Ali Farka Touré - Talking Timbuktu (1994)

 

          8/10 ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Talking Timbuktu is a collaborative album with "Africa's John Lee Hooker", Ali Farka Touré, and American guitarist Ry Cooder. This is the first "world music" record that I've been recommended from theshfl, and it's a hit! I love instrumental guitar music and this is top-notch. Touré is one of Africa's most known and celebrated musicians and is generally considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time. I do feel the need to let it be known that Touré and Hooker both grew quite tired of the nickname I used at the beginning, but most Americans are probably going to recognize how great Hooker was and with that nickname, you can instantly associate Touré as an equal. Now I did also say I love instrumental guitar (which is true), but this record actually isn't instrumental, it's just that when you have such a talented instrumentalist it tends to really shine. Of course, I do not know what's being talked about in the lyrics, but the music feels peaceful, upbeat, happy, etc... I put this on while I was tinkering on a project for work and it helped me buzz right along.

Highlight: "Soukora", a love song, sung in the national language of Mali; Bambara. Of course, when I first clang to this song I had no idea what he was singing about, I just knew that it felt and sounded beautiful and right I was. Proof, that music is a universal language and that love cannot be bound by verbosity.