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Peul Bambara Songhai Tamasheck

Genre:

African blues

Instrument:

Guitar Calabass violin Male vocals

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More about Ali Farka Touré
Music samples

Biografi

Ali Farka Toure comes from Mali and is known as the most important interpreter of “African blues”. It’s easy to compare him with the famous American blues guitarists such as John Lee Hooker or Lightnin’ Hopkins, but Ali Farka Toure has definitely his own style and is closer to blues’ roots than his American counterparts. When Toure takes up his guitar it is easy to hear from whence the music form originates.
Ali Farka Toure has enjoyed success worldwide over the past few year, especially with the Grammy Award winning “Talkin’ Timbuktu”, made with Ry Cooder in 1994, and pushed Toure up among the most talked about African artist. Ali himself felt this drained him of inspiration and weakened his musical connection with Africa. He retreated therefore for several years to his home by the river Niger in Northern Mali, where he grows rice.
Ali Farka Toure plays in recumbent rhythm with accompaniment of foot tramping or hand clapping, or careful backing from his group ASCO, that largely keeps to traditional acoustic string instruments, calabashes and single string violin, that Toure himself also plays. Toure sings in several African languages, eleven to be precise, and the lyrics concern, according to him, “education, work, love and society around me.”
Ali Farka Toure is deeply rooted in African tradition and mythology, and believes he is a strong musician because strong powers will it. In an interview with the Englishman Richard Trillo, he states that once, at the age of twelve, he suddenly could not lift his left leg and had to stand on one leg with his calabash violin in his hand for two hours. The day after this he saw a black and white snake with a peculiar mark on its head, and this snake curled around Toure’s head. He shook himself and ran away. But after this he became aggressive and difficult for several years. When he began to play music again it was well received by the spirits. Some years later in 1956 he decided to learn to play the guitar.
Ali Farka Touré has the last few years been suffering from cancer, and he died March 7th 2006.

Relevant artists:
Habib Koité
Rokia Traoré
Ramata Diakite
Afel Bocoum
Tinariwen

ALI FARKA TOURÉ
World Circuit/1986

THE RIVER
World Circuit/1992

THE SOURCE  
World Circuit/1992

This disk, recorded in London, has among others the American Taj Mahal on its guest list. Ali plays in a relaxed mode that seems as if the music comes to him rather than he exerts himself especially to produce it. It is difficult to characterize this music in any other way than by calling it “African Blues”. But this sounds both easier and more earthly than the heavier American variety. Beautiful.

TALKIN TIMBUKTU  
World Circuit/1994

Ali Farka Toure and Ry Cooder meet and agree to try something together in 1993. A year later the possibility presented itself and Toure traveled with his band to the USA, making this recording together with Cooder, his permanent musicians and others, among whom was Jim Keltner. The entire recording was completed in three days and one can hear that the cooperation was spot on from the first note. Ry Cooder doesn’t fall prey to the temptation to push himself forward too much, but he and his music loyally back up Ali Farka Toure - for this is Toure’s music and Toure’s disk. But what a backing he has! Ry Cooder fills in the gaps that Toure sometimes leaves sounding a little monotonous, and gives the music more depth and breadth. Among others, John Patitucci conveys much on bass. The cooperation between Toure and Cooder on the over seven minutes long “Diaraby” is pure enjoyment.

RADIO MALI
World Circuit/1996

Recordings made and broadcasted on Radio Mali

NIAFUNKÉ  
World Circuit/1999

Ali Farka Toure was quiet for a long time following the success of “Talkin’ Timbuktu” and gave few concerts. Then, when he entered the studio again it was only natural that the event took place on home ground. With Ali himself as chauffeur, a team from the recording company World Circuit equipped a trailer with apparata and hundreds of metres of cable, plus a generator for power, traveled through the bush as a mobile recording studio. This “studio” was set up on the outskirts of Ali Farka Toure’s own village, Niafunke, in a deserted storage depot about the size of an aircraft hangar. In this broken down shell, under its arches and inside its dusty walls, they began to play and really created something. And from the first chord it sounds as though Ali has got the old spark back. “Ali’s Here” is a fresh blues-like song that immediately grabs you - as does Ali. The disk moves the whole time between electric and acoustic songs and in-between is a blues theme from Ali’s one string violin, the njarka. The disk has a refreshing laid back atmosphere, something so satisfactory that one must go to Africa to find it, and this seems 100% right. My favourite track on the album is “Mali Dje”. Ali’s band ASCO uses odd stringed instruments from Mali, congas and calabashes, and the female choir sings gently. In the background the blues theme moves in circular manner and Ali’s African guitar technique gives the impression that he is playing two songs simultaneously: hypnotic.
For those who are familiar with Ali Farka Toure there are no surprises on this album. Ali has found his style and sticks to what he does best. But, considering the atmosphere he creates on “Niafunke”, I don’t see why he should do anything else.

RED & GREEN  
World Circuit/2004

While we are waiting for his next new recording, World Circuit has re-released two of Ali's older albums, from 1984 and 1988, for the first time on CD. It certainly sounds as a good idea. Both these albums are accoustic ones, with Ali at his most original, within his most basic style, before he went electric. I haven't heard these recordings before, and its amazing to hear what the great Ali achives only with one guitar, vocals and calabash percussion. As all great artists, he is, with simple means, able to pull you into his world, into his artistic project. You just LISTEN.
Both albums consist of 8 songs, sounding pretty similar. But Ali is still able to vary his playing in a multitude of rhythms, so this is never monotous. There's something very uplifting about this music, never as heavy and moody as the American blues. There's in fact a lot of energy here, which simply makes the music accessible. These albums are as good as most of the other albums from Ali Farka Touré's hands. Booklet with lyrics of both records is included. A very nice package!

IN THE HEART OF THE MOON  
World Circuit/2005

Ali Farka Touré hasn't recorded new material since "Niafunke" in 1999, so this is a long awaited disk. Ali refuses to let himself be ruled by the commersial trends of the recording industry, so the fact that this is an accoustic recording totally in his own (and Toumani Diabate's) manner is not surprising. Ali and Toumani Diabate have always known to set their own standards. In fact, this record is a sort of internal Malian cross over project. Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabate are both from Mali, but come from two totally different traditions, from the North and the South of the country respectivly, so joining forces on the same album is not an immidiately obvious step to make. Very impressing then, that they went into the studio in the fashonable Hotel Mandé in Bamako without rehearsing! The album was recorded in a few hours during only 3 days! When you hear the relaxed atmosphere on the record this fact seems almost unbelievable. The repertoir origins from both artists' early material. For Ali that means from the 1950'ies and 60ies. There is a flow in this music that only two master musicians can achieve, everything sounds just right. The main ingredience consists of Ali's blueslike rhythmic pattern in the bottom, created by his accoustic guitar, on which Toumani Diabate improvises with his kora. Or the other way around. It works very well indeed, and is pure enjoyment (sic) for your sences. Ry Cooder is carefully backing on guitar and thumb piano, Sekou Kanté and Orlando Lopez(!) on bass and Joachim Cooder/Olelekan Babalola on percussion. It is difficult to highlight outstanding tracks, as the quality overall is superb, but my personal favorite would be the blues "Ai ga bani" where Ali leads and Toumani is "backing" on kora. Magnificent.
If you are looking for music that you can dream yourself away to, this is it. "In the Heart of the Moon" gives you that timeless African feeling.

SAVANE  
World Circuit/2006

"Savane" is Ali Farka Tourč's musical testament. Ali passed away just a few months after these recordings were made, there will come no more music from this source. "Savane" will be standing as one of Ali's greatest recordings, made by a man musically mature, actually on top of his musical career.
The album starts off with the terrific and rough "Erdi", a slow rolling blues, with Ali on guitar, of course, and Mama Sissiko and Bassekou Koyate on ngoni. Added to this comes two important elements: Little George Sueref on harmonica and Pee Wee Russel on tenor sax. The harmonica and saxophone add something new to Ali's music, Western perhaps, actually I don't care, it develops Ali's music in depth, the music takes you like an ocean wave, you can't escape it, you have to roll along with it.
Ali's not with his traditional ASCO group this time. What basically sets the standard and feeling on the album are Sissiko and Koyate on their two ngoni's. They back Ali's guitar, and create, yes, this slowly rolling blues like music, more relaxed and at the same time more engaging than I've ever heard before from Ali. "Savane", the title track, is a masterpiece, with these three mentioned gentlemen, just playing for nearly 8 minutes. The magic is complete. Ali sings in French, about the African in the world, expressing the African confusion perfectly with the line: "I found the metro isn't easy work. But I am, I am black." And further: "Instead of giving us bombs, give us us powered pumps so that at least we can have what we need to live."
The album consists of 13 tracks, all of them good, the playing time is 58 minutes, and when you have heard through the whole album, you are completely captured in Ali's musical and spiritual reality.
Production is, as usual by Nick Gold, who gets some assistance from Yves Wernert, who has done some great work with Issa Bagayogo, among others, and Jerry Boys.
Oh, man, this is great music. Ali will be missed by blues lovers all over the world.

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