The album Red from legendary Malian musician Ali Farka Touré was reissued in March 2021, coinciding with the 15th anniversary of Ali Farka Toure’s death on March 6, 2006, at the age of 66.
In 1982, singer-songwriter and guitarist Ali Farka Touré, then still in the early years of his recording career, got together with the superb percussionist Hama Sankare. Together, from a base in Ali’s home village of Niafunké, they traveled through Northern Mali refining a collection of new songs. When they were ready to record they followed the River Niger as it wound down through the desert to the capital city of Bamako.
In one afternoon, the great Radio Mali house engineer Boubacar Traore captured these eight stellar performances on two microphones: two voices so close it was thought they were double tracked, one guitar (the distinctive Bulgarian acoustic model that Ali treasured) and Hama’s calabash percussion making its first appearance on record. The album, which includes some of Touré’s best loved songs, was released self-titled with no sleeve notes, just an enigmatic group photo on the cover. It was known as the “Red” album due to the color of its original sleeve.
The album was popular in Mali and the Tuareg refugee camps in Libya, where it became an influence on the musicians who came together as Tinariwen.
Buy Red
Author: World Music Central News Room
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