Niafunké

1	Ali's Here 3:13
2	Allah Uya 4:28
3	Mali Dje 5:37
4	Saukare 2:47
5	Hilly Yoro 3:36
6	Tulumba 5:20
7	Instumental 4:10
8	ASCO 5:45
9	Jangali Famata 3:20
10	Howkouna 5:55
11	Cousins 4:14
12	Pieter Botha 3:20

Barnes & Noble

Breaking five years of silence, Africa's greatest living musical iconoclast returns with an album of life-or-death intensity. After collaborations with Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, and others, Ali Farka Touré holed up in his Malian hometown of Niafunk&eaute; with a mobile studio. The result is as dry and ominous as the desert winds gathering on the banks of the Niger River. Where the master's previous missives, especially his 1994 Grammy-netting Talking Timbuktu, were dazzling conversations, this is uncut Ali Farka: fingertips weaving ancestral juju over his electric guitar, backed by the stark slap of calabash percussion and haunting vocals. There are unmistakable links between the high desert drones of Mali's Songhai region and the blues of the Mississippi Delta (many have compared Ali Farka to John Lee Hooker).Guitars, fiddles, and Ali Farka's own dark talking blues weave in and out -- but the common bond is simply soul. And Niafunké is soul so unrefined and concentrated that it ought to be a controlled substance. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure's music has always managed global travel with ease and musical grace, shrinking the miles between Western Africa and the Mississippi Delta and seemingly visiting every city in between. Toure has received his share of accolades for blurring the lines between his contemporary/traditional fingerpicking style and "country blues." Toure has routinely collaborated with musicians from other cultures and musical genres, most notably the prolific and internationally influenced Ry Cooder on their widely acclaimed 1994 album Talking Timbuktu. He establishes a firm aesthetic residence on Niafunké, his first and most welcome CD in five years. Niafunké was recorded using a state-of-the-art portable studio in Toure's home village of Niafunke, which clearly lends a decisive authentic flavor and sense of musical place to the disc. Each tune is a lithe and resonant labyrinth of call-and-response patterns: a fingerpicked guitar speaks to a one-stringed njarka fiddle, calabash pummelings weave into those of the conga drums, and a lively small chorus answers Toure's authoritative lead vocals. A couple of the best cuts include "Ali's Here" and "Saukare." A beautifully rendered and intoxicating record. Becky Byrkit