Ali Farka Touré

Ali Ibrahim "Ali Farka" Touré (31 October 1939 – 7 March 2006) was a Malian singer and guitarist born in the village of Kanau in the Timbuktu region and died at Bamako. ^{1 2} He fused traditional Malian music with American blues, becoming a pioneer of "desert blues" and "the African John Lee Hooker"; he recorded with Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabaté, won two Grammy Awards in his lifetime and a third after his death, and became mayor of his home town of Niafunké in 2004. ^{1 2}

Touré was born at Kanau, on the banks of the Niger River in Gourma-Rharous Cercle in the Tombouctou region, to a Songhai family — the French article describes it as a noble Arma family of Songhai origin — and the family moved to the nearby village of Niafunké while he was an infant; his father, a soldier in the French Army, died in 1940. ^{1 2} He was his mother's tenth son but the only one to survive infancy, and so was given the nickname "Farka", meaning donkey, an animal admired for its tenacity; he explained: "I'm the donkey that nobody climbs on!" ^{1 2}

In his society music-making belonged to the griot caste and was forbidden to the "noble" caste he was born into, so he secretly built a monochord from a tin can and played with friends. ¹ He worked as a chauffeur and an ambulance boatman; a 1956 performance by Guinea's national ballet turned him to the guitar; he travelled Mali with the writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ collecting traditional music, founded his first group, La Troupe 117, in 1960, and made his first journey outside Africa, to the Sofia festival, in 1968. ^{1 2}

In the 1970s he worked as a sound engineer at Radio Mali in Bamako, recording in the station's studio — then the only one in Mali — and released a series of albums titled with his name on Sonafric in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ¹ In 1986 tracks from his "red album" were played on British radio after the DJ Andy Kershaw bought the record at random in Paris, and World Circuit then brought him to Britain to record; his World Circuit albums include The River (1990) and The Source (with Taj Mahal; dated 1991 by the French article, 1992 by the English). ^{1 2}

In 2004 he became mayor of Niafunké and spent his own money grading its roads, digging sewer canals and fuelling a generator for the impoverished town; in 2005 the Ali Farka Touré Foundation was created in Bamako to further his legacy. ^{1 2} He died at Bamako of bone cancer: the English article dates his death 6 March 2006, the day it says Mali's Ministry of Culture announced it, while the French and Arabic articles give 7 March 2006 and Wikidata carries both claims; this record follows 7 March and records the disagreement. ^{1 2 3 4} The French article adds that he was buried at Niafunké. ²

His most high-profile album was Talking Timbuktu (1994) with the American guitarist Ry Cooder, which won the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album — though Cooder later recalled that Touré disliked the Hollywood studio where it was recorded. ^{1 3} Niafunké (1999) was recorded in an abandoned school in his home town; Mississippi to Mali (2002) paired him with Corey Harris, and the two appeared in Martin Scorsese's 2003 documentary Feel Like Going Home, tracing the roots of the blues to West Africa. ¹

In September 2005 he released In the Heart of the Moon with the kora player Toumani Diabaté, which brought him a second Grammy; his last album, Savane, released posthumously in July 2006, was chosen as album of the year 2006 by the World Music Charts Europe panel, and Ali and Toumani, recorded in 2005, won a third, posthumous Grammy on 13 February 2011. ^{1 2} Rolling Stone ranked him 76th and Spin 37th among the greatest guitarists of all time. ^{1 3} He sang in several African languages, mostly Songhay, Fulfulde, Tamasheq and Bambara. ¹

This section sets out different positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum.

"Not blues." Critics called him "the African bluesman" and "the African John Lee Hooker" for the likeness of his playing to Hooker's hypnotic style, but Touré insisted his music was not blues, saying: "To me blues is a type of soap powder, my music is older than the blues." ¹ Martin Scorsese described Touré's music as the DNA of the blues, and the French article places his music in the old Songhai tradition called "wallahidu". ^{2 1}

His faith. None of the three articles, and not Wikidata either, states a religion, legal school or order for Ali Farka Touré; his Songhai family background, his upbringing in the Muslim Sahel and the traditional repertoire he sang are background and work, not an attestation of a personal school — a singer's repertoire is not a madhhab attestation — so the museum records his faith as unknown. ^{1 2 4}

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
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