradition. Yet it is his daring reworking of it-placing it in a thrilling ensemble format with four sizes of ngoni worn strapped like electric guitars, adding strings and introducing new plucking methods-which has garnered Kouyate the reputation of visionary as well as guardian.

This show marks the opening performance in the World Music Institute's 2014-15 Around the World, Around the City series. Offering a venue for some of the world music scene's most visionary voices, the series focuses on performers who use their musical and cultural traditions to move forward into the future with sensitivity and innovation.

This event is the first of three collaborations this season between the World Music Institute and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, who are enjoying a recently formed and ongoing relationship. In addition to Bassekou Kouyate on October 30, performances include virtuosic Indian vocalist Kaushiki Chakrabarty in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium on November 14, and a site-specific piece by India's famed dance troupe Nrityagram at the Met's majestic Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing on January 10.

BASSEKOU KOUYATE (www.bassekou.net) - Bassekou Kouyate is one of the true masters of the ngoni, an ancient traditional lute found throughout West Africa. It is the key instrument for the griot culture. Unlike the kora whose history goes back only a few hundred years, the ngoni has been the main instrument in griot storytelling going back to the 13th century during the days of Soundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire. The repertoire Bassekou plays is Bambara music from the region of Segu. Bambara music is pentatonic in nature and as close to the blues as you can get in Africa.

Over the years Bassekou has collaborated with many musicians from his homeland Mali and internationally. Bassekou was one of the key musicians on Ali Farka Toure's posthumous album release 'Savane' having also previously toured with Ali Farka Toure, stunning audiences worldwide as the band's solo ngoni player. He has played in the Symmetric trio alongside Toumani Diabate (kora) and Keletigui Diabate (balafon), was also a part of Taj Mahal's and Toumani Diabate's 'Kulanjan' project and features prominently on Youssou N'Dour's latest album 'Rokku mi Rokka' and Dee Dee Bridgwater's 'Red Earth'.

Bassekou was born in a village called Garana, almost 40 miles from Segu, in the remote countryside on the banks of the Niger River. He was raised in a traditional musical environment, his mother a praise singer and his father and brothers exceptional ngoni players. Bassekou moved to Bamako when he was 19 years old where he met the young Toumani Diabate. By the late 1980s Bassekou was part of Toumani's trio and they recorded their first albums together, 'Songhai' and 'Djelika'. In 1996 Bassekou married the singer Amy Sacko (the so-called "Tina Turner of Mali") and they have been in high demand for the traditional wedding parties that happen in the streets of Bamako. After many years being a 'sideman' to many musicians both in Mali and globally, Bassekou has now put together his own band, Ngoni ba (meaning "the big ngoni"), Mali's first ngoni quartet.

Tickets for all World Music Institute events are available for purchase online at www.worldmusicinstitute.org, by calling (212) 545-7536, or in person at the WMI Box Office at 101 Lafayette Street, #801. Student and group discounts are available, as are VIP tickets for select events. Discounts are also available for WMI Friends with memberships starting at $70. WMI Friends enjoy priority seating throughout the season.

ABOUT WMI (www.worldmusicinstitute.org) - World Music Institute is a not-for-profit concert presenting organization founded in 1985 by Robert and Helene Browning and dedicated to the presentation of the finest in traditional and contemporary music and dance from around the world.

WMI encourages cultural exchange between nations and ethnic groups and collaborates with community organizations and academic institutions in fostering greater understanding of the world's cultural traditions. WMI works extensively with community groups and organizations including Indian, Iranian, Chinese, Korean, Middle Eastern, Latin American, Hungarian, Irish, and Central Asian. This has enabled it to be at the forefront of planning and presenting the finest ensembles from these countries.

WMI presents a full season of concerts each year in New York City, and arranges national tours by visiting musicians from abroad, as well as US-based artists. WMI's accomplishments and expertise in its field are recognized by major institutions throughout the US and internationally.

WMI has brought many musical, dance and ritual traditions to the New York stage for the first time, including Laotian sung poetry, folk music of Khorason and Bushehr (Iran), songs of the Yemenite Jews, Bardic divas of Central Asia, trance ceremonies from Morocco, music from Madagascar, and Theyyams (masked dances) of Kerala, South India. Many artists have been given their U.S. or New York debuts by WMI.