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Ask most informed music enthusiasts to cite an example of \u201cworld music\u201d from Africa, and one of the first names offered up will likely be Malian guitarist\/vocalist Ali Farka Tour\u00e9<\/strong>. Thanks in large part to Talking Timbuktu<\/em>, the 1994 album (Tour\u00e9’s twelfth) released in collaboration with Ry Cooder<\/em>, the music of the late Tour\u00e9 is the standard by which much world music is measured.<\/p>\n The term itself is more than a bit suspect: in most cases all it really means is music originating from somewhere outside North America and Europe. And that’s a pretty narrow way of looking at things, the same kind of mindset that leads some to refer to certain countries in Africa and elsewhere as \u201cthird world.\u201d<\/p>\n The seeds of much that is called American music had their origin in Africa. And that may well be the reason that \u2013 labels aside \u2013 for Americans, there is often something familiar (on an almost molecular, unconscious level) in music that originates in what was once known as the dark continent.<\/p>\n In any event, when one approaches the music of Malian lute master Bassekou Kouyat\u00e9<\/strong>, the sonic touchstones are the preconceived idea of world music, and the international appeal of Ali Farka Tour\u00e9. Adopting an approach similar to the one used on Talking Timbuktu<\/em>, the latest album from Kouyat\u00e9 aims to synthesize a current-day American style (rock) with a homegrown one. The ancient Malian lute known as the ngoni is the \u201clead\u201d instrument on Ba Power<\/em>, and Kouyat\u00e9’s backing musicians (known as Ngoni Ba<\/strong>) supply more ngoni textures (there are four ngonis played on the album, including one played by son Mamadou Kouyat\u00e9<\/strong> that has a bass frequency range) along with percussion, vocals and \u2013 on several tracks \u2013 drums (Dave Smith<\/strong> from Robert Plant<\/strong>‘s group) and trumpet (Jon Hassel<\/strong>).<\/p>\n In keeping with the rock-leaning aesthetic of Ba Power<\/em>, the arrangements make use of wah-wah and distortion pedals, effects customarily applied to electric guitar. But they add fascinating textures to the ngoni, and help to root the music in a fashion more accessible to American ears. The bass ngoni \u2013 which often doubles the melodic lines of the upper-register instruments \u2013 helps lay down a propulsive, solid musical foundation.<\/p>\n