Savane
Ali Farka Touré
2006
Album Summary
Savane is the final solo album by Malian musician Ali Farka Touré. It is the third and final part of the Hôtel Mandé Sessions, featuring Touré and Toumani Diabaté, recorded by World Circuit head Nick Gold. The album was released posthumously by World Circuit on 17 July 2006, more than four months after Touré's death. The recording sessions at Hôtel Mandé in Bamako took place from June to July 2004. Touré, suffering from cancer, had wanted to remain in Mali, so a temporary studio was set up on the top floor of the hotel. Touré approved the final master of Savane just weeks before his death in March 2006. He said of the album: "I know this is my best album ever. It has the most power and is the most different."Savane features a number of non-African blues musicians, such as Little George Sueref, Pee Wee Ellis, and also Touré's protégé since the age of 13, Afel Bocoum. It was released to high critical acclaim, earning a 94 on Metacritic. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.In 2009. It was awarded a gold certification from the Independent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 100,000 copies throughout Europe.
WikipediaThis is what I'd put on in the background of a neighborhood party to give people the impression I'm deep and interesting. Some will find it annoying and be reminded of the human torture scene from Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom. Those are the people who leave early and giveaway the fact they're not cut out for the Swingers Lifestyle. Everyone else grabs a random set of keys from the petri dish and goes home with a delightful stranger.
African (Malian to be specific) blues is... well, it's a niche sound. I've rubbed up against it in the form of the artist Bombino before but this is a whole different level of unique. It... it FEELS like the blues. But, at the same time, it feels distinctly african. There are harminicas, banjos, and guitars... but also hand drums and some sort of unique stringed instrument (Zither? Kora? Not sure.) mixed in. It all combines into a wild and entrancing musical experience. Ali's voice is pure blues. Even though I can't understand most of what he's saying (though some of the album is in french, thankfully), his emotion comes right through the language barrier untarnished. Apparently, this album was released posthumously and, while I'm glad the world has this album, it's a crying shame that we lost this talent because the album is just really really good.
This album was a really cool change of pace. It's sound is both familiar and novel at the same time. I wouldn't have envisioned the mixture of American blues and African music to be so seamless, but this feels like it was meant to be. The intricacy of the guitar adds a lot to this album 5/5
This is really interesting, partly because I can’t quite figure out what it is. There are times I think I hear Arabic, and then times when I think I hear French. And it sounds mostly Arabic, but then sometimes it doesn’t. It’s so interesting.
So good!!! Absolutely smooth, guitar is just another vocals and it blends beautifully with the music. Distinctly African and also distinctly Blues. Fantastic!
I sincerely wish I could play guitar as well as Ali. A fantastic album and introduction to African blues/guitar. The layering of instruments is enchanting, and everything from melody to accompaniment feels absolutely fresh and interesting.
Around 30 years ago, I was working with a client that had a gold project in Mali. I was intrigued with the country and sought out some local music. This is how I found Ali Farka Toure and his splendid guitar licks. He was a legend and the artist who attracted me to West African music. His album with Ry Cooder's in the mid 90s brought him well deserved exposure in North America. After this, he retreated to Timbuktu to revert to playing weddings and spend his "fortune" fixing sewers near his home town. What a man. His final musical offering is as good as they get. RIP
I say this is in the nicest way possible: this sounds like a CD my parents would randomly own in the early 2000s that they'd play for us while on road trips because of its somewhat jazzy and folky stylings remind them of Celtic music they enjoyed, and it would become a part of my subconscious moving forward without me ever knowing what it was. Really good!
This was surprisingly delicious. The songs didn't really go anywhere, but they didn't really need to. They just chilled out and did their thing; I like that.
When one traces the origins of their meal, they discover that even a simple pasta has traveled extensively; the tomatoes are from Mexico, the wheat from Ukraine, the eggs from New England, and the onions from Quebec. This album, too, has such strong roots in so many different communities. It is a deliciously simple dish with ingredients from West Africa, South Africa, France, USA, and the Arabian Gulf. It isn't the kind of dish that you discover, beg your friend for the recipe, and put into your regular rotation of meals at home. And when you prep it, it takes you to all those different moments with your friends across so many different places.
This album creates a very specific ambience. It's a humid summer night in the south, I'm on an airboat en route to a Louisiana gumbo party, just cruising through the bayou. I wanna get there while the cornbread is still warm, but I'm also not rushing. I've never done any of those things in my life, but if I close my eyes while I listen to this album I feel like I might have.
This has a feeling of soul. Passes lingual barriers, and just damn good to jam to.
Would be nice to have on out the back of the new Toowong pool hall while smoking a shisha but otherwise probably wouldn’t re-listen to be honest. Cool sounds though.
I really enjoyed this, very fun to drive around to. It’s not something I would have listened to before but I can actually see myself listening to it again should I be in the mood. So for an album I’ve never listened to in a style I don’t usually consider I’m gonna give the 5 star
Another one I’d listen to again. Love the desert blues sound from beginning to end, with nice variation in mood throughout. Amazing voice and arrangements too.
Lovely - blues and jazz with a Malian twist - warm and enchanting from end to end.
Sensational guitarist, hypnotic rhythms and really interesting musically - time signatures, scales and use of intervals entirely different to western ears, but still recognisably the blues - Malian style. I love this.
Only on the first song and I'm so intrigued. This just has such a raw feel.
What an absolutely fascinating record and one that conjures up so many different influences and emotions. The record meanders along at its own pace, going wherever it wants and I really respect that. I feel bad that it had never even occurred to me that kind of blues fusion could exist but it doesn't just stop there its got heavy ska and reggae influences displayed and Arabic style scales are heavily used in parts. Much drone as well drone good, me likey. Very evocative, it takes me straight back to time spent in Uganda, sitting on a bus driving long hours through the colorful streets of Kampala. I adore this album and have saved it straight away for future listens. 5/5
The title track sounds like the riff from Child in Time, but on a Reggae beat! Penda Yoro is a blues jam, with a polyrhthm. Totally danceable. This was a very pleasant surprise.
If this album had English lyrics, it would be an easy 5-star. Maybe a strange reason to penalize it, but I really wanted to understand what was being sung.
Familiarity: 0/10 Notes: I have no idea what he was singing about, but man I loved in. African Folk, instruments playing different rhythms, soothe sounds, Ali Farka Touré transcends his language, I thoroughly enjoyed the album throughout. Real Rating 7/10
Super unique feel to his music. It seems to be all tuned the same way with open strings. Love his voice although I couldn’t tell you what he’s saying. Makes me think of cold night in the desert
Though the language gap was limiting, the music was really cool. I could see myself listening to this again.
Foreign yet familiar. Chill but lively. Music imitating life, or is it the other way around?
Very good alternative to the US / England concept of the blues. I also hear some jazz and middle eastern music in here. Similar to the Jimmy Page / Robert Plant Led Zeppelin Unplugged album.
Really enjoyed this, especially the first couple of songs and the title song. Will definitely listen to again (in fact, I listened to it again immediately), but I foresee I won't always be in the mood for it.
There's a characteristic riff/line/warmup/intro in desert blues. It's not exactly a scale, so my mind makes a weak connection to ragas. This record has it in several places. Sometimes, a tune emerges from that stem, but more often the rest of the track crashes down in a percussive, deconstructed cascade. Those songs are the weirdest blues songs I've ever heard. Their coherence in incoherence is an order of magnitude stranger than any set of effects or recording techniques. Nothing here is particularly abstract, though: There is always the sense and sound of the instrument in the recording, which makes the crashing seem like that of blocks of wood. All that is just what caught my ear on the first listen. The songs that are different are also physical, but are far less formally strange. Energy crackles, but seemingly from behind a facade.
3.5/5. Different and good. I like the instrumentals throughout the album.
No way! I read Matthew Mcconaughey biography recently and he mentioned this guy as his favourite artist. I listened and got hooked, can't believe he's on top 1001 albums! Buzzin, real cool, proper unique and different to anything I've ever listened to, like African meets American Western, Bluesy. Sick music for late night with a whiskey 🙏 4/5
Auch bei diesem Machwerk hatte ich vorher schlimmste Befürchtungen. Die sich nicht im geringsten bewahrheitet haben. Das Genre African Blues war mir gänzlich unbekannt. Diese Platte ist sehr geil. Der Vergleich mit John Lee Hooker drängt sich bei Touré sehr leicht auf, aber es gibt schlimmeres, als nach Hooker zu klingen.
Never should language be a barrier to enjoying music. This album is fun and will make ya wanna dance
pretty good, not a big fan of the genre but I think it’s executed pretty well, the songs are nice and diverse and pretty groovy 7/10
Great music to have on in the background. Mellow. Enjoyed it. Read up on the production of the album, Touré had cancer and knew it'd be his last album. Puts perspective on the enjoyment and spirit of musicianship, over commercial incentive.
I've become attracted of late to any form of tribal music. I love the romanticism and mystique that surrounds it. It's like a non-Western partisan and radical approach to music. Rocking the Casbah, etc. Ali Farka Touré has some great chants and even better blues. I've no idea what it all means, but I'm ready to enter the frontline.
This is not something I'd generally play, but it's a great piece of work
I really liked this album. It has a droning quality to the music that took me off guard...reminded me of Miles Davis' In A Silent Way. Some really interesting sounds that are hard to place what instruments are making them. But musically it works. It has, to these ears anyway, Indian elements and middle eastern as well as African. I like the languid pace and the way the guitar circles in and out of the African rhythms offering colour to the beautiful tunes. 4.25 🌟
Rich, warm, laid back sound. Loved it. Fave Songs: Soya, Savane, Soko Yhinka, N'Jarou, Banga, Hanana, Gambari Didi
Really like this. Very well executed sound that envelops you. StronG 4
Liked this more than I expected. bluesy and country-ish but without the awful truckdriver lyrics.
I actually hadn't heard of Ali Farka Toure before this album came up and was fascinated what "African desert blues" sounded like. It's a pretty accurate description of the music and my first impression is that I love the guitar sound and the grooves. The songs are interesting and I will revisit this and some of his other recordings in the near future. Another cool find!
Il y a des chansons vraiment magiques sur cet album. Cependant, ca ressemble beaucoup à son matériel. Pas que c'Est pas bon, mais Talkin Timbuktu est mon preféré et je dois être conséqent dans mes notes. Un belle écoute. 4.15
It was nice when I wanted to relax after work. The melody felt like I was in another world which I appreciate since I don’t get to travel as much as I like to.
One's not actually qualified to assess the subtleties of this one or whether Mali was some secret fount of the blues. But one likes it a lot nonetheless, as one has almost everything one's heard from AFT (especialy In the Heart of the Moon).Plenty of haunting melodies and straight-up blues riffs. At once listenable and substantive, rootsy in the best sense (that is, having great depth). And certainly one wishes one knew what was being sung. One expects it would be soulful and wise.
I’m pretty new to the blues, and have never heard this particular style. I had no idea that music could feel so genuinely bluesy and African at the same time. Some of the songs felt very similar to the blues of the American south while others sounded more Arab-influenced. The album sort of flowed over me and partway through my first listen I really started to connect with it. There’s something very inviting and soothing here. I’m not sure how often I will revisit this but I’m very glad to experience this album.
I thought I had an idea of what to expect from "The King of the desert 'blues' singers," but I really didn't. My first listen, the music was mostly background for work and was, at best, unobtrusive or, worse, boring. It didn't seem to have the hooks I expect from blues. But on a second, more focused listen, I started to appreciate it more. It's not an easy listen for my ears --- unexpected timing and rhythm, lyrics in a language I don't understand --- but it is interesting and different and I do like it.
Without this listening project, I don't think that I would have ever given this one a listen. I found it very interesting, but I think it will require a few more listens before I embrace it as a regular listen.
Heel leuke Afrikaanse blues! Unieke sound met een leuke mix van verschillende genres
What’s striking about this album is the fact that it is clearly a blues album and clearly a Malian album fusing to form desert blues. The instrumentation was really interesting and everything just fit together really well. This album feels familiar and unfamiliar at the same time in a way that is wonderfully tantalizing. The groove is great, and the guitar playing is novel.
i apologize for being a broken record but i am thrilled an album like this made this list! there are a ton of western albums on the list but other areas of the world are included, too. i hadn’t heard of this artist before, but i do know an artist’s final album released around the time of their death can be heavy and full of significance. i don’t think this album is an exception. i wish i understood the lyrics without a translation service, but i appreciate music with lyrics in another language. it leaves more to the imagination. savane is a beautiful album. while i wouldn’t typically call myself a fan of blues music, i enjoyed hearing the combination of blues with african music. the result is an intriguing listen. it’s very pleasant to the ears, and is a nice tribute to touré.
I have a nostalgic attachment to Toure’s Niafunke album, but these songs are just as good. Music that makes you feel cool listening to it. Fun songs to play along to with guitar. Good variety of instruments: amplified harmonica, saxophone, etc. I like the French lyrics of Savane, wish there were more translations online for the tracks in Peul.
Very interesting- sounds like French North African blues. Easy to listen to, and to chill to. Nice rhythms. Shame this was his last album.
A brilliantly constructed album from an artist taken far too soon. Savane reminds its listeners that the roots of most popular music really do originate in Africa.