Album review

Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté

Ali & Toumani

Paris 

04/03/2010 - 

Only a few months after recording a first album together, In the heart of the Moon, Toumani Diabaté and Ali Farka Touré were back in the studio in London for another joint work,  Ali & Toumani – further proof, if needed, of the close artistic ties between these two musicians.

Two names, two sounds and two visions which nonetheless tell the same story: that of the great Malian musical sagas that Ali Farka Touré et Toumani Diabaté have largely been responsible for spreading beyond the borders of their country since the 1980s. It’s what they were celebrating on In the heart of the moon, an album that came about when the two met up to record the classic Kaira. It was going to be just a duo, but instead became a legendary recording and a perfect demonstration of the common sensibilities of the guitarist and the kora player, over three improvised sessions.

Things went so well that the producer Nick Gold invited them to London a year later, in 2005, to further explore musical avenues together. “I think this album is stronger, wiser and better than the previous one,” says Toumani, who is the sole survivor of these sessions: Ali Farka Touré passed away in 2006, and Cuban bass player Cachaito Lopez, who also played on these recordings, died in 2009.

Which makes it impossible not to listen to Ali & Toumani as a musical testament of huge significance. And yet, to consider this album as merely a posthumous homage would be to miss the special grace that it incarnates. Because Ali & Toumani is also a vibrant ode to life, and a moving testimony of this intimate moment shared by three master musicians who came together to share one same message of peace and wisdom.

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté Ali & Toumani (World Circuit/Harmonia Mundi) 2010
Toumani Diabaté and Acoustic Septet, Casino de Paris, 18 May 2010

Jacques  Denis

Translation : Hugo  Wilcken