Released: 23/09/22
The legacy of Ali Farka Touré (who died in 2006) is immense. A virtuosic guitarist dubbed “the African John Lee Hooker,” he was a Grammy-winning pioneer of ‘desert blues’ who trekked the world to bring his beloved Malian music to the masses. As such, there are very few musicians on the planet who have not just the musical chops, but the sensibility required to cover Touré’s songs – but luckily for us, Ali, a record that recreates some of his most resonant work, is a beautiful conceived collaboration between Touré’s enormously talented son Boureima "Vieux" Farka Touré (a star in his own right who's known as “the Hendrix of the Sahara”), and mighty Texan psych-rockers Khruangbin.
A fitting ode to a legend, on Ali the artists add their own distinctive twists to Touré senior’s material, while maintaining its integrity; more than just a simple greatest hits compilation, it acts as a lullaby, a remembrance of Touré’s life that takes in both the ‘hits’ and the B-sides from his remarkable catalogue.