Blues at the heart of Africa; ALAN NICHOL has the latest news on the roots music scene.

THIS week starts at a pace that is frantic even by the normally hectic standards of autumn.

There are Roots scene regulars, promoting new albums, along with irrepressible veterans of the live circuit and a stunning African virtuoso of an instrument little-known outside of the Dark Continent, until very recently that is. Furthermore, it's all on tonight!

Starting with Africa - Mali to be precise -the musician is Bassekou Kouyate and his chosen instrument is the ngoni which visually resembles a hollow, long-handled cricket bat.

The sound, however, will bowl you over, especially when heard in the context of his excellent band, Ngoni Ba.

The Sage's Hall 2 is the place to find this exemplary band, tonight at 8pm. Ticket info on 0191 433 4661.

Kouyate, the son of musicians, took to the ngoni - an early forerunner of the banjo - as a child in the small town of Garana, on the Niger river and he was playing regularly by the age of 12.

He actually operated in a trio with kora virtuoso, Toumani Diabate, later appearing with the renowned Rail Band.

Although he also worked with Taj Mahal and Ali Farka Toure, it was the release of Bassekou's album Segu Blue (Out Here Records) in 2007 which really made an impact on the World Music scene, in Europe and the USA in particular. The record won him Album Of The Year and African Artist Of The Year in the 2008 BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards. I love my be well "love don''t joke work.

done work pays It also made a huge impression on the music critics, making many Best of Year lists in the process. His follow-up album, I Speak Fula (Out Here Records), has just been released and the clamour, if anything, is even greater. It proves very quickly that his quintet is something special as the four differentlypitched ngonis - Ngoni Ba actually means low ngoni, or bass ngoni - are augmented by the impressive vocals of Kouyate's wife, Amy Sacko, plus contributions by a guest list which includes Toumani Diabate (kora) and Vieux Farka Toure (Ali's son) on electric guitar. Back in the 80s, Kouyate surprised the traditional music fraternity in his own country when he strapped on his ngoni - rockstyle - and strolled to the front of the stage. Prior to that, the instrument was always played from a seated position and the move was considered revolutionary.

I was lucky enough to put some questions to Bassekou, through a translator before he appears on tonight's Later with Jools Holland TV programme.

Segu Blue and I Speak Fula have been both received excellent reviews here in the UK. Has that reception surprised you? No, because I love my work to be well done. I love working, and I don't joke with my work. And well done work is what pays the bills.

Tell me a little about the ngoni and how you came to play it.

My father was a 'griot', and an excellent ngoni player, as well as my grandfather. As a griot, he would have many students at our farm. In the morning they would work in the fields and in the afternoon they would go to my father for music lessons. I had to follow the lessons of my father with the other students. Though I always preferred playing football. My father doesn't understand the value of football! My father got cross at me because I wasn't dedicated to the study of the ngoni. One day, my father heard me playing the ngoni in my room, in the dark, in the evening. He knocked on the door, asked me as to whether I was alone, and told me that I had to turn the light on. Then he went to the kitchen and told my mother ' Bassekou is playing the ngoni alone in his room, he is good, one day he will be a star'. My mother told me this only once my father passed away. On that day, my father heard me playing things from lessons I didn't attend. He knew then that I was talented.

work to done. I and I with my My grandfather played a three strings ngoni, my father a four strings ngoni, and now I play a seven strings ngoni, and I am trying to add two more strings so that I will have nine strings on my ngoni to play with!

And well is what The ngoni is one of the oldest instruments from/in Mali.

the bills. Taj Mahal called you a genius and said your work was 'living proof that the blues comes from Segu (Mali)'. Would you agree? The Blues comes from Mali. Try to find an 80 years old griot in Mali. Ask him to play a traditional piece of music. Then ask him to play some Blues. He won't know how to play the Blues because he has never heard of 'The Blues!' He won't know what the Blues is. But the music will be the same.

ALSO tonight, a short distance away, amid the Victorian elegance of Gateshead's Old Town Hall on West Street, one of the finest traditional singers of her - or any - generation, Cara Dillon, appears with her band. Cara, from Dungiven in Northern Ireland, has been on the scene since the early '90s having won the All Ireland Singing Trophy at fourteen and subsequent involvement with the band Oige. Cara's new album, her fourth, is called Hill Of Thieves (Charcoal Records) and has received a welter of critical praise. Find out why it is no exaggeration by catching Cara and her band in one of the region's "newest" music venues. Ticket info 0191 433 3000 (ask for the box office).

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NGONI LINE-UP - Bassekou Kouyate is second from the right