Ali Farka Toure: 1939-2006

The global music community lost one of its very best this month. Ali Farka Toure, the Malian bluesman, died in his home in Bamako, Mali last week. Best known in this hemisphere for the album Talking Timbuktu, his 1994 collaboration with Ry Cooder, Toure was a world music pioneer who laid the foundation for other Cooder produced trans-global successes like the Buena Vista Social Club and Manuel Galban.

Often referred to as the African John Lee Hooker, Toure was an original in every sense of the word. He created a unique musical landscape by marrying the rhythms and traditional sounds (foot tramping and hand clapping) of acoustic African music with the melody and mood of electrified American blues music.



Toure's latest and last album, In the Heart of the Moon, is perhaps his best and certainly his most haunting recording. An improvised collaboration with fellow Malian musician and kora master Toumani Diabate, In the Heart of the Moon leaves us, as Toure leaves us, with an overwhelming feeling of peace, love and spiritual fulfillment.