Ry Cooder's interest in ethnic folk music from the developing world is well known; his most celebrated project to date was probably bringing `The Buena Vista Social Club' from quiet obscurity in Cuba to a wider global audience.
This well-deserved 1995 Grammy winner is a collection of songs by Malian blues/folk musician Ali Farka Toure with his backing musicians Hamma Sankare and Oumar Toure together with Cooder, Clarence Brown, John Patitucci and Jim Keltner. The album was recorded over three days in California in late 1993 during Toure's US tour, and produced by Cooder.
Instantly accessible and eminently listenable, `Talking Timbuktu' reveals a deeper side with repeat plays as the complex interplay of these excellent musicians beguiles its way into your soul. All the songs are sung in one or other of the various ethnic languages of Mali with English translations in the insert booklet, so you know what Toure is on about. Some of the numbers are in the groove of Mississippi Delta blues, which reveals where the style originates: West Africa.
You can listen to this album all day long wherever you are and whatever you're doing; it's truly music for all seasons. It has an exotic & authentically African flavour, is delightfully upbeat and some of it is wonderfully danceable. Admittedly the result is more Toure than Cooder: the American musicians take a back seat and act as sidemen to Toure and his band, to sublime result. Cooder's attention to detail means that the overall production is near-faultless, with the sound in perfect balance.
If you don't know any of the excellent music which has come out of Mali these past 20 years (Salif Keita, Amadou & Mariam, Super Rail Band, Bassekou Kouyate, Fatoumata Diawara) then `Talking Timbuktu' would be a good port of entry and a purchase you're unlikely to regret.
This well-deserved 1995 Grammy winner is a collection of songs by Malian blues/folk musician Ali Farka Toure with his backing musicians Hamma Sankare and Oumar Toure together with Cooder, Clarence Brown, John Patitucci and Jim Keltner. The album was recorded over three days in California in late 1993 during Toure's US tour, and produced by Cooder.
Instantly accessible and eminently listenable, `Talking Timbuktu' reveals a deeper side with repeat plays as the complex interplay of these excellent musicians beguiles its way into your soul. All the songs are sung in one or other of the various ethnic languages of Mali with English translations in the insert booklet, so you know what Toure is on about. Some of the numbers are in the groove of Mississippi Delta blues, which reveals where the style originates: West Africa.
You can listen to this album all day long wherever you are and whatever you're doing; it's truly music for all seasons. It has an exotic & authentically African flavour, is delightfully upbeat and some of it is wonderfully danceable. Admittedly the result is more Toure than Cooder: the American musicians take a back seat and act as sidemen to Toure and his band, to sublime result. Cooder's attention to detail means that the overall production is near-faultless, with the sound in perfect balance.
If you don't know any of the excellent music which has come out of Mali these past 20 years (Salif Keita, Amadou & Mariam, Super Rail Band, Bassekou Kouyate, Fatoumata Diawara) then `Talking Timbuktu' would be a good port of entry and a purchase you're unlikely to regret.
- Talking Timbuktu, Cooder's 1994 collaboration with Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toureacute;, hit the No. 1 spot on the world music charts for 25 weeks straight, setting a record. It also won a.
- Ali Farka Toure Ry Cooder Talking Timbuktu 10 Track 1994 Cassette TAPE Tested See more like this. Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder - Talking Timbuktu (1994 CD Blues World) Pre-Owned. From Australia. Or Best Offer +$5.75 shipping.
- Ryland Peter 'Ry' Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, and record producer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.
Ry Cooder (1993-09) (track 7) accordion [accordion sample], bass guitar, electric guitar [electric guitars] and marimba: Ry Cooder (1993-09) (track 10). Bielsko-Biala, Poland; Machida, Japan; Izumo, Japan; San Jose, United States; Blida, Algeria. 11 rows Talking Timbuktu features him singing in 11 languages and playing acoustic and electric guitar, six-string banjo, njarka, and percussion, while teaming smartly with an all-star cast that includes superstar fusion bassist John Patitucci, session drummer Jim Keltner, longtime roots music great Ry Cooder (who doubled as producer), venerable. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1994 CD release of Talking Timbuktu on Discogs.
Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder “Talking Timbuktu” 1994 Mali-USA Blues,Folk
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https://soundcloud.com/jim-driesen/ali-farka-toure-ry-cooder-talking-timbuktu-albumGuitarist Ali Farka Touré has repeatedly bridged the gap between traditional African and contemporary American vernacular music, and this release continues that tradition. Talking Timbuktu features him singing in 11 languages and playing acoustic and electric guitar, six-string banjo, njarka, and percussion, while teaming smartly with an all-star cast that includes superstar fusion bassist John Patitucci, session drummer Jim Keltner, longtime roots music great Ry Cooder (who doubled as producer), venerable guitarist Gatemouth Brown, and such African percussionists and musicians as Hamma Sankare on calabash and Oumar Touré on congas…..by Ron Wynn….~
Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré and American guitarist/producer Ry Cooder in 1995 joined forces to record the Grammy award-winning album Talking Timbuktu.Talking Timbuktu is a groundbreaking record that vividly illustrates the Africa-Blues connection in real time. Ali Farka Toure, who was one of Mali’s leading singer-guitarists, has a trance-like, bluesy style that, although deeply rooted in Malian tradition, bears astonishing similarity to that of John Lee Hooker or even Canned Heat. It’s a mono-chordal vamp, with repetitive song lines cut with shards of blistering solo runs that shimmer like a desert mirage….~
A very successful blend of classic black blues and the folkloric elements of Mali. In addition to the more than interesting instrumental mix of guitar, percussion and njarka (a kind of fiddle), I am particularly impressed by the typical voice of Ali Farka Toure, who gives the songs a very special flair. From this one can clearly hear the strong Arabic influence typical of Mali, which, however, is far from being as intrusive as pure Arabic songs.
Talking Timbuktu was my first CD by Ali Farka Toure and I loved her so much that I ordered all the other CDs of this man I could get - so far I have four of them in my possession and I do not regret it, even though This CD is certainly the best of it. I can highly recommend this CD to lovers of African music or even blues friends, even though it might take a bit of getting used to for some ears due to the instrumentation…..~
Who likes Buena Vista Social Club, should not miss this CD. “Talking Timbuktu” is true and qualitatively equivalent predecessor of BVSC. Here, Ry Cooder and Ali Faka Toure succeed with African traditions an indescribably inspiring and humorous, somehow soothing and joyful piece of music. A CD, which I put on again and again for years without ever running the risk of catching the catchy tune…..~
An incredible mix of African rhythms, African vocals, blues and slide guitar. I have listened to the CD three times in a row on some days, this music will not let you go. She accompanies you as you sleep … Ry Cooder has created a real masterpiece here with Ali Farka Toure from Mali…..~
Ali Farka Toure was born in the village of Gourmararusse in Mali. Now, in his sixty-odd, he is the most famous Malian guitarist. He quietly spends his life in the city of Niafunke (Niafunke), which is located on the arid northern shores of the Niger River. But the requests of listeners around the world, who like the warmth and spirituality of his singing and playing, do not allow him to stop. Fans of Tours in the West call him an African bluesman, John Lee Hooker’s spiritual brother, but for Tours, American blues is nothing more than a Western reflection of the sounds of Mali. Tours give the palm to the beautiful, ancient cultures of the Timbuktu area. He says: “Tamasek, sing, dogon, singhai, bambara, boso and the sea are seven different nationalities, seven different languages, but we all live here in Niafunka.”
When Toure was ten years old, he began to play instruments that he calls his teachers-a small single-stringed guitar, njurkel, and a tiny violin of nyarka-a pumpkin-sized fist, with a thirty-centimeter neck, on which is fastened a thin string of guts. Then he learned about the existence of the guitar and, inspired by the founder of the African Ballet of Guinea Fodeba Keita (Fodeba Keita), began to learn how to play it. And he owned, in addition to guitar, bongami and instrument “kalabash”; and sang in eleven languages, except English. He sang … about education, work, love, society. About what the blues should talk about - the hardships and the changeable nature of human existence.
