Much as I enjoyed Gutpuppet's concert at the Harmonica sur Cher festival, it wasn't exactly a discovery since I'd be listening to their music for a good while. Pédro Kouyaté, on the other hand, was totally unknown to me and while I have been listening to Vincent Bucher's harmonica alongside a variety of African musicians, this concert was still an absolute smack in the face for me, and as it ended I only wished it could have gone on for longer.
Pédro Kouyaté plays n'goni, acoustic guitar and calabash as well as a variant of kora with less strings which he named during the concert, but I don't remember the name. He was accompanied by a drummer, a percussionist, a tenor sax and flute player, a bassist and a harmonica player (the aforementioned Vincent Bucher).
I don't have a huge background in appreciation of Malian music, but I love Ali Farka Touré and I've heard a little Toumani Diabaté and Lobi Traoré. I was under the impression that a large part of the charm of this music was a certain tendency towards an apparent simplicity, even rusticity in the musicianship. Perhaps I felt differently during this concert because of the live effect two yards from my face, but this was not at all the impression I got from Pédro Kouyaté. His sense of rhythmic placement was simply astounding, no matter which instrument he was playing and it didn't in any sense feel rudimentary or simple.
Of course, this is transe music, built amongst rhythmic patterns and essential modal. Someone hoping for harmonic or even melodic complexity would be dissapointed. Thankfully, that's not what I was hoping for, and as all good transe, it's hypnotic. I fell into the pattern immediately - drawn into it by Pédro's great introductions to his songs, providing context and sense - and so, it seems, did most of the audience. You could see heads bobbing and after a few songs, a sizeable number of (mostly) ladies started dancing in the aisles.
Truly, it is impossible to resist this stuff. Furthermore, the presence of the drums, electric bass and sax gave a touch of afro-beat to what might otherwise have felt more as a roots thing (not that that would have made it less enticing to me...) Vincent's harmonica playing has a slightly different tole as it emulates mostly the malian violin and therefore feels rootsy. Vincent makes great use of his deep and powerful vibrato when he's improvising, and doubles the melodic riffs the rest of the time.
Pédro and his boys played for a little over an hour and then had to leave the stage to the next act, but I think I was not alone in regretting that they couldn't play longer. I am determined to check them out again in or near Paris, and will probably go along my son Corentin who kept raving about the concert for days afterword.
If you want a feel for it, here are the photos and here is a video of a tune which, as far as I can determine from the record is Seguin Magnydé. I apologise for the video flying around during the first minute, I was trying to get it stabilised on my new gorillapod and it took me a while. After the first minute it's stable:
