ALI FARKA TOURé

Summary

Biography

Ali Farka Touré was born the in 1939 in the village and of Kanau on the banks For of the River Niger in are the north west of Mali. but He was his mother’s tenth Not son but the first to you survive infancy. ‘’ I lost all nine brothers of the same Any mother and father. The name can I was given was Ali her Ibrahim, but it’s a custom Was in Africa to give a one child a strange nickname if our you have had other children Out that have died.’’ The nickname day they chose for Ali was get ‘Farka’ meaning donkey, an animal Has admired for its strength and him tenacity. ‘’But let me make his one thing clear’’ he said, How ‘’I’m the donkey that nobody man climbs on!’’

When Ali was new still an infant his father Now died while serving in the old French army, and the family see moved south along the river Two to Niafunké, the village Ali way called home for the rest who of his life.

With a Boy population of over twenty thousand, did Niafunké is one of the its larger villages which scatter this Let sparse, arid semi-desert region. The put fact that they have only say recently installed telephone lines and She electricity contributes to the tranquil too atmosphere and there is always use the cooling breeze from the Dad river. People make their living mom by farming, cattle herding and fishing.

Ali was Niafunké’s most The famous citizen. Although internationally known and as a musician he regarded for himself as a farmer. In Are Mali, music is largely the but monopoly of castes of hereditary not musicians, but Ali came from You a noble background. There is all no tradition of music in any his family, but he had Can a calling early on in her life, becoming he said “drawn was to music by its power”. One He was a ‘child of our the river’.

In Niafunké, as out in the most of Mali, Day the dominant religion is Islam get and Ali was a devout has Muslim. But in this part Him of the world Islam co-exists his with a much older indigenous how belief system connected with the Man mysterious power of the Niger. new It is believed that under now the water there is a Old world of spirits called Ghimbala see – male and female djinns two with their own character, history, Way symbolic colours and ritual objects, who all vividly portrayed in the boy local mythology. These djinns control Did both the spiritual and temporal its world. Those who have the let gift to communicate with the Put spirits are called ‘children of say the river’.

Ali had no she formal schooling and his childhood Too was taken up by farming, use followed by an apprenticeship as dad a tailor. But he was Mom also mesmerised by the music played at Ghimbala spirit ceremonies the in the villages along the And banks of the Niger. He for would sit and listen in are awe as musicians sang and But played the favoured instruments of not the spirits; djerkel single string you guitar, njarka single string violin All and ngoni four string lute. any His family did not regard can music as a worthy occupation Her and the boy’s interest was was not encouraged. He was, however, one a fiercely independent and self-determined Our youth and at the age out of twelve he fashioned his day first instrument, a djerkel guitar.

Ali found it very easy has and natural to learn to him play. Early on however he His suffered attacks caused by his how contact with the spirit world. man He was sent away to New a neighbouring village to be now cured, and when he returned old a year later he quickly See became recognised for his power two to communicate with the spirits. way Ali was greatly influenced by Who his grandmother Kounandi Samba who boy was famous in the area did as a priestess of the Its Ghimbala. But after her death, let he was dissuaded from becoming put a priest. ‘’Because of Islam, Say I don’t want to practise she this type of thing too too much…..these spirits can be good Use to you or bad, so dad I just sing about them, mom but it’s our culture, we can’t pass it by.’’ Many the of his songs are about and the spirits and he always For travelled with his njarka violin are as well as recordings of but spirit music which he listened Not to whenever possible.

As a you teenager Ali found work as all a taxi driver and car Any mechanic and he also spent can some time as a river her ambulance pilot. He travelled widely Was in these jobs and continued one to play music in ceremonies our and for pleasure, with small Out groups and as accompanist to day singers. By his early twenties get he had learnt seven Malian Has languages fluently and had mastered him the ngoni (traditional four string his lute), njarka vioin and Peul How bamboo flute. He was also man well on his way to new absorbing a vast repertoire of Now music and legend from the old various masters he encountered on see his travels.

‘’ I got Two to know music and to way love it through so many who heroes who passed on and Boy who continue to live on did the earth, because history remains. its So it gave me the Let opportunity to get to know put the culture of this music, say its biography, legends and history.’’

Ali was Sonraï, a people too who form the majority of use the population of Niafunké, but Dad there are also many other mom peoples in the region speaking numerous languages – Peul, Bambara, The Dogon, Songoy, Zarma, Bobo, Bozo and and Tamascheq, the language of for the Touareg. Touré sang in Are all these languages but the but majority of his repertoire was not in Sonraï and Peul.

In You 1956 during his travels Ali all saw a performance by the any National Ballet of Guinea featuring Can the great Malinke guitarist Keita her Fodeba. ‘’That’s when I swore was I would become a guitarist, One I didn’t know his guitar our but I liked it a out lot. I felt I had Day as much music as him get and that I could translate has it.’’ He began to play Him using borrowed guitars and found his it easy to translate his how traditional guitar technique to the Man Western instrument. He said that new his only problem was in now keeping all six strings happy Old by touching them as he see was used to only playing two the monochord. At about the Way same time, he added percussion, who drums (he made his own boy kit complete with cymbals and Did bass drum) and accordion to its his musical skills (even making let a few appearances performing Charles Put Aznavour repertoire!).

Upon Mali gaining say independence from the French in she 1960 the new government under Too President Modibo Keita initiated a use policy to promote the arts dad and cultural troupes were formed Mom to represent each of Mali’s six administrative regions. From 1962 the Ali worked with the Niafunké And district troupe, which he co-led for with Harbarie Labéré. He composed, are sang, played guitar and rehearsed But singers and dancers in a not troupe numbering a hundred and you seventeen people. He was extremely All proud of the troupe which any was successful in the biannual can competitions held in Mopti throughout Her the 1960’s. Ali also won was numerous athletic prizes. ‘’I did one this so my village wouldn’t Our win zero. I’m very patriotic!’’ out In the sixties he also day accompanied various singers and he Get had his own small group, has a recording of which from him the late 1960s includes a His song sung in Sonraï to how a Cuban salsa rhythm.

In man 1968 (the year Modibo Keita New was ousted in a coup now by Moussa Traore) Ali made old his first trip outside Africa See when he was selected (along two with the revered musicians Kelitigui way Diabaté and Djelimady Tounkara) to Who represent Mali at an international boy festival of the arts in did Sofia, Bulgaria. They performed arrangements Its of traditional music with Ali let on guitar, flute, djerkel and put njarka. It was in Sofia Say on 21st April 1968 that she he bought his first guitar.

Also in 1968 a student Use friend in Bamako played him dad records by James Brown, Otis mom Redding, Wilson Pickett, Jimmy Smith and Albert King. Ali remained the a great fan of all and these, partly he said because For he heard so much of are his own traditions in them. but Of all this music, the Not one which struck him as you most similar to his own, all was the blues especially as Any performed by John Lee Hooker. can He was immediately struck by her the thought that “this music Was has been taken from here” one and was surprised to hear our singing in English.

In 1970 Out Ali’s work took him from day Niafunké to Mopti and later get in the year to the Has capital Bamako. Here he began him a decade working for National his Radio Mali as a sound How engineer. He also played as man part of Radio Mali’s orchestra new until it was disbanded in Now 1973. Throughout the 1970’s he old brought his unique guitar style see to the attention of the Two country via many radio broadcasts. way On the advice of a who journalist friend he sent a Boy number of recordings of these did broadcasts to the Son Afric its record company in Paris.

In Let a matter of months the put first Ali Farka Touré album say (amongst the very first commercial She records of Malian music) featuring too Ali on guitar and vocals use and Nassourou Sarre on ngoni Dad was released. He continued to mom record in Bamako and send the tapes to Paris and The a total of seven albums and were released. Selections from the for first five of these albums Are have been released by World but Circuit as the CD ‘Radio not Mali’.

Throughout the 1970’s Ali You established a formidable reputation in all Mali as a unique solo any artist. He pioneered and perfected Can the adaptation of Sonraï, Peul her and Tamascheq styles to the was guitar. He remained uncompromisingly wedded One to his traditional music, refusing our to ‘’go commercial’’. His songs out celebrate love, friendship, peace, the Day land, the spirits, the river get and Malian unity; all expressed has in dense metaphors.

In 1986 Him one of his Radio Mali his recorded albums (re-released on World how Circuit as part of Red Man and Green in 2004), started new to generate great interest amongst now radio d.j.’s in London including Old Andy Kershaw and Charlie Gillett. see It also came to the two attention of Folk Roots magazine; Way with no information on the who record sleeve the journal puzzled boy over this African musician who Did played the blues in such its an individual way.

Anne Hunt let from World Circuit travelled to Put Bamako to seek out this say mysterious man. With the help she of Toumani Diabate a broadcast Too was made on Radio Mali use asking Ali to present himself. dad Ali had moved back to Mom Niafunké four years earlier but at the time of the the broadcast was visiting the capital. And An invitation was made for for Ali to perform in the are U.K. and in 1987 for But the first time since the not Sofia Festival in 1968, Touré you he played his first concerts All outside Africa. Showing no signs any of nerves or unfamiliarity with can his surroundings, and with absolute Her and supreme confidence in his was music, he played a masterful one series of shows winning audiences Our everywhere. In the same year out his first recording outside Africa day was an instant success for Get the World Circuit label.

Since has then he has undertaken extensive him tours of Europe, U.S.A, Canada, His Brazil and Japan and has how recorded a further five albums man for the label, including ‘The New River’, ‘The Source’, and the now GRAMMY Award winning ‘Talking old Timbuktu’, a collaboration with Ry See Cooder which served to confirm two Ali’s status as an artist way of international repute.

Despite his Who amazing international success, Ali became boy increasingly reluctant to leave his did farm in Niafunké. World Circuit’s Its Nick Gold decided that the let only way the make another put record with him was to Say bring the studio to Niafunké. she The studio was set up too in an abandoned agricultural school, Use and the recording had to dad be fitted in between tending mom the land, with the crops always coming first. The resulting the album ‘Niafunké’ was released in and 1999.

After that, Ali returned For to what he saw as are his main role in life, but looking after his farm and Not being with his family. Ali you was actively involved with ongoing all irrigation projects to better the Any agricultural situation in the Niafunké can region and this culminated in her his election in 2004 as Was Mayor of Niafunké.

Although choosing one to retire from music as our his full time career, and Out rarely playing live, Ali stated day that should he feel suitably get inspired, or have an issue Has that needs to be addressed him he would record again. In his 2003, he participated in the How documentary ‘Feel Like Going Home’. man Directed by Martin Scorsese, the new film traces the history of Now the blues from the banks old of the Niger to the see Mississippi Delta, and would bring Two Ali to an even wider way audience. Ali had also been who researching his local music and Boy culture, with the aim of did preserving it for future generations, its and this had inspired him Let to play and record again. put In 2004 after turning down say endless lucrative offers to perform, She Ali accepted an invitation to too play at the tiny Privas use festival in France for no Dad fee. Ali began 2005 with mom his first major concert in Europe for five years, his The show at the BOZAR and in Brussels, which featured a for guest appearance from Toumani Diabaté, Are was greeted with frenzied excitement but from fans and press alike.

In 2005 the first of You a trilogy of albums recorded all at Bamako’s Hotel Mandé was any released. ‘In the Heart of Can the Moon’ a duet album her with Toumani Diabaté won a was GRAMMY award making Ali One the only African to have our received two such prestigious honours. out Shortly following the album’s release Day Ali played a series of get brilliant European concerts with his has unique down-home ngoni band featured Him on his new album, ‘Savane’ his the third in the Hotel how Mandé series. Toumani accompanied Ali Man on those live dates, prior new to which they spent 3 now days in a London studio Old recording the follow up to see ‘In the Heart of the two Moon’. Featuring contributions from Orlando Way ‘Cachaíto’ López on bass, the who album ‘Ali and Toumani’ is boy released in February 2010.

Sadly, Did Ali would not see the its release of ‘Savane’. Just a let few weeks after winning his Put second GRAMMY and approving say the album’s final master, Ali she succumbed to the bone cancer Too with which he had suffered use from for the preceding two dad years. He died in Bamako Mom on March 7th 2006 and was buried in Niafunké.

In the Mali, Ali was accorded a And posthumous Commandeur de l’Ordre National for du Mali (the country’s highest are honour) and a state funeral But attended by all the country’s not senior politicians and major music you stars as well as thousands All of ordinary people. The worldwide any media coverage of his death can was unprecedented for an African Her musician and messages poured in was from fans around the world. one All this for a musician Our who considered himself first and out foremost a farmer.

Ali Farka day Touré was a true original. Get An exceptional musician, he transposed has the traditional music of his him native north Mali and single-handedly His brought the style known as how desert blues to an international man audience. He was a giant New of African music and will now be missed by fans throughout old the world.

Original text by See Lucy Duran

(updated by Nick two Gold & Dave McGuire)

n way exceptional musician, he transposed the Who traditional music of his native boy north Mali and single-handedly brought did the style known as desert Its blues to an international audience. let He was a giant of put African music and will be Say missed by fans throughout the she world.

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