Ry Cooder Albums
Toure thoroughly toured abroad and recorded a large number of records there. In 1994, he worked with American guitarist Rai Kuder, which resulted in the album “Talking Timbuktu”. This album received a Grammy and became one of the most successful fruits of cooperation between African and American musicians…..~
These days the genre of desert blues boasts one of the most vibrant music movements around the world. The bands and musicians that are part of this genre come from an area that is spread across Western Africa that stretches from Mali to Libya gathering people of various ethnic groups. Artists such as Tinariwen , Terakaft, Boubakar Traore, Tamikrest, Bombino, Habib Koite, Vieux Farka Toure, Amadou and Miriam, to name but a few, can be seen and heard touring the world, performing at prestigious world music festivals and producing brilliant and popular recordings. The sound that forms the basis of their music, apart from the dominant sound of the guitars, shares the same yearning and pace as the American blues, and the sonorities of the strings resonate in a way that has already been heard on old blues recordings.
The popularity of this movement and music can easily be pinpointed to the music of the great Malian artist Ali Farka Toure, a towering musical figure and cultural icon. It was him who singlehandedly introduced the world to this music and its cultures behind. Toure’s music was the finest example of desert blues that was unconcerned with boundaries. For years before the world came to know his music in the ‘80s, he merged the sounds and the rhythms of his native Mali with the sounds of the blues which inevitably drew comparisons with another great artist, the blues legend John Lee Hooker. At the time, his music was wide spreading across Africa when cassettes were the chosen medium for the desert and were used as main distribution channels as much as these days cell phone memory cards are used in West Africa for distributing music. And it was inevitable for him to meet the ever curious guitar adventurer and producer Ry Cooder. That was the moment when the desert blues got its worldwide exposure. Cooder has carved a reputation of delving deep and exploring the vast legacies of American musical legacies, most notably the rustic strains of the blues. That a guitarist of reputation and history such as Cooder’s chose to play with Toure is not surprising. After all, Africa is the spiritual homeland of the blues.
Ry Cooder Biography
Recorded over a period of three days, Talking Timbuktu is full of sizzling examples that will surely curl the toes and will warm the hearts of guitar fanatics. On these 11 tracks, there is a kind of interplay and communication between these two artists that is rare in any kind of music. Both artists are immediately recognizable musicians on that most overplayed of instruments, but to their advantage both of them are also bound by their obvious empathy. There is some serious mutual respect at work on this historic meeting evident right from the start with the opening “Bondo.” The song’s melodies swirl with emotion bolstered by call and response vocals that all together conjure so much: the streams of river Niger, the vastness of a desert sky and the force of a desert wind. Apart from the electric guitar, Toure plays banjo here, and interestingly, Cooder plays and complements him with a Cümbüş, a Turkish fretless variant of a banjo (the word Cümbüş is also a synonym for chaos) on this beautiful opener.The follow-up track “Soukora” just shows how excellent Toure is at balancing feels and flow. It features a very simple yet very effective and memorable line that go straight to the heart. Not only that, it shows a remarkable musical empathy and thoughtlessness by Cooder who plays mandoguitar in the background. Cooder’s role on this record is more in the line to strengthen Toure’s vision (As Toure is the author of all the tracks but one) and to better the music by subtly adding his imprint rather than to impose himself into the limelight. Joining him on this endeavor are three legendary musicians, drummer Jim Keltner, bassist extraordinaire John Patitucci, and blues guitarist Clarence 'Gatemouth’ Brown. By no means this is a corporate takeover as this group of people have a perfect understanding that its role to augment Toure’s vision rather than to adulterate it.
Toure has played with outsiders before, most notably guitarist Taj Mahal on The Source. (World Circuit, 1993) In a sense, inviting foreigners into these songs is a sign of confidence that Toure has in the integrity of his music. Nevertheless, this record’s soundworld is also shaped by geography. Ali was known to sing in a number of West African languages—apart from his own Sonrai, he sang in languages such as Songhai, Peul, Tamasheck, Bambara and others. As a country, Mali is a meeting point of several disparate cultures and Toure’s music reflected that. This is communal music and it knows no boundaries.
“Gomni” is based on layers of delicate percussion and Cooder’s guitar can be heard adding more layers with his indelible slide. It’s a typical modal track and with his embellishments, he creates a subtle but wider spectrum of colors and textures. “Sega” is a short instrumental with the fiddle-like sounding n'jarka taking the lead. “Lasidan” is the most playful track here. The pace is fast-slowness with percussion layering up gradually with handclaps, congas and the calabash. It’s truly eclectic without being too mannered, and it’s virtuosic without showing off. “Amandrai 'and 'Au Du” are the places where the Delta and the desert blues truly meet. These are lengthy, slow-paced and spontaneous blues songs where Cooder and Toure trade off licks. Both of these tracks display the pair’s keen melodic sensibilities and distinct styles of playing. Functioning as a veritable master class in multicultural collaboration, both Toure and Cooder are at the top of their game here, each other placing their inimitable stamps on this iconic music.
What is evident on this record, first and foremost, is the joy of playing and joy of interacting musically. On the other hand, by its genesis and mood, it is the sound of a journey undertaken. This journey takes one’s head from the rural places of Mali down to the Delta juke joints and backward. For the most part, on this record, it sounds like these performances were captured live in the studio with minimal overdubbing and editing. Most of the time the songs have that improvised feel of a conversation and a sense that a moment was captured that we are lucky to have.
Mali’s gifts to the world of music are lavish and legendary, and this record is the one that opened the doors for the world to its vast riches. The vinyl reissue of Talking Timbuktu allows listeners to experience the brilliance of these two iconic musicians where the superb production captures all the subtle nuances of each performer’s phrasings and grasp of the songs. There’s a timeless quality to it. It is a genre defining recording that was not only Grammy awarded but for a long time it was the best-selling world music record of all time. It also stands as one of the most important documents of modern African music. Talking Timbuktu represents a high-water mark in the careers of both of these remarkable artists. There is magic to the sounds of the desert and Talking Timbuktu simply captures that magic with an amazing grace…..By NENAD GEORGIEVSKI …..~
“A triumph.” The Sunday Times
When Ali met Ry Cooder in 1992 they really bonded and Ali later presented him with the first instrument he made, a one-string lute called a djerkal. Recorded in just three days in LA in 1993 the resulting collaboration 'Talking Timbuktu’ well deserved its Grammy Award. Relaxed and accessible, the music is complimented by Ry’s subtle guitar work and sensitive production while retaining the integrity of Ali’s performance.
Ali Farke Toure and Ry Cooder have long treasured each other’s recordings. They first met in London in 1992 while both were touring Europe. It was agreed that they should 'try something together’. This ‘something’ became ‘Talking Timbuktu’, a Grammy award-winning classic album.
In September '93 Toure was set to play a string of dates in the States and a week was set aside for recording his new album. Cooder was to play on a couple of tracks. A few hours’ rehearsal at Cooder’s Santa Monica home hinted at inspiring possibilities. The Malian guitarist’s next three Californian dates all featured Cooder as special guest. The recording followed a week later by which time Cooder had agreed to produce the entire album and play on every track. The whole album, recorded in three days, is now available on vinyl with an additional previously unreleased track……~
Personnel:
Ali Farka Toure: vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, six string banjo, njarka, percussion
Ry Cooder: electric and acoustic guitars, cumbus, mbira, tamboura, mandolin, bass, marimba;
Hamma Sankare calabash, chorus vocals;
Oumar Toure: congas, chorus vocals;
Jim Keltner: drums Clarence 'Gatemouth’ Brown: electric guitar, viola.
John Patitucci: bass
Ry Cooder: electric and acoustic guitars, cumbus, mbira, tamboura, mandolin, bass, marimba;
Hamma Sankare calabash, chorus vocals;
Oumar Toure: congas, chorus vocals;
Jim Keltner: drums Clarence 'Gatemouth’ Brown: electric guitar, viola.
John Patitucci: bass
Tracklist
A1 Bonde
A2 Soukora
A3 Gomni
A4 Sega
A5 Amandrai
B1 Lasidan
B2 Keito
B3 Banga
B4 Ai Du
B5 Diaraby