9. Ali Farka Touré with Ry CooderTalking Timbuktu
Ry Cooder is another chameleon, another white man among the natives. But he is a more humble one, glad to listen, play his part, and let the music flow. His project with the Buena Vista Social Club is the staple of every cafe now, from Vancouver to Calcutta, but for me, his two most stupendous world music forays were A Meeting by the River, with the Indian slide-guitar maestro, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and Talking Timbuktu with the greatest of the Malian bluesmen, Ali Farka Touré.
In his later years, Ali Farka Touré made good on the promise of his already legendary youth and released a number of fantastic recordings on the World Circuit label. But it was on this one, with Cooder backing him, that I feel he ascended into musical paradise. Tracks like ‘Gomni’ and ‘Lasidan’, music of vastness and blinding light, with their interweaving lines and repeated figures, are what sleeping guitars dream off in their plush dark cases.
