Pop Culture Press Around the World is a regular feature of the Pop Culture Press website and examines musical topics and artists that fall outside of our normal editorial focus.
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Looking back at the second half of 2006

By Andy Smith

Part 1 - Hailing the masters

Ali Farka Toure
Savane
Nonesuch/World Affair
This edition of "Pop Culture Press Around the World" begins with a salute to the iconic Ali Farka Toure, who on March 6, 2006 from bone cancer at the age of 66 or 67, depending on who was reporting his birth date. A native of northern Mali and descendant from an ancient tribal line of nobles, Toure humbly referred to himself as a farmer when he was in fact, one of the most important figures in the awakening of the musical links between the music of rural Mali and the delta blues tradition.

Of ten sons born to his mother, Toure was the only to survive past infancy and developed an early interest while growing up in Niafunke, the small city on the Niger River where as a small child, he moved with his mother from his native village after his father died while serving in the French army. Gaining local accolades for his ability on the njarka (one-stringed bowed instrument similar to a violin) while still a young man, Toure travelled widely through his work as a taxi driver and river ambulance pilot learning different tribal musical traditions while becoming fluent in some seven Malian languages (he later sang songs in all of them). In a country where musical composition and performance are traditionally monopolized by members of a specific tribal caste, Toure's wide exposure to different local cultures and independence from this restrictive tradition gave him the freedom to develop both his own style and a deep appreciation for diverse musical styles.

In the late 50's, he began playing guitar but did not actually own his own until 1968, when while on his first trip outside of Africa to Sofia, Bulgaria as part of a Malian group performing it an international arts festival, he purchased one. It was around this same time that Toure first heard music from such American artists as James Brown, Otis Redding, and Albert King, as well as John Lee Hooker, with whom he immediately recognized a strong musical similarity (a comparison made constantly during Toure's later career).

During the 70's, Toure worked in Bamako, Mali's capital, as a sound engineer for National Radio Mali. At the same time, he developed a national reputation as a performer and steadfastly stuck to his traditional roots instead of adopting a more commercial style. By the late 80's, he finally began to be noticed outside if his home country when one of his Radio Mali recorded albums ended up in the UK, . drawing the attention of British record execs and radio people who journeyed to Bamako to find him. The resulting UK concerts and 1989 record, Ali Farka Toure, established his international reputation.

After this amazing success, Toure returned to his rice farm is Niafunke until producer Nick Gold lured him out of his semi-retirement to record 1994's Talking Timbuktu in collaboration with the likes of Ry Cooder and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. This record led to Toure's first American tour which undoubtedly opened the ears of American audiences to the remarkable music of not just Toure, but the nation of Mali. It is not hard to imagine that we may have never heard the likes of Amadou and Mariam, Boubacar Traore, Tinariwen, and so many others without Toure blazing the trail with western record buyers.

Musicologists immediately recognized the startling similarities between Toure and the blues of the Mississippi Delta, something Toure noticed in the late 60's and early 70's. However, people who mistakenly believed that Toure was using American blues as an influence soon realized that his style was in fact something completely independent and provided an insight into the authentic African roots of this essential American musical style. Arguably, one of the apexes of this exploration so far has been the Feel Like Going Home film from the Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues series, in which American blues artist Corey Harris travels to Niafunke and plays music with Toure and Salif Keita along the banks of the Niger River.

In the past couple of years, Toure became especially active, which apparently coincided with, and may have been motivated by, his declining health. His swansong, entitled Savane, was released in late July in the US by Nonesuch and provides a fitting final musical statement. Recorded mostly live, with almost all tracks done in one take, Toure collaborated mainly with just two other musicians, Basekou Kouyate and Mama Sissoko, both of whom play the ngoni, the four-string guitar often viewed as the ancestor to the banjo. There is some chorused electric guitar from Toure and some harmonica on a couple of tracks as well as some njarka and hand percussion, but mostly it is the very bare bones sound of Toure and his collaborators playing the incredibly rich, enchanting music for which he has been rightly celebrated. Mixing the graceful, spidery tangles of the sound of Toure's guitar and high and low pitched ngoni along with his soulful, plaintive vocals, this is the sound of this music for purists without any star-studded cameos or excessive western studio dabbling and serves as a suitable goodbye.

I can imagine that anyone with the good fortune to be in Bamako in March 2007 for the national celebration of Ali Farka Toure's life and work is in for something amazing.

RICO RODRIGUEZ AND THE ROOTS TO THE BONE BAND
Togetherness
Delanuca
Still while we may have lost Toure, there are plenty of other old masters still active even in their advanced years. One great example of this is Rico Rodriguez. A legendary session man in Jamaica since the '50s and contributor to the original Skatalites recordings, Rodriguez also lent his trombone skills to "A Message to You Rudy" the song by the Specials that helped launch England's Two-Tone ska craze of the late '70s, which caught on in the US in full force some fifteen years later when the likes of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and No Doubt were fixtures on the alternative music circuit. Togetherness is a live record taken from two performance in Buenos Aires, Argentina in late 2001. The record finds Rodriguez in fine form as a band leader leading his group through a set of fine vintage ska that falls somewhere between the original Skatalites and his Two-Tone disciples. With the death of the likes of Roland Alphonso and Tommy McCook from the original Skatalites, it is heartwarming to see one of the original ska purveyors still active in his '70s.

SABORIT
Que Linda es mi Cuba
Tumi Music
The full name of this Cuban octet is Grupo Eduardo Saborit, who hail from Manzanillo in eastern Cuba's sugar cane region. Having been playing for decades, the group had never had the opportunity to record, so after hearing that producer Mo Fini was going to be producing another group from Manzanillo in the capital of Havana, they packed up a vehicle described as a cross between a tractor and a flatbed truck and drove to the big city, a journey that took them three days and nights on their slow-moving vehicle. Once there, they camped outside of the studio and eventually gained an audience with Fini while set up in a side room. Impressed, Fini and the studio arranged for shelter for the band and made plans to sign and record them. The result is Que Linda es mi Cuba, a record full of the sounds that dazzled fans earlier when practiced by the Buena Vista Social Club, but with a more rustic, rootsy quality befitting the countryside and small reginal city instead of Havana's bright lights.

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