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CD Review
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Sound Roots, CD Review >>
The Ghost of Ali Farka Toure
I am being haunted by the ghost of Ali Farka Toure. I don't know why he's chosen me, but the ethereal messages are coming through loud and clear.
You know Ali. He was a farmer turned politician in the town of Niafunke, Mali. And he had a little musical career going on the side, though he never made a big deal of that.
So, back to the haunting. It's not like Ali is a poltergeist inhabiting my TV or something. Ali is more subtle than that. He's coming through the Mali-style guitar work of Kane Mathis, in whose Saturday night performance I delighted (Kane's primary instrument is kora, but he pulled out the guitar for two pieces, the other a palmwine song).
And Ali's posthumous message is even stronger in the music of his son, Vieux Farka Toure. Vieux's self-titled debut album will be released in the USA on Feb. 13 by our friends at Modiba and World Village. The album features contributions by his father, as well as Toumani Diabate and Issa Bamba. It's reassuring to know that the future of Niafunke blues is in good hands.
Of course, it's not in the hands of Vieux alone. In fact, it could be in your hands. As part of the promotion for this album, the producers are having an open remix competition using the song "Ana." The various vocal and instrumental tracks for the song have been posted at ccMixter under a Creative Commons license, "so that producers worldwide can use the sounds in remixes and new compositions."
You can read more about the remix project, an official remix CD, and other topics in a DubMC interview with Derek Beres, the remix album's producer.
Have fun, and if you do undertake a mix, let us know and we may post some of the results here at SoundRoots.
--by DJ Earball 01/30/07 >> go there
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