Tracklist
Distributed By – SonodiscPhonographic Copyright ℗ – Editions EsperancePublished By – Editions EsperancePrinted By – Grimoffset
Design – M. DickelLiner Notes – Diaroukou SanghoPhotography By [Front Cover] – Gilles SalaProducer [Studios] – Radio MaliWritten-By, Composed By, Producer – Ali Farka Touré
A1
Bandalabourou6:40A2
Harsani5:25B1
Gambari6:30B2
Soko5:45
Ali Farka Touré, (Ali Ibrahim Touré), Malian guitarist
(born 1939, Kanau, French Sudan [now in Mali]—died March 7, 2006,
Banako, Mali), was one of the most renowned artists in African music and a national hero in Mali and all of the African continent. Touré, who as a child acquired the nickname “Farka” (Songhai: “donkey”) for his strong will, perceived music a spiritual calling. He first learned to play traditional instruments, such as the lutelike
nkoni and the
n’jarka, a single-stringed fiddle, and later took up the guitar. In creating the Mali blues, he fused African musical traditions with the American blues. whose West African roots Touré celebrated. He won one Grammy Award for his collaboration with Ry Cooder (
Talking Timbuktu, 1995) and another for the album he made with kora player Toumani Diabate,
In the Heart of the Moon (2005). He also appeared in the television documentaries
Ali Farka Touré: ça coule de source (2000;
Ali Farka Touré: Springing from the Roots) and
The Blues (2003). Touré considered himself a farmer and was the mayor of the Malian village of Niafounké.