Segu Blue (CD - 2007)

Personnel: Lobi Traoré (vocals, electric guitar); Mobido Soumano (vocals, background vocals); Zoumana Tereta, Andra Kouyate (vocals); Habib "Dia" Sangaré (bolon); Moussa Sissoko (percussion).

Additional personnel: Kassemady Diabate, Zoumana Tereta, Lobi Traoré.

Audio Mixer: Jerry Boys.

Liner Note Author: Lucy Duran.

Recording information: Studio Bogolan, Mali.

Photographer: Thomas Dorn.

Arranger: Bassekou Kouyate.

After a career as the sideman to such names as Taj Mahal and Ali Farka Toure, Malian Bassekou Kouyate finally stepped out on his own with the enveloping beauty SEGA BLUE. Starring the ngoni, a five-string instrument of traditional West Africa with tonal qualities somewhere between a percussive banjo and a plucked lute, SEGA BLUE finds Kouyate--himself a master ngoni player--and three cohorts interlocking expressive pentatonic riffs across 14 elliptical tracks. Most of the songs lyrically focus on the Bambara empire in pre-colonial 18th century Mali, but a few standouts such as the elegiac "Lament for Ali Farka" depart from the concept. With Kouyate's wife, Ami Sacko, and Zoumana Tereta expressively sharing vocal duties over the quartet's loping grooves, SEGA BLUE stands as a classic of contemporary West African music. minimize