The African Master of Blues is dead.
Tuesday Ali Farka Toure, one of Africas best known and most respected musicians, died.
The guitarist and singer from Niafunke in Mali - a dusty small town by the edge of the river Niger, south of Timbuktu - died of cancer, 67 years old. He leaves a whife and 11 children, and some of the best African Desert Blues ever made.
Toure was perhaps better known in the West than in his home country, not least after his cooperation with the American Ry Cooder on the album Talking Timbuktu in 1994. The album erned him a Grammy, which he also got after last years album In The Heart of the Moon, made together with another well known Mali musichian, the kora master Toumani Diabate.
Toure himself claimed that the blues we know from the American South States has it's origin from his native erea in Mali. And the similarity is striking, but Toures traditional music is at the same time distinctly different - and usually a lot more complex - from standard blues.
As opposed to many other African musichians who has achived star status, Ali Farka Toure was not only faithful to his musical roots, but also to his native country. He kept on living at his small farm in Niafunke, the small town where he became mayor and used a lot of his income from his international CD sucsesses to develop the lokal society, among other things by installing a watering system that has made the erea self sufficient with food.
Toure denied that Niafunke and Timbuktu was a distant outpost: "That is not the case. I am from Timbuktu, and I can tell you that it is in the middle of the World."
His music will still be a centre of gravity, and even if we will never be able to experience him live again, we can rejoyce that he had the time to make a new album before cancer got the upper hand.
May he rest in peace.
PS: If you are interested in hearing some of his stuff, send me your email addy, and I'll send you a tune.
Tuesday Ali Farka Toure, one of Africas best known and most respected musicians, died.
The guitarist and singer from Niafunke in Mali - a dusty small town by the edge of the river Niger, south of Timbuktu - died of cancer, 67 years old. He leaves a whife and 11 children, and some of the best African Desert Blues ever made.
Toure was perhaps better known in the West than in his home country, not least after his cooperation with the American Ry Cooder on the album Talking Timbuktu in 1994. The album erned him a Grammy, which he also got after last years album In The Heart of the Moon, made together with another well known Mali musichian, the kora master Toumani Diabate.
Toure himself claimed that the blues we know from the American South States has it's origin from his native erea in Mali. And the similarity is striking, but Toures traditional music is at the same time distinctly different - and usually a lot more complex - from standard blues.
As opposed to many other African musichians who has achived star status, Ali Farka Toure was not only faithful to his musical roots, but also to his native country. He kept on living at his small farm in Niafunke, the small town where he became mayor and used a lot of his income from his international CD sucsesses to develop the lokal society, among other things by installing a watering system that has made the erea self sufficient with food.
Toure denied that Niafunke and Timbuktu was a distant outpost: "That is not the case. I am from Timbuktu, and I can tell you that it is in the middle of the World."
His music will still be a centre of gravity, and even if we will never be able to experience him live again, we can rejoyce that he had the time to make a new album before cancer got the upper hand.
May he rest in peace.
PS: If you are interested in hearing some of his stuff, send me your email addy, and I'll send you a tune.
scandiarose:
yes it is very sad the colledge radio station had a memorial program here on him. it was most excellent. and yes i do suggest you get Shin to send you some tunes people . 
garnetee'd you will love them. 
garnetee'd you will love them.