Another CD captures the excitement of the third annual Festival in the Desert, which took place in January of 2003 in one of the most remote places on earth: northern Mali, in the Sahara Desert.  The festival was launched as a cooperative, peace-celebrating effort in a land that had been torn by ethic strife.  The north of Mali is home to the Tamashek people (also known as Tuaregs) who have long struggled for rights and recognition from the Malian government, dominated by the Manding and Bambara ethnic groups in the south.  After a drought forced them in refugee camps, the Tamasheks rose in rebellion; but a peace accord has held since the early ‘90s.

Since then, a number of southern Malian musicians have made a splash on the world music scene, particularly Ali Farka Toure (who made a Grammy-winning album with Ry Cooder in 1994).  The Festival in the Desert brought together Malian musicians north and south, in an event timed to coincide with the most important annual get-together of far-flung Tamashek communities.

The audience arrived on camelback and in 4x4s and sat right on the sand to listen – there were no seats.  Well-known and unknown northern Malian groups like Tinariwen – which debuted on the World Village label in 2002 – brought their haunting North African sounds to the stage, along with Toure and his bluesy guitar, plus visitors like the moody French-Algerian band Lo’Jo (who helped organize the event), Arizona Navajo punkers Blackfire, and even ex-Led Zep Robert Plant.  Lo’Jo’s sound man captured it all on a remote recording unit, and the result is a remarkable live CD, Festival In The Desert (World Village / Harmonia Mundi), released last month.  A DVD is expected in February.