(Kouyate will rejoin the group this week for a European tour.)įurther irony: Kouyate was one of the Malians, with Tounkara, originally invited by producer Nick Gold in 1996 to a recording session in Havana at which Gold hoped to mediate a fusion of Cuban songs and rhythms with Malian improvising and the sub-Saharan roots of American blues. Although Kouyate’s application for a visa was approved and despite subsequent appeals by other high-ranking officials and politicians, he was forced to miss a November 7th show in Boston and the Town Hall appearance. immigration after the group’s performance in Montreal. A few days before the November 9th show at Town Hall, Bassekou Kouyate - a master of the ngoni, an African lute, who plays on the magnificent new album, Afrocubism (World Circuit/Nonesuch) - was denied entry by U.S. History repeated itself, unecessarily, en route to the New York concert debut of Afrocubism, the Cuban-Malian superband featuring singer-guitarist Eliades Ochoa of the Buena Vista Social Club, the kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté and electric guitarist Djelimady Tounkara.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |