Saturday, September 14, 2024

A00079 - Toumani Diabate, The Great Kora Master, R.I.P.

 One of the small pleasures in my former life was to turn on The World at 2pm to catch up on World news and one of the highlights of the show would be hearing the familiar guitar riffs from Ali Farka Toure's song "Diaraby" whenever the Geo-quiz segment came on.  As Wikipedia notes,


"his guitar riff on the song "Diaraby", from the album Talking Timbuktu, for the Geo-quiz segment of The World PRI-BBC program, and was retained by popular demand when put to a vote of the listeners.[23] This song is likewise used in 1998 as a soundtrack for the film L'Assedio (Besieged) by the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci

Ali Farka Touré - 'Diaraby' live on BBC Later...with Jools Holland - YouTube


One of Ali Farka Toure's key collaborators during his illustrious career was Toumani Diabate, the Malian Kora master who has been likened to being the Jimi Hendrix of the Kora.
Toumani Diabate passed away last month and in my scramble around the Olympics I was not able to recognize his passing.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins 
Fairfield, California
August 13, 2024

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