Ali Farka Toure banner Ali Farka Toure

Ali Farka Toure

Listen to ra-file Listen to 'Roucky' (ra-file, 706 kb)
My favorite song from my favorite album 'The Source' -
sorry that I can just present a 3 min cut from a 8+ min song)

Ali Farka Toure was born Ali Ibrahim Toure in 1939 in the Timbuktu region in Mali, Africa. He was the 10th child born to his mother and the first one to live - thus nicknamed Farka (donkey) because he was 'stubborn enough to survive'.
He started out on music already as an 11-years-old, teaching himself to play the gurkel (little African single-string-guitar) and the njarka (single-string-fiddle). He picked up the Western guitar at age 17 when he saw a performance by the Guinean guitarist Ketita Fodeba. The instrument touched him so deeply that he decided to become a guitarist. Once again teaching himself, Ali played traditional songs using the techniques he had learned on the gurkel.

In the late 60's Ali Farka Toure got in touch with the music of African-American bluesmen, most importantly John Lee Hooker. He first thought Hooker would play Malian music, so close was the relationship between the blues and the traditional African roots from which it came. Without copying Hooker, Ali Farka Toure 'responded' to the American blues with a pure African voice, thus creating his unique, mesmerizing and hypnotic style.


Ali Farka Toure

Dofana Listen to 'Dofana' (ra-file, 430 kb)
And another one from the 'Source' album - just a cut again


His recording career began in France 1976 - he sent his tapes there and never saw the money for it. He then concentrated on the Malian radio, trained as a sound engineer and worked in this profession until 1980 when he could afford to buy a fruit and rice farm near his hometown Niafunke, a 6000-souls-village in the semi-desert of Mali.

Ali Farka Toure never had had any ambitions to become a 'star', in spite of touring widely in Africa. His musical inspiration has always come from his life on the banks of the Niger river, at the edge of the Sahara desert, and this is where he still thinks his music belongs. It is not just entertainment to him, it is the communication with the spirits surrounding him.

This explains why he backed out from what could have been a blues superstar career after his 1994 album 'Talking Timbuktu', a collaboration with Ry Cooder. The album won a grammy in 1995 and Ali went on world tour, but he was quickly desillusioned by the 'chew-and-spit' cycle of Western audiences. He longed for home and gave up the tour, with no cares that he turned down the potential for more stardom, not to mention dollars.


Heygana Listen to 'Heygana' (ra-file, 479 kb)
This is a cut from the album 'The River'

After a break of almost five years, his next album - 'Niafunke' - was made possible only by an enthuasiastic producer who packed up a mobile studio and drove the whole lumber into Ali's hometown Niafunke. In spite of most provisional technics 'Niafunke' became what many call Ali's best album. Where 'Talking Timbuktu' was polished and acommodable, 'Niafunke' was down to the earth and back to the roots, with all the spirits of the Malian magic in full power.


Ali Farka Toure toured a bit, saw that there wasn't so much change in the world, told everybody that this would be his last tour and disappeared again to care for his crops and lifestock.

He leaves us his albums, each of them a must-have, a treasure of pure blues proving that the spirit is still alive.

We can just hope that there will be another truckload of recording equipment on its way to the banks of the Niger river soon - and that maybe the crops and livestock can do without Ali for a few touring months or so..

Not that we wouldn't understand him, though..

Niafunke
Niafunke

Asco Listen to 'Asco' (ra-file, 454 kb)
'Asco' is a great tune from the 'Niafunke' album.


Ali Farka Toure - Discography

(you can buy the CD's at amazon.com - simply click the image links)

Ali Farka Toure
Ali Farka Toure

This self-titled debut is an amazing collection, spotlighting the Malian guitarist in his full solo acoustic glory for a beautiful, intimate music that recalls American blues. The beauty of Ali Farka Toure lives in Toure's light, nimble touch on the strings as well as his flexible, reedy voice, which both perfectly complement his gentle, ambling rhythmic style.

Radio Mali
Radio Mali

Previously available as a 1996 import on the World Circuit label, this nearly 72-minute collection of recordings were originally made for Malian radio broadcast between 1970 and 1978. As a single collection, this is the finest yet of Ali Farka Toure's slow-burning music, characterized by nimble, expressive guitar playing and strong, expressive singing. Strands of sing-songy, seemingly simplistic melodies wrap around each other, coming together and unwinding like strands of RNA. This is some mind-blowing stuff.

The River
The River

This 1990 recording contains one of the best African blues tunes ever recorded, and a classic Ali Farka Toure moment. As the electric guitar roars in at the opening, punctured by a darting harmonica line, here are the roots and branches of the blues in its journey from west Africa to the Americas, and more importantly, back again.The River is one of Ali's most straightforward recordings, featuring Rory McLeod's harmonica and a marvelous duet with saxophonist Steve Williamson that adds a little sideways R&B.

('Heygana' comes from this album)

The Source
The Source

This is my alltime favorite album, Ali Farka Toure at his very 'source'. He works again with harmonica player Rory McLeod, but mostly this is a recording with his amazing band, calabash players Amadou Sisse and Hamma Sankare and conga player Oumar Toure, plus a chorus of singers. The emphasis is on the guitar of Ali Farka Toure and the source of the music, the soil of Mali itself.

('Roucky' and 'Dofana' come from this album)

Talking Timbuktu
Talking Timbuktu

Talking Timbuktu is a groundbreaking record that vividly illustrates the Africa-Blues connection in real time. Ali Farka Toure, one of Mali's leading singer-guitarists, has a trance-like, bluesy style that, although deeply rooted in Malian tradition, bears astonishing similarity to that of John Lee Hooker or even Canned Heat. Ry Cooder, well versed in domestic and world guitar styles, is the perfect counterpoint in these extended songs/jams, his sinewy slide guitar intertwining with his partner's in a super world summit without barriers or borders.

Niafunke
Niafunké

Ali Farka Toure's first album since his 1994 collaboration with Ry Cooder, Talking Timbuktu, makes a convincing argument for the adage that home is where the art is. Recorded in an abandoned brick edifice located between Toure's extensive rice fields and the Sahara-bordering village of Niafunké, Mali, this is the guitarist's most purely African album yet.

('Asco' comes from this album)

African Blues
African Blues

Unfortunately, this album cannot be ordered at amazon.com, and I haven't found it anywhere else. I have it on cassette only, and I'm not even sure if it ever was released on CD.

Maybe one of you is lucky enough to dig it out somewhere - it is well worth it. The songs on this tape are:

1. Sidy Gouro 2. N'Timbara 3. Devele Wague 4. Okatagouna 5. Zona 6. Mbaudy 7. Petenere 8. L'Exode



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