Bassekou Kouyaté and his band Ngoni Ba burst upon the African and world music scene a few years ago, winning top world music awards and winning the hearts and minds of African music fans everywhere.

Malian musician Bassekou Kouyate comes from a musical lineage that can be traced back for centuries. He grew up in a family of griots — storytellers — that once entertained royalty. His ancestral ...

A small crowd of Brown students and Providence residents gathered in Alumnae Hall Friday night to groove to the "Hendrix of Africa," as sponsors called him - soulful Malian guitar-player Vieux Farka ...

There aren’t many artists who use balafons — there aren’t many artists who know what it is — but Salif Keita integrates them regularly in his music. Born in a village in Mali, Keita was an outcast in ...

Rokia Traore is the only woman in Mali who plays an instrument for a living. There are many successful female singers in the West African country (most notably Oumou Sangare), but it's Traore, 27, who ...