Savane

Global Rhythm - Ranked #1 in Global Rhythm's "Top 10 Albums Of 2006" -- "[W]ith plaintive background singers answering Toure's booming voice and hand percussion..." Mojo - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Toure digs deeper....This is how to remember Toure, forever at ease and doing it his own way, in his own time." Q - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T] 13 tracks showcase his laid-back, if jerky take on the blues, detouring into multi-voiced African folk..and scratchy minimalist reggae....This is stirring stuff." Entertainment Weekly - "Here, he plays exquisitely languid grooves with a Malian ensemble including multiple n'goni harps and singers, while the occasional harmonica and sax float by, sounding entirely at home." -- Grade: A Q - "[The album] exerts a magnetic hold, from the compelling dry, percussive strumming that opens 'Erdi' to 'Yer Bounda Fara''s powerful blues..." OMM (06/2006, p.56) - 5 (out of 5) - "The great bluesman's posthumous album is the finest of his career." Music Week (08/07/2006, p.30) - "Visionary." NME (05/08/06, p.29) - 8 (out of 10) - "...probably the most gutsy, timeless recording of his career..."

The final recording from Africa's best known guitarist, described by the artist as his 'best album ever' before his death. Recorded at the legendary Hotel Mande sessions in Bamako and utilising an internationally renowned ensemble of musicians including Pee Wee Ellis and Fain S. Duenas (Radio Tarifa), this genre-hopping album covers blues, reggae and country, with Toure's distinctive playing style and superbly crafted vocal lines helping to produce an album showing the perfect fusion of African and Western musical styles.|

Before his death in 2006, Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure recorded some sessions in the Hotel Mande in Bamako, Mali. SAVANE, released posthumously, is taken from those sessions, and it bears testament to Farka Toure's standing as one of the giants of contemporary African music. The hallmarks of the artist's work are all here: gentle, mesmerizing tunes centered on sinuous, circular guitar patterns, and evocative vocal lines that float above the music and work in dialogue with the percussion. A valuable addition to Farka Toure's catalogue, SAVANE is a beautiful, elegant swan song that belongs alongside the artist's best work.

今年の3月に急逝したマリのギタリスト、アリ・ファルカ・トゥーレの遺作。死の直前に録音されていたものだが、そんなことはまったく感じさせないくらい生命力に溢れている。かつてはアメリカのブルースに大きく影響されたスタイルで話題になったが、晩年は〈砂漠のブルース〉の第一人者としてアフリカに根差した音楽を奏で続けた彼。アコースティックなサウンドが美しい本作は、まさにその音楽人生の集大成とも呼べる作品だ。　
bounce (C)篠原 裕治