The plucked melodic twang of the ngoni, a west African lute, has long added an unexpected texture to fusion records. Jazz trumpeter Don Cherry featured the stringed instrument cutting through his full-throated blasts on albums throughout the 1970s and 80s, while producer Marc Minelli blended ngonis with synth melody on his 2001 Electro Bamako project and Malian singer Rokia Traoré used the instrument to bolster electric guitar on her rock-influenced 2013 record Beautiful Africa. Swedish flautist Annarella Sörlin is the latest artist to be inspired by the instrument, on her lyrical debut album with Malian ngoni master Django Diabaté.
Several of the record’s 11 tracks feature Diabaté playing alongside a full band accompaniment of flute, bass, drums and keys, to mixed effect. On the mid-tempo funk of Megaphone, Diabaté sits back in the mix, repeating a minimal lead line reminiscent of an electric guitar against the easy groove, while on Degrees of Freedom shimmering keys, clarinet and reverb-laden guitar subsume Diabaté in their desert blues atmospherics.
