"For some people, when you say 'Timbuktu' it is like the end of the world, but that is not true.  I am from Timbuktu, and I can tell you we are right at the heart of the world."  Ali Farka Toure

This brilliant, Grammy winning, musical collaboration between Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure has been around for years now and I am sure a lot of people have this album.  But I have decided to write about it because although I have owned it for 14 or so years since it was released it remains one of my favourites.

Ali Farka Toure was one of Africa's most famous musicians.  He was born in 1939 in the northwestern region of Mali known as Tombouctou.  The capital of Tombouctou is the ancient city we know as Timbuktu.  Being of noble birth he should never have become a musician as the musical profession is usually inherited in Malian society.  But he was determined.  He first began playing an instrument called the gurkel - a single stringed African guitar and also taught himself to play the njarka which is a single string fiddle.  But in 1956 he saw a performance by the great Guinean guitarist Keita Fodeba in Bamako.  This performance inspired him to take up the guitar.  In the 1960's, artists such as Ray Charles, Otis Redding and most importantly John Lee Hooker traveled to Bamako and introduced Ali Farka Toure to African-American music.  John Lee Hooker made a big impression on him.  At first he thought that Hooker was playing Malian music - but then realized that this music coming from America had deep African roots.   If you watch the video below he talks about these same roots - and you can hear the similarities in the music.

During the early years Ali Farka Toure composed, sang and played with a group created by the Malian Government after the country's independence - Troupe 117.  But his main ambition was to save enough money to buy a farm and become a farmer.  This he did in 1980.  Although he toured Africa and occasionally Europe and America he preferred the security of his village.

Ali Farka Toure first met Ry Cooder in London in 1992 and they immediately connected.  The following year he travelled to the States where 'Talking Timbuktu' was recorded in just three days.  It is inspired by the enormous wealth of musical traditions of Mali.  Farka Toure sings in no less than 11 different languages on this album.  It is definitely an African sound but Ry Cooder's influence and great guitar playing perhaps make it more accessible to the Western market.

Ali Farka Toure spent most of the remainder of his life on his farm.  He was appointed mayor of the Niafunke region of Mali in 2004 and remained fiercely loyal to his homeland.  He recorded two further albums - the second one 'In the Heart of the Moon' also won a World music Grammy in 2005.  Portable studios had to be set up near his home for these - with gasoline generators as there was no power.  Recording could only begin once Farka Toure had done his farm chores.  He said that he had to be in the landscape that inspired his music before he could create it.  Perhaps a concept that we are not familiar with in the West.

Sadly, Ali Farka Toure died of bone cancer in March of 2006.

I rate this collaboration between two of the world's most innovative and gifted guitarists as an absolute timeless classic.  If you don't have this album in your collection buy it now.  Actually you can hear samples of all the tracks by clicking on the Amazon link (top or bottom) if you need to be convinced.