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The most well-known African guitarist in history, Ali Farka Toure has enthralled fans around the world with his deep-rooted, bluesy music. He plays both acoustic and electric guitars (including a guitar with a speaker and pick-up that run on batteries) as well as a shrill one-string violin, and is usually accompanied by a percussionist playing a calabash gourd with sticks. He made his initial mark in Mali's capital, Bamako, and later in Paris as a virtuoso guitarist and singer of traditionally inspired songs. His first performance in London in the late 1980s convinced musicologists that they had discovered the roots of the blues; however upon further inquiry, he cited John Lee Hooker as an influence. He has gone on to record with the Chieftains, Taj Mahal, and Ry Cooder, and his landmark 1994 collaboration with Cooder, Talking Timbuktu, spent a record eight months atop Billboard's world music charts. His deep, nasal-toned voice and blues-like riffs remind one of the Mississippi Delta, but the spirit of his music goes back centuries to ancient Malian folklore.
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