ARTISTS

Song Samples: The Ambassadors

Maracunia- Clip1 - Instrumental

Maracunia- Clip2 - Vocal

Low fidelity audio samples Hi fidelity tracks available with album release See Guitar Player article on Mamady Kouyaté

Mamady Kouyaté
& The Ambassadors

Classic West African guitar music from Guinea

Album in progress: release in 2007
Join mail-list to be notified!

Guinea was the first of the French colonies in Africa to achieve independence, breaking from France in 1958. The 1960s in West Africa were a period of optimism and artistic creativity, where the success of the anti-colonialist struggle brought invigorated interest in cultural identity. With the birth of the new nation, a new music was called for: one which was neither in the antiquated form of the past, nor in imitation of the departing Europeans. There emerged a music which, while uniquely African and clearly rooted in traditional culture, was new and empowered by the incorporation of modern instruments left behind by the colonial orchestras: brass, bass, drum kit, and above all, the electric guitar.

The Ambassadors Live Video

Djeli Mamady Kouyaté, born in 1956 to a prominent family of Guinea’s traditional musician caste, is one of the early pioneers whose guidance helped usher Guinea’s musical renaissance. With his father, a master kora player, and his uncle, a balafonist, Mamady was raised surrounded always by music. He first took to the balafon, but by age 12 had adopted the modern guitar. His immense talent and artistry with this instrument has helped shape 40 years of Guinean music.

By age 19, Mamady was touring as a guitar player for Guinea’s great national orchestras, including Orchestra d’Kouroussa, which he would direct for ten years, Horoya Band, and Bembeya Jazz. By the mid 1990s, however, Guinea was in political turmoil, and its national orchestras were neglected and in decline. It was then that Mamady became a force in the revitalization of Guinean music. Founding a music school in the capital Conakry, Mamady took charge of the ailing national orchestras, among them Bembeya Jazz, helping to inject them with fresh talent.

Bonfils Dance Routine

An opinionated and outspoken critic of Guinean politics, Mamady was jailed on several occasions before finally being forced to flee Guinea for asylum in New York. Ever the mobilizer, Mamady has once again taken charge of an orchestra, The Ambassadors, which is composed of a mix of Guinean ex-patriots and local talent.

The Ambassadors play the classic guitar music of Guinea with original flair. The guitar, in Mamady’s words “incorporates the roles of the traditional Mande Ngoni(traditional lute), Kora, and even balafon. While I never did become a master of the balafon, I hope that I make up for it by playing those melodies now on guitar.” Mamady’s guitar winds through the music, at times rattling percussive bass notes and then moments later gliding gently through the instrument’s upper ranges. Mamady’s playing is complemented by the ngoni-like rhythms of Ambassadors’ second guitarist, Guinean veteran Mamady Kourouma. Kourouma’s interlocking grooves are the frame on which Mamady lays his artwork, and help give the Ambassadors music its warm, dreamy quality.

Ismael Bon Fils Kouyaté
Ambassadors' Vocalist

At the heart of the Ambassadors’ new sound is the voice of its youngest member, Ismael Kouyaté . Born in Guinea in 1981 to a griot family, Ismael has been dancing and singing practically from birth. He spent much of his childhood in the Malinke village of Farranah, in upper Guinea, and toured the country as the lead singer of a prominent youth ensemble. At age fifteen, Ismael moved to the capitol city of Conakry to pursue his career as a performing artist, and has since performed internationally, as both singer and dancer, with a number of prestigious Guinean folkloric troops, including the Ballet Communale de Matam, Les Percussions de Guinea, and Les Ballets Africains. Under Mamady’s tutelage, Ismael is at the front of Guinea’s new generation of singers. His impassioned voice is captured on these recordings, but to experience the equally graceful dancing which it accompanies is the unique privilege of those seeing the Ambassadors perform live.