Such a fantastic musician, powerfull and with a great personality. My favorite African artist ever.
Ali:
If you know something and don’t want to share it, then you are selfish. You came after someone, and someone else will come after you. You can’t learn the entire sea by heart. No. That is why god created waves in the river and in the sea. Some leave, and some come.
If that sounds like a Creative Commons statement, you’re right. Ali was a creative common.
I am so shocked to learn of his death. It is the first week of April and I am just getting around to reading the travel section of last Sunday’s New York Times. Finally, I think, West Africa gets it’s proper recogniton, observing the cover which gives tribute to Mali and its enormous musical contribution to the world. I was pleased last night as I skimmed through the article searching to find the name of an artist that opened my mind and conciousness through my ears–Ali Farka Toure. It was an easy transition for a Harlem girl with roots in the south to be made porous by….I do not even know how to catergorize the forces he tapped but many of them seemed to be quiet old for connecting me to memories that preceeded me. We are all together there says the griot music: The south of North America, the west of Africa the eternal beat of life.
Bram van Splunteren a documentairy-producer, did a doc about Ali several years ago. It’s probably not available online, but I just send him a message about it a moment ago. When I have more news about it, I will