Mar 7/06
Rest in peace, Mali blues
Ali Farka Touré, one of the most internationally acclaimed artists in West African music, has died today after a long illness. He was 67.
You can read the many obits floating around the web for yourself, but personally his music had a huge influence on me. Way, way before I ever even thought of moving to West Africa - or even out of Canada - I was into Touré’s albums Talking Timbuktu, Radio Mali and Niafunké. They were a gateway into the rich world of contemporary African rock and blues, and ultimately helped shape my musical taste for the region.
Talking Timbuktu, Niafunke and In The Heart of the Moon remain some of the best West African albums in my collection. Red/Green, The River, The Source and Radio Mali are also on that shelf and get routine play on the African shuffle.
If you can believe it I was still in high school when Talking Timbuktu hit Toronto record shops in 1995. At the time I would’ve been rocking to whatever hiphop, pop, etc was cool in the mid-nineties. I’d always been into music a bit out of the norm, but Ali Farka Touré really helped me break-out of the North American sound and explore folk, blues and rock from other countries, notably Mali, Brazil, Senegal and South Africa.
I can thank Touré’s albums along with some Nigerian funk compilations I picked-up in the late-nineties for what is now nearly a 10-year obsession with world music, African in particular.
Rest in peace, grand Touré.
Ali Farka Toure - Allah Uya
Ry Cooder & Ali Farka Toure - Gomni
March 7th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Same story on my side of the globe. AFT & Boubacar Traoré were my initial sparks to know more about this fine culture & spirit.
Thx!
March 7th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
What a sad, sad day. Unlike many other Malian musicians (but not all), who become famous outside of Mali, Ali Farka Toure managed to maintain a close relationship with his homeland. That always endeared him to me.
I am (compared to you Matt) a much more recent convert to African music, and Malian music in particular. But like you and JKE above, my first real foray into the field was a bootleg copy of Niafounke that my husband bought on the street in Bamako in 2002. That was the beginning of what I’m sure will be a lifelong love.
March 7th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Very sad. Talking Timbuktu is still one of my all-time favorite albums. I’m now listening to “In the Heart of the Moon”, which I now think is his best for integrating traditional kora music with his guitar-based sound.
My introduction to African music was Paul Simon’s “Graceland”. Soon after that I heard Youssou N’dour and I’ve been hooked ever since.
March 7th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Yeah, he did some good work. He’ll be missed.
March 8th, 2006 at 12:27 am
“Talking Timbuktu” was sublime.
We’ll miss him.
March 8th, 2006 at 2:01 am
I read somewhere that Touré finished the recordings of his third one, after Symmetric and The heart of the moon. It should be AFT playing with a traditional n’goni outfit.
I do hope World Circuit will release these last recordings soon..
His concert in Bruxelles, january 2005, together with Toumani, remains one of my strongest musical memories. They both reigned supreme that evening… No concessions to European style performance whatsoever.
My heart goes out to those who knew him intimately. The brief encounter I had in Bruxelles the day after the concert made it very clear: AFT was a remarkable, charismatic man, in more than one way not from these times.
I can’t decide wich one of the AFT catalogue I like the best… it is all so powerful and evocative. Music of the djinns indeed, and to those who stress his supposedly American influences - get the picture: this is regional music from north Mali.
March 8th, 2006 at 3:09 am
I loved watching his videos on Malian TV, back when he was still a national star; they were so different from everything else they showed. Riveting.
March 8th, 2006 at 3:17 am
When people complain in the U.S. about Ry Cooder or Paul Simon or Peter Gabriel “stealing” or piggybacking off of “Third World” artists, it’s good to remember how many people in North America learned about such fine artists as Ali Farka Toure or Ladysmith Black Mambazo through these cooperations.
I don’t remember when I first heard Toure’s music — I vaguely recall some PBS special on African musics, hearing him play and dropping everything to listen. I was heavily into blues at the time (grad school, Ann Arbor, late 1980s), and his music just made so much sense to me.
A great musician.
March 8th, 2006 at 3:17 am
This man was one of my favourite music artists! My granduncle absolutely loved Toure’s music, which took him back to his childhood growing up in the sparse sahelian regions of northern Ghana, West Africa. Sadly he passed away before I could send him a package of Ali Farka Toure’s album CDs, so for that reason Toure’s music is very personal to me too…
There’s a proverb in West Africa: “When a great man dies, a great library has been burnt down…” Ali Farka Toure was a great man, and his musical talent a great library of lifetime achievement and purpose. His passing is sad loss for all who appreciate real music!
March 8th, 2006 at 9:46 am
[...] The great Malian guitarist has died. To hear a couple of tracks of his glorious music, you can visit Benn loxo du taccu. [...]
March 8th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
I echo the sadness at his passing and the renewed joy in his music. I think it was “Talking Timbuktu” that first brought him to my attention (being then & now a giant Ry Cooder and African music fan). That CD has about the deepest world groove I know of. Thank Mattgy for your tribute and your continued work on this fine blog!
March 8th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
[...] - I join friends all over the blogosphere in mourning the passing of Ali Farka Touré, one of the most important musicians in the history of the continent, and an amazing ambassador from Mali to the rest of the world. MattyG at Benn Loxo du Taccu has a moving remembrance with some excellent sound files for anyone wanting to hear a little bit of the great man’s work. [...]
March 12th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Farka’s music changed my ife because it introduced me to Mali where I later lived and worked for two and a half years. I was there when Niafunke was released on Mali K7 with its pink case. I listened to that tape over and over in my small mud house in the village where I lived until it eventually stretched and I had to buy another copy in Bamako. I continue to go back there to do work and Farka’s music is always playing in my head. I never got to see a full concert, only a short twenty-minute performance at 2AM in Bamako on the steps of the Palais du Congres following a Peulh fashion show! Twenty minutes of pure joy, pure bliss. Ala ka hine a la…
March 15th, 2006 at 1:40 am
In 1994, my parents slipped a copy of Talking Timbuktu into my Christmas stocking - I think they picked it up at an Amnesty International store. They didn’t know a whole lot about African music, even though we’d lived in Sudan for two years, and I hadn’t a clue who this Ali Farka Touré guy was. That changed pretty quickly when I slipped the disc into the CD player: that CD explains the shelves full of African music that are beside me now, the trips to West Africa since, and the many amazing nights of African music. I saw him play in Dublin in 1998 (?), and that concert remains the highlight of all highlights. Ali strode onto the stage wearing a cowboy hat and boots, and instantly had us in the palm of his hand. My brother, not a big African music fan himself, clearly paid attention to my obsession: when I returned from a trip late on Sunday night, he’d collected all the obituaries I had missed into one long e-mail. I popped Talking Timbuktu into the CD player and read them all.
Great work on the blog, Matt: I knew I could turn to this site for a fitting tribute.
March 18th, 2006 at 12:13 am
I was so sad to hear about Ali Farka’s passing. In The Heart of the Moon is such a beautiful album, it really was a magical way for him to finish off his career. I regret I never got to see him perform live. I think I know the fashion show Nathan is talking about, I was actually invited to that show during my first visit to Mali, but I decided not to go. I’m regretting it now. I’ve seen Salif, Habib and Oumou live, but not Ali Farka. He’ll be missed.
March 28th, 2006 at 8:01 am
[...] Matt of Benn loxo du taccu remembers and salutes “grand Touré” “Way, way before I ever even thought of moving to West Africa - or even out of Canada - I was into Touré’s albums Talking Timbuktu, Radio Mali and Niafunké. They were a gateway into the rich world of contemporary African rock and blues, and ultimately helped shape my musical taste for the region.” [...]
May 13th, 2006 at 11:37 am
[...] Toumani Diabaté is the last artist to record with Ali Farka Touré before his death and was at his deathbed three hours before he passed away. He told us last night that the last album Touré ever listened to was the Symmetric Orchestra. That’s some pretty serious praise, West African musical master-wise. That and Diabaté and Touré’s last release, In The Heart of The Moon, was one of my favourite West African releases in the last couple years. Everything this guy touches is gold as far I’m concerned. [...]