Blog Posts by David Hutcheon

Sometimes it's the quiet ones you have to look out for. Those who decided at a young age that they lacked the "it", the charisma, the ego to stand at the front of the stage in the spotlight. For years they provide sterling service to the star, never once venturing out from under their bushel. And then something snapped...

In a subterranean Middle Eastern restaurant in central London, I'm watching Bassekou Kouyaté whip up a storm with his band from Mali. In his forties, the world's best n'goni maestro has been playing Penfold to a succession of DangerMice for more than two decades, with Taj Mahal, Toumani Diabaté and Ali Farka Touré among those recognising that he could blow them offstage with his talent but relaxed in the knowledge that he never craved the limelight. And so they reaped the rewards. But now he is hellbent on making a name for himself. "It's my time," he says. Only trouble is, his singer (and wife), Ami, has "it", and when she takes the stage next to him, in the crowd's