Back in August, Fulbright scholar Seth Swingle was a guest on WTJU's Sunset Road, playing his banjo and ngoni, and talking about his upcoming nine month stay in Mali studying, primarily, ngoni playing, but also kora.
Seth is now in Mali, and is blogging (hopefully) weekly, and it promises to be a fascinating window on Malian music from someone who already knows a fair amount about the culture, the players and the music. In one of our conversations, Seth told me that one time he had been talking to Bassekou Kouyate about a performance he had witnessed of Bassekou's band Ngoni Ba playing during one of his previous trips to Mali, and Bassekou revealed that that just happened to be the inaugural performance by the band! (Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba are now the darlings of the world music scene, and were, in many of the 200,000 attendees' opinions, THE stand out performers at the recent Richmond Folk Festival.)
To check out Seth's blog, go HERE. (His latest post has this field recording of his kora teacher Toumani Kouyaté, playing "Salimu," a traditional Malian song about the dangers of alcohol. )
Posted by Pete, WTJU Folk
Hi Seth,
ReplyDeleteMy name is P.J. (Nixon) Swope and I went to college with your mom. Ruth and I lived on the same floor in the same dorm at East Stroudsburg (State College) University. My niece, Stacey Gorski, is a graduate student at UVA in the Microbiology/Immunology department. I was able to hook up with your mom for lunch when I was down there to visit. (I still live in PA.) I just retired after teaching Spanish for 35 years at Methacton High School. Through Facebook, I have been able to reconnect with many of my former students. One of my former students, Amy (Hylinski) Daffe, is a Peace Corp volunteer in Bamako, Mali. Any chance that you have met her???? I hope that you are enjoying your experience in Mali. I know that your mom is so proud of you!!!!!
Sincerely,
P.J. (Nixon) Swope