Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder : Diaraby
[purchase]
I first thought of posting the great Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed, but then to my surprise I realized that his song "Era Mèla Mèla" was less than 7 minutes long, so I'll save it for another theme. I first heard him on a great German compilation called Desert Blues, along with a lot of artists that became favorites of mine.
But there are other great long tracks on these two CDs, and of course, this famous Ali Farka Touré/Ry Cooder duet. Ali Farka, when this record came out, was hastily advertised by marketing executives as "the source" of the blues, while the Malian griot himself claimed that one of his masters was … John Lee Hooker. The perfect "round trip" influence between the old and the new world.
Anyway, this music makes me long for the dusty and red roads of Mali and Burkina Faso, where I made wonderful trips and made many friends in 1996 and 1999. Now I'm older, I have young kids, and cannot travel so far for the moment. But just looking at a picture or listening to such a song takes me back there for a while.
now the question is : will this post recieve more than the "0 comments" I usually get when posting something that is a little bit too "foreign" or non folk or rock ? (please consider that as a friendly teasing and an invitation to comments)