Black History Month

We were down at Norwich Arts Centre last night to catch one of the Black History Month events, good to see some old friends there. To round off the month, I'll be playing at the African Dinner Ball along with Anna Mudeka on Novemeber 1st, I think there are tickets still available for this. For booking details and the full range of events from music to film, see the programme at: www.norfolkblackhistorymonth.org.uk. As well as the the next Boiling Point @ Take 5 on the 25th, I'm playing the UEA Lost Friday gig on October 18th. So, for lovers of Black Music, (and isn't that all of you?) there's lots to do this month in Norwich

Last Night at Shellac Sheakedown

Thanks to DJ78 for organising a great night at Norwich Arts Centre, I got to spin my favourite old Blues and RnB 78s and the joint was jumping! Good to see all the girls and boys getting into their jive, let's do it again sometime soon!

Shellac Collective August 30th

On a slightly different tip, I'll be dusting off my 78s for a night with the incomparable DJ 78 and friends at Norwich Arts Centre, from 8 till late. Great to be able to play some of the all time greats of Jump, RnB and Blues. As Dave says, the joint will be truly rockin.... Watch his Myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/dj78rpm

Bassekou Kouyate @ The Arts Centre Nov 22

If you're Norwich based, try and catch this gig! We saw them at Womad this year (there's a short video in our July archive) and they were awesome. Blurb from his my space site:Taj Mahal describes him as a genius, a living proof that the blues comes from the region of Segu. Bassekou Kouyate is one of Malis best-known Ngoniplayers. He has collaborated with many important traditional musicians of his country as well as international such as Carlos Santana, U2 among many many others. Most recently he is featured on Ali Farkas posthumous album 'Savane' and toured with him leaving a lasting impression on the audience as the bands solo ngoni player. Bassekou was born in a village called Garana about 60 kms 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. He moved to Bamako when he was 19 years old where he met the young Toumani Diabate. By the late 1980s Bassekou was part of Toumanis trio and they recorded their first albums together, Songhai and Djelika. Bassekou married the singer Ami Sacko (so-called the Tina Turner of Mali) and they are much solicited for the traditional Sunday wedding parties that happen in the streets of Bamako. After collaborating a lot with others both nationally and internationally Bassekou now finally has put together his own band: Ngoni ba; the big ngoni: Malis first ngoni quartett. In July he recorded his debutalbum Segu Blue for the Munich based company out l here rec.
Next Boiling Point at Take 5 will be Dec 1st, hope to see you there.

Bassekou Kouyate

You can now upload video to Blogspot, so here is a glimpse of the wonderful Bassekou Kouyate filmed at Womad. You can catch him and Ngoni Ba at Norwich Arts Centre on Thursday November 22.