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The first few bars of Savane come grinding out of the speakers and plough into your mind like the opening of Jimi Hendrix's 'Are You Experienced?' Cool and shambolic, the guitar spirals into the soundtrack for a griot's trance. Hendrix would have loved the late Farka Toure's sound, and he'd have been attuned to its bluesy roots - or should we say its roots of the blues.
This is the music of Mali, the desert homeland of Farka Toure and his band, but it's a traveller's music too; open to influences, tracing its own heritage along the Mississippi. If the guitar is one key prop to this sublime fusing of African and West Western styles, the other is the ngoni or traditional Malian lute. It does the job of a both a drunken drummer and a slide guitarist, providing the plucking heartbeat of each song but also evoking a hangdog, laidback mood.
The title track has the empty spaces of dub reggae, with two soulful ngonis weaving through Farka Toure's emotional narrative about leaving his country, leaving his savannah. The sleevenotes contain translations, and they are worth checking out; Farka Toure has always said his music is only a vehicle for the stories he has to tell - about his ancestors, about the land and, above all, about work. There, of course, is the link: blues is born out of tribal memories, evolves through slave songs, and comes home here, finding itself after a long, tragic circle of a journey to America. Farka Toure's death in March 2006 was a great loss to music but with Savane he leaves behind a masterpiece and a lesson in attitude - in the sense of outlook and in the sense of character. The best world music/ethnic release of the year is also one of the best across all the genres. --Chris Moss
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Observer Music Monthly, June 2006
'The great bluesman's posthumous album is the finest of his career. Remember him this way' Charlie Gillett
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
One wonders if knowledge of his own mortality drove Toure to produce his two most beautiful and affecting albums-this superb epitaph and the extraordinary In The Heart of the Moon. Many artists knowing of their imminent demise might have retreated into a shell-instead Mr Toure left us these two magnificant heart-rending pieces of African music, encompassing the full breadth of his talent and knowledge, at once both acoustic and electric, heavenly and humane. If you are not inspired and awed by these two albums your heart is dead.
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
'Savane' is the last album Ali Farka Toure recorded, and perhaps in the wake of his passing, the hyperbole surrounding this release reached a peak of superlatives-overload, with the estimable fRoots hailing it "the album of the decade". On that recommendation, and having loved an earlier AFT album ("Niafunke"), I ordered it.
It is fabulously atmospheric, genuinely otherworldly - listening to it takes you out into the Malian desert with Toure's bluesy riffs underpinning each of the tunes, and some harmonica and what sounds like a scratchy violin wailing like a desert wind over the top, a rattling kora drifting in and out and the man himself mumbling his hypnotic and heartfelt lyrics. You can almost feel the dust in your throat and the huge space around you (even in a bedroom in Durham).
But I had expected, from those ecstatic reviews, to be choking back tears of joy and awe and they just didn't come for me. I could be an ignorant oik, of course, but all the tracks have a similar pace and vibe, which may have been deliberate, but there just aren't any gobsmacking moments, apart from the wall of sound created during the tremendous opening track.
So, it's great and a fitting epitaph to the great man, but you know what music journalists are like... They've just got to get their quote on the sticker on the front, haven't they?
It is fabulously atmospheric, genuinely otherworldly - listening to it takes you out into the Malian desert with Toure's bluesy riffs underpinning each of the tunes, and some harmonica and what sounds like a scratchy violin wailing like a desert wind over the top, a rattling kora drifting in and out and the man himself mumbling his hypnotic and heartfelt lyrics. You can almost feel the dust in your throat and the huge space around you (even in a bedroom in Durham).
But I had expected, from those ecstatic reviews, to be choking back tears of joy and awe and they just didn't come for me. I could be an ignorant oik, of course, but all the tracks have a similar pace and vibe, which may have been deliberate, but there just aren't any gobsmacking moments, apart from the wall of sound created during the tremendous opening track.
So, it's great and a fitting epitaph to the great man, but you know what music journalists are like... They've just got to get their quote on the sticker on the front, haven't they?
44 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Savane is a superb epitaph to the late Ali Farka Toure's recording career. All of his releases have been a joy to listen to and this final album is no exception. It just somehow seems like it's the best thing he ever did - and in fact the great man himself said so. If you are a fan, then you will need no convincing. A truly enjoyable recording. Mr Toure, your music will endure.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
a wonderful piece of music
I've been looking for new sounds and to broaden my musical horizons for some time.. this album is immediately engaging, sensual, mysterious and hypnotic.. Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2009 by M. Glazier
Make the Desert Come to You.
Listening to the haunting and beautiful music from "The King of the Desert 'Blues' Singers" Ali Farka Toure you realise what a sad loss he is to the world of music. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2009 by Bob Salter
not album of the decade?
well, try the century then. A blistering start from largely acoustic instruments that out heavies the heaviest metal sound around. Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2009 by D. R. Davies
A new or the original kind of blues?
I have not heard any of this kind of African blues music before and I have to say I am intrigued - is this what blues was originally like, or something that has evolved as a fusion... Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2007 by Mr. J. P. Shields
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