Midway through the Mandingo Ambassadors’ first song at Best Video on Friday night, a woman entered the room, sauntered through the crowd, hips swaying. Without breaking her stride, she walked up to each of the band members while they were playing and gave them each a kiss, then took her place, first on stage, then in the crowd.
Was she late?
She was right on time.
Bandleader and lead guitarist Mamady Kouyate has lived in New Haven for 20 years, but revealed that this was his first show in the area. Judging from the reception he got, it won’t be his last. Kouyate — along with rhythm guitarist Mamady Koroma (like Kouyate, originally from Guinea), Nick Cudahy on bass (from New York), Aaron Greenberg (from Cromwell) on vocals, and New Haven music scene fixtures Jocelyn Pleasant and Semy Tatchol Camara on drum kit and djembe — delivered relentless grooves to a rapturous, standing-room-only crowd, and barely seemed to break a sweat the entire night.
Kouyate, now in his 60s and a former member of the legendary Guinean group Bembeya Jazz National, founded the Mandingo Ambassadors in 2005. The group has become a staple of the New York City music scene since then, with a weekly gig at Barbes, a small club in Brooklyn, and other dates.
The crowd seemed to treat the Mandingo Ambassadors’ arrival to a New Haven-area stage as long-overdue. Kouyate effortlessly showed what all the fuss was about. His guitar playing ranged from lyrical and delicate to punchy and grinding as he ranged across a repertoire that moved from West African standards to his own compositions. In his solos, he grabbed onto a melodic or rhythmic idea and worked it into a different form, before flipping it aside for a cascade of notes that led to another idea. It was enough to sustain songs for minutes upon hypnotic minutes, as Koroma held down impeccably intricate rhythm guitar and Cudahy held down the bass. For their parts, Pleasant and Camara solidified their places as lions of the next generation playing West African music. They kept the rhythm driving all night, laying down galloping beats and mesmerizing pulses, constantly finding ways to deepen the groove and ramp up the energy.
The proprietors of Best Video had set up seats. Maybe they shouldn’t have, as people were visible swaying in them all night. A few finally couldn’t take it any more and stood up and danced where they were. One man approached the band and showered Kouyate in dollar bills, then danced enthusiastically with a woman from the audience as the money littered the floor.
The music got better as the night went on, and the band seemed only to get more relaxed. Kouyate’s solos stretched longer and longer as he took more time with his ideas. Greenberg, meanwhile, was a delight as an American who spoke and sang in Mande. When vocals were called for, he and Kouyate traded lines as the band developed its swirling rhythms around them. Near the end of the set, Greenberg even translated a few lines. Part sounded like a prayer: “All your works are good,” Greenberg translated, after singing a line. But there was social awareness in there too, that went beyond politics. “People who live in poverty,” Greenberg translated, “people have no concern for them — it’s not like before.”
Clearly pleased at the turnout and the support, Kouyate promised to return, possibly with a horn section in tow next time. This on a Friday night that also saw a healthy turnout for Malian artist Noura Mint Seymali at the State House on State Street and a packed house for a triple bill at Cafe Nine on Crown Street. It was a yet another sign that the New Haven area’s reputation as the cultural capital of the state is likely secure and so far only growing.
