Ali Farka Toure, Ry Cooder - Talking Timbuktu
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Free Music Notes for Talking Timbuktu
Free Music Review: Another gem from the Sahara!
Hit: 5 Stars
As a fan of the Tuareg group "Tinariwen', I couldn't resist buying this CD when I saw that another famous native of their region hooked up with Ry Cooder. If you've ever listened to Ry's soundtrack works or his wonderful stuff on 'A Meeting by the River' or "The Buena Vista Social Club' then you'll know why he is such a great match for a veteran like Mr. Toure. Ry's son , Joachim, is a good addition with his drum work too!
Both of these men share a love of guitar music and it shows in every track of this CD. Similar to the effect generated with listening to 'Tinariwen', Talking Timbuktu transports me to the barren- but beautiful- expanses of the Saharan regions. It doesn't matter if its Mali, Niger or Algeria- the effect is the same. If you are familiar with the region, you'll get my meaning. Its haunting and mesemerizing at the same time.
This is an absolutely gorgeous CD. It also makes for fantastic 'road music' for when I take road trips. Trust me, its a good companion when the long trails of New Mexico and Arizona beckon and you want music for along the way. BTW- there's a good hour's worth of music here. This is no short trip! ;)
Talking Timbuktu definitely TALKS to me! It is not a waste of money at all!
Free Music Review: Tuore's Jem
Hit: 5 Stars
On the surface, this is a very simple album, simple in that it is accessible, unpretentious and easy to listen to. On repeated helpings, however, Talking Tmbuktu becomes an extraordinarily beautiful ensemble of the rock-pop (Ry Cooder) and the trad and bluesy (Toure). Take Gomni, the heart rendering tune about "hard work". The rich rhythmic tapistry and haunting melody that shifts back and forth among variations with amazing fluidity touches any soul.On the other hand, Lasidan, a song about happyness is groovy and multi-layered. Blues aficiandos attempt to catalogue Toure as the "West African John Lee Hooker" due to the similarity in the low-pitched vocals and mid-tempo, foot-stomping rhythms found in so many of his songs (like Ai Du). But I found his music richer; technically its combo of instruments ranging from the emblematic accoustic guitar to the calabash drums to the najarka lute create an inimitable style. Culturally Toure's songs draw from several sources. This is universal music, capable of reaching any heart despite the obvious language barrier.
For a mere mortal like me who picked this album on word of mouth, it also opened a whole new doors into music from Mali.
Free Music Review: Five Stars Are Not Enough
Hit: 5 Stars
As a classical musician, my personal listening experiences often get limited to a different sphere than the world of this artist. A friend introduced me to Toure with this album and I'm overwhelmed. I do not find it merely entertaining. There is an other-worldly, magical quality which shakes me to my musical roots. It's as if I have seen music as it used to exist many thousands of years ago, now being spoken in the present day in a language that I recognize instantly.
This is music reaching beyond the drama of the individual and purely personal emotion, beyond even hope, ambition and certainly fear of any kind. A friend of mine works on Wall Street and I've recently wondered what would happen if the Ninth Symphony and the B Minor Mass were played during work hours there. I now earnestly hope that that industry puts down its telephones and looks away from its computers to listen to music from an artist like Toure. And I wish our fractious America as a whole would listen in as well.
Free Music Review: Powerful reminder of where the Blues came from.
Hit: 5 Stars
Like "A Meeting by the River," this is a very successful collaboration by Ry Cooder and an artist from another culture. The two of them converse readily with one another, using their instruments. Ali Farka Toure has a voice and a steel-string guitar sound that are powerful, piercing, plaintive. It is hard to believe that Ali Farka Toure is not a bluesman from the Mississippi Delta. Which is to say, this album illustrates the African roots of the Blues that were subsequently played in the U.S. This album also illustrates the development of string music in Africa. Learned about this album, and other music by Ali Farka Toure, on the NPR program "Afropop", where I also learned that string music was later brought to the U.S. by Africans imported as slaves, who then instructed their "masters" in how to play guitar, banjo, and fiddle. Albums like this one make events from other times, places, and cultures come vividly alive in the present moment.Free Music Review: Hauntingly beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
Probably the most satisfying CD of Ali Farka Toure. Ry Cooder has assembled an excellent cast of musicians to back him, including the immortal Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown on violin. The songs are hauntingly beautiful, echoing the Blues, but indebted more to the pervasive Muslim inflence in West Africa. Toure is one of the grand masters of Malian music, which has an incredibly rich heritage. He is a purist at heart and this music reflects that approach, although it has been jazzed up to reach a broader audience. "Soukora" and "Ai Du" will leave you breathless. One only wishes that Toure had the chance to meet John Lee Hooker, since the two seem like soulmates. When he heard Hooker, Toure apparently was so stunned that he said Hooker belongs in Africa. It just goes to show you that the Blues is firmly embedded in the African tradition.