Free Tonight: Bassekou Kouyate In Millennium Park

By Alexander Hough in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 10, 2010 5:40PM

We didn't get around to reminding you last week about Music Without Borders getting underway. The weekly summer world music concert series in Millennium Park is free, though, so we owe you exactly zero dollars. Truth is, we've had today's performance by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba circled on our calendar since we saw them at Bela Fleck's Africa Project show at the Old Town School of Folk Music back in February.

Kouyate plays the ngoni, a West African lute that shares a family tree with the banjo. With its slender neck, it appears to be a limited instrument, but a ngoni can have up to seven strings and is capable of fast, flourishing lines. Kouyate's group, Ngoni Ba, includes several musicians on variously sized ngonis, as well as vocalists and percussionists. The music they play is based on traditional music from Mali, although, with its emphasis on pentatonic scales, Ngoni Ba's fusion with Western styles, especially blues, isn't surprising. The blues connection will become overt in the second half when Kouyate and Ngoni Ba play with Otis Taylor, Eddie Shaw, and Hubert Sumlin.

Tonight at 6:30 p.m., Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, FREE