Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté's second and final album together, Ali and Toumani, is out now. The Los Angeles Times calls it "an early contender for the warmest, most life-affirming listen of 2010." The Globe and Mail gives it four stars, hearing a "musical state of grace." The Philadelphia Daily News gives the album an A, calling it "a thing of gossamer beauty ... haunting, genteel, intricate and magical." The Lexington Herald-Leader says it showcases "the hushed, rootsy spiritualism of two pioneers who fashioned the majestic music of West Africa for the world."
Today marks the North American release date of Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté's second and final album together, Ali and Toumani. The album is available in the Nonesuch Store with the exclusive bonus track "Kenouna." And for a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of the album, visit nonesuch.com/media.
The Los Angeles Times says that, while this album may document the final recordings of Touré and Orlando "Cachaíto" Lopez, who contributes bass on the album, Ali and Toumani is "an early contender for the warmest, most life-affirming listen of 2010." The Times gives the album three-and-a-half stars, with reviewer Mikael Wood explaining that Touré and Diabaté "trade licks with an intimacy that speaks of friendship but also of a shared understanding." Read more at latimes.com.
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The Globe and Mail gives it four stars. Citing Diabaté's suggestion that this is an even "wiser" album than the duo's previous collaboration, In the Heart of the Moon, reviewer Li Robbins elaborates: "What that wisdom sounds like is a kind of musical state of grace. There is an uncanny empathy between Touré and Diabaté, as though their two distinct Malian traditions were destined to be intertwined in just this way." Robbins concludes by commending the aptly titled album as "a tribute to the extraordinary musical understanding between 'Ali and Toumani.'" Read the complete review at theglobeandmail.com.
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The Philadelphia Daily News gives the album a perfect A, calling it "a thing of gossamer beauty." Reviewer Jonathan Takiff says it is "such a bittersweet sorrow" that these great musicians "will never be able to make another album of folkloric music as haunting, genteel, intricate and magical as" this. Read more at philly.com.
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Lexington Herald-Leader contributing music writer Walter Tunis says that, while the sound of the West African strings may not be familiar to all American listeners, "their lyricism, rhythmic immediacy and almost ethereal grace are welcoming to any culture."
In the hands of Touré and Diabaté, it means "sublime dialogues that possess an effortlessly—and often deceptively—light timbre," so that Ali and Toumani showcases "the hushed, rootsy spiritualism of two pioneers who fashioned the majestic music of West Africa for the world."
Read the review at kentucky.com.
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