Buy this with New Ancient Strings (Nouvelle Cordes Anciennes) ~ Toumani Diabate today!

Buy Together Today: £19.96

New Ancient Strings (Nouvelle Cordes Anciennes) ~ Toumani Diabate  (6)  £9.98

Savane ~ Ali Farka Toure  (4)  £9.98

In the Heart of the Moon ~ Ali Farka Toure  (20)  £9.98

Kaira ~ Toumani Diabate  (1)  £7.99

Boulevard De L'independance: +DVD ~ Toumani Diabate  (6)  £9.98

› Explore similar items : Music (26)

To hear a song sample, click on "Listen" by that sample.

1. Queen Bee	Listen
2. Kulanjan	Listen
3. Tunkaranke	Listen
4. Ol' Georgie Buck	Listen
5. Guede Man Na
6. Fanta	Listen
7. Atlanta Kaira
8. Catfish Blues
9. Take This Hammer
10. K'an Ben
11. Mississippi Mali Blues
12. Sahara

Amazon.co.uk Review
Perennial blues road warrior Taj Mahal and Malian kora (harp-lute) ambassador Toumani Diabate join forces, blend textures, and intermingle idioms on this cleanly produced 12-song set, recorded in 1998 in Athens. Their common ground is best tilled on "Atlanta Kaira" and the title track, where the plucky filigrees and glittering tone of the kora sound right at home with Taj's darker, barking National Reso-Phonic steel. "Ol' Georgie Buck" and their canny cover of Muddy Waters's "Catfish Blues" are the album's blues banners, which find Diabate's kora delightfully incongruous, while the walking African ballad "Tunkaranke" leans most heavily toward the motherland. Fleshed out with fine vocals by Taj, Kasse Mady Diabate, and Malian chanteuse Ramata Diakate ("Queen Bee"), and other African instruments, the sound is defiantly acoustic, intimate, and surprisingly true. --James Rotondi

3 Reviews 5 star:  (1) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review (3 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   7 of 8 people found the following review helpful: Excellent - makes you want to listen to it again and again, 10 Aug 2000 By A Customer I was expecting another good ol' blues album from Taj Mahal which would have been well worth waiting for anyway. Instead, I got one of those records that are very few and far between - one which made you sit down and really listen to every single second. This is not music just to have on in the background. This is music that should be given out free on the national health to make people feel better. Friends who had never heard of Taj Mahal were stopped in their tracks and asked for the volume to be turned up so that they listen more closely to the fantastic sounds. Taj, give us more of the same please soon.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: a really worthwhile exploration, 8 April 2000 By  Jamie Crofts - See all my reviews    This is a really worthwhile project in which two of the best musicians alive today enjoy each other's music. Worth listening to for Queen Bee alone which works perfectly. I do share the doubts of the previous reviewer. I do wonder - why bother? but the answer to that has to be, for me - they did it and it works.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   4 of 5 people found the following review helpful: Slightly patchy exploration of the roots of the blues, 15 Feb 2000 By  B. A. Woodhouse "newt12" - See all my reviews    This CD is the result of a musical meeting between the blues of Taj Mahal and a Malian traditional Kora player, Diabate.In the somewhat breathless insert it describes this as being a revelation to Taj Mahal of the real West African origins of blues music. At times the two do make great music, rhythyms and voices combining in synergy on the more traditional African tracks particularly well. The more 'blues' based tracks seem less convincing and Toumani's musicianship feels tacked on rather than fully integrated. Try the more traditional recordings of instrumental Kora music if this intrigues, especially 'New Ancient Strings' with Ballake Sissoko  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all 3 customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews