Ali Farka Toure - Green

 

Remastered audio

Celebrating the great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, this remastered reissue of his Green album will be the first vinyl issue since the ‘80s.

Touré was born in 1939 in the village of Kanau on the banks of the Niger in the north west of the country. He was his mother's tenth son and the first to survive infancy. While Ali was still an infant his father died while serving in the French army, and the family moved south along the river to Niafunké, the village he called home for the rest of his life.

In the 1970s, Touré worked as a sound engineer for national Radio Mali and broadcasts of his own performances earned him a formidable local reputation. He sent some recordings to the Sonodisc record company in Paris, resulting in one of the first ever commercial releases of Malian music — a 12" vinyl album titled Ali Toure 'Farka'.

Between 1975 and 1988 a total of seven albums were released, all titled only with variations on the artist's name and with no information other than a photo and the song titles. The last two albums released became known as the Red and Green albums due to the colors of their original album sleeves. In the mid-1980s a few copies of these albums found their way to Anne Hunt of World Circuit Records, prompting her to travel to Mali and broadcast an appeal over the airwaves of Radio Mali to find Ali. As luck would have it Ali was visiting the capital Bamako and he heard the broadcast. Thus began Ali's hugely successful international career and his long relationship with the World Circuit label.

Digitally remastered from the original tapes, Ali Farka Touré's Green album showcases Ali's acoustic guitar and vocals, both alone and accompanied by calabash and ngoni (traditional four string guitar). It's one of many in Ali's catalog that demonstrate his continuing importance to African music. A must-have for both fans and collectors alike.

"One of the most evident examples about the link between Africa and North America is probably Ali Farka Toure, one of today's most notable figures from Africa. When you listen to some of his works, the first thing you notice are the similarities with another mythical figure from the world of blues, John Lee Hooker. But these two figures don't have any meeting points except that both draw inspiration from the rich African musical traditions. ... The tunes on these reissues are simple and distinct. Followed by his guitar, Toure is singing in several local languages and is joined by two local instruments, calabash and ngoni. These are actually some of the first recordings of these instruments. The music itself runs down the clich's about African music and its accent on rhythm. Still, the guitar is impressionable with its melodies and simplicity. Toure's playing is always melodic, modal, and meditative, and he repeats musical phrases over and over again, subtly changing them. ... (The beauty) comes from Toure's light touch on the strings as well as his flexible, reedy voice, which both perfectly complement his rhythmic style." — allaboutjazz.com

Side A

1. Sidi Gouro

2. O Kata Gouna

3. Devele Wague

4. Zona

Side B

1. N'timbara

2. M'baudy (Vinyl Edit)

3. Petenere

4. L'exode

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