I’ve written before about Ali Farka Touré, the sublime guitarist and song writer Timbuktu [in blog entry Thinking of Timbuktu]. In the Heart of the Moon was the second last album he released before his death in March of 2006. Here, he is teamed up with master kora player Toumani Diabaté, in a spontaneous jam session, without rehearsal. A few overdubs (some by Ry Cooder) were later added, but these are discreet, and not intrusive to the effortless flow of the session. All twelve tracks are superb. It is also more traditional, harking back to the pre-electric days of the griot performers of classical Malian music, and mixing both Songhai and Bambara strains. The cumulative mood is hypnotically pleasurable. There is no hint of rivalry in the duets. The kora is built from a calabash gourd cut in half and covered with cow skin, with a notched bridge, putting it roughly in the mandolin family. But it’s played somewhat like a flamenco guitar, and the strings give a distinctly harp-like sound. Diabaté is perhaps the finest interpreter of this instrument. Touré, as the more famous musician, doesn’t hog the show. He lets the Diabaté’s kora shine in the limelight for most of the songs. The subtlety of their collaboration hits the listener only as one gets well into the album. If you are going to buy three albums to introduce yourself to the glories of the Malian Renaissance (for that is what is going on in that country), then I recommend this album, Touré’s The Source, and Amadou et Mariam’s Dimanche à Bamako.
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