Baye Kouyate

Baye's music is an intoxicating, often hypnotic, update of traditional Malian styles. The undulating grooves, which at times build to a measured ferocity, are driven by hand percussion and fortified by Western trap drums. Deep electric bass firms up the bedrock. Gentle melodies are propelled by intertwined African instruments: the kora, made of gourd and strings, which emits cascades of notes, and the balofon, played with padded mallets and sounding like a watery marimba. On certain songs, Baye sings folk lyrics in an airy voice.
It's his talking drum that adds the zest. A fixture in West Africa, the instrument, which comes in several sizes, has a wooden, hourglass body, goat-skin heads on each end and dozens of strings that stretch the length of the drum on the outside. The player positions it in the armpit and strikes the head with a curved stick and fingers. By squeezing the strings with his or her arm, a player can change the drum's pitch, giving it a swooping sound, making it talk. In the hands of a master like Baye, the talking drum produces a cauldron of polyrhythms laced with crude melodies. The sound is primal, elemental, exciting. - Creative Loafing

"Kouyate's music is polyrhythmic and joyful, enhanced with generous splashes of, jazz, Latin, and reggae grooves. It's hypnotic and infectious. Kouyate is a master at the talking drum, an hourglass-shaped instrument bound with a goatskin head and strings along its side. While striking the head, the player simultaneously squeezes the strings to change the instrument's pitch like a rhythmic voice. " -Rochester City News (FD)
- Rochester City News

We first saw Baye Kouyate at Zebulon when he sat in with the phenomenal, experimental trio, Eye Contact. It was one of those nights where your assumptions about music are blown way out of the water. To witness Baye on the talking drum is to hear polyrhythms ricochet against overtones and collide with undertones until you'd swear this could not just be percussion. And it's not. - Monkeytownhq.com

While many countries try to stem the flow of anything foreign (whether people or ideas) across their borders, musical boundaries have become so porous that it now feels natural to see a pipa alongside Western strings....

Here the ensemble explored the hypnotic rhythms of West Africa, with lively contributions from two Malian artists: Yacouba Sissoko, playing the kora (a West African harp-lute), and Baye Kouyate, on talking drums.

The dynamic multicultural set included “Bambougoudji,” a West African song; the premiere of Mr. Sissoko’s “Siya”; and the premiere of “Couleurs du Marché” (“Colors of the Market”), written by Patrick Derivaz, the artistic director of Musique Sans Frontières, who played electric bass. The ensemble also included Rubin Kodheli on electric cello and the percussionist Benny Koonyevsky.
- The New York Times

Just a few nights ago, the drummer from West Africa, Baye Kouyate, joined Eastman grad Aaron Stabell’s band mid-song. The ensemble was playing a fairly complicated modern jazz tune, and Baye walked up and started singing West African hymns over the complex changes. It was fascinating.
Baye explained afterward that the words he sang were about two far-apart worlds being brought together just to find out they’re not different after all. It resonated deeply with all of us at the cafe that night. - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

“Some of the city’s hottest jazz and Afrobeat is performed every night—free—in this sultry, low-lit lounge, tucked in beside a motorcycle-repair shop. Look out for the explosive funk of Amayo’s Fu-Arkest-Ra (featuring the lead singer of the great Antibalas) and Malian talking-drum master Baye Kouyate, ....” - Travel + Leisure

It was packed to the rafters which I found very surprising since it was pretty empty the night before. The Mali band Baye Kouyate was amazing. Most of the audience was dancing and the vibe of the place was amazing. It was a fitting ending to three nights of great music. - Kepler Report

As the night wears on, Baye continues to play the talking drum, a 10-inch long drum that produces distinctive undulating sounds, which seems to literally communicate with him. Throwing his head back, Baye appears to enter an almost trance-like state as a wide smile swallows his face... - Global Rhythm Magazine

The Malian percussionist Baye Kouyate and I first met at a dinner where Bill Jensen and Margrit Lewzcuk were welcoming him back to Brooklyn from time in Tampa, Florida with his fiancée Annette and her two children. Baye, who I’d never met before, grinned and drew me towards him, and asked earnestly How are you? Baye radiates warmth and acceptance—his skill on the talking drum is an outward expression of his inner life, the 800-year lineage of Malian griot [an African bard, poet, and wandering musician] genetically woven into his cells. Watching Baye Kouyate et les Tougarake play is to watch performers in the throes of passion—in years of watching bands I’ve never seen people so ecstatic to be playing. Baye’s intention to transmit Malian culture to Americans and European audiences is deeply felt—unlike so many Americans governed by logic who have learned to ignore their intuition, Baye’s dreams and beliefs are in sync with his body language and being. As a writer who agonizes over words and forces himself to do things for the sake of discipline, over the course of our week of dinners, shows, and drinks, I was inspired by Baye’s lack of force—everything seemed to come naturally, everything done when it was done because he felt it. - The Brooklyn Rail July 2008