Cheikh Ndoye: Ngoni Bass
Bassist Cheikh Ndoye shared this awesome video of his work on the African Contrabass, also known as the bass ngoni. The West-African traditional instrument is fretless with three strings. Ndoye, who was born in Senegal, did some of his own modifications to get it to fit his style.
“The traditional instruments are very hard to tune without the tuners,” he wrote. “It’s so hard to get the strings but I ended up talking to a harp company that made me these nylons with bass gauges. My other bass ngoni is a five string. I just received 2 and gave one to Richard Bona. I use custom pickups called K-pickups for acoustic instruments.”
Check out the bass ngoni on Ndoye’s playthrough of the Dave Samuels tune “Rain Forest”:
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
beautiful !!! I love it!
Just sublime ….sometimes less strings is more. BASS ON, Cheikh??
Cheikh… man… always in top form. Love his playing. Great feel. That bass ngoni sounds pretty amazing, too!