Thursday, April 13, 2006

In The Heart Of The Moon



A few weeks back, I am working and someone had left their copy of Rolling Stone over by the take-out counter. It's a Monday afternoon, and I am bored shitless, so I pick it up to skim. There was a brief piece on how an artist I happen to have two albums by, Ali Farka Toure (fantastic guitarist from Mali), had passed away. I made a note to myself and stuck it in my pocket, to go back and listen to those albums, as well as to check out what, if anything, he's made since then. Late that night, after spending sometime on SOULSEEK looking, I saw something unfamiliar, called In The Heart of The Moon, which I discovered later was a collaboration with another Malian musician, Toumani Diabate, who plays a lute-harp-like instrument called a kora. After hearing only a few tunes, I had to have the album, and ordered it on Amazon (along with the new Prince CD). Just - - f*&kin' - - A - MAZING! Here's a sample tune, Kala; and a good piece from the Washington Post about Ali Farka Toure.