Ali & Toumani

Toumani Diabaté and Ali Farka Touré's 2005 Grammy-winning collaboration In the Heart of the Moon was about as flawless a record as you could imagine. Yet my ears are telling me that the follow-up is even better. How can that be? Well, perhaps ‘better’ is too simplistic a word; Toumani himself calls it "stronger and wiser," so let‘s settle for that. This album’s brilliance kills the idea that In the Heart of the Moon's special magic lay in the rootsy, romantic location of the sessions – Bamako's Hotel Mande, on the banks of the Niger river. The follow-up was recorded in 2005 over three afternoons in the prosaic surroundings of a North London studio, so clearly these guys need no special circumstances beyond their own mutual inspiration to create their syncretic, stringed magic. Sadly, of course, these were Ali's last recordings and he lost his battle against cancer a few months later. So just what makes Ali & Toumani stronger and wiser than its predecessor? Perhaps it‘s simply the diversity and intensity of the musical fantasia the two men create together, with Toumani in particular cutting loose in seemingly bolder fashion than before. The elegant ’Ruby' is a terrific opener, full of ecstatic, chiming kora (harp-lute) arpeggios over Ali‘s pulse-like guitar. ’Sabu Yerkoy‘ is sprightlier, with a gentle vocal from Ali underpinned by a simple, joyous bass line from Cuba’s Cachaíto Lopez, who also passed away not long after these recordings.

‘Warbe’, ‘Samba Geladio’ and ‘Machengoidi’ are deep excursions into the desert blues. ‘Be Mankan’ is all classical grace and poise, while‘Doudou’is more playful.‘Fantasy’is a lullaby of exquisite sweetness, while the closer ‘Kala Djula’ is perhaps the album‘s most enchanting tune, like an African cousin to Henry Purcell’s ‘Lillibullero’. At the very end of the record, Ali's voice is heard saying ‘Eh, voilà', as if suggesting that that‘s it; it’s perfect and there's really nothing left to say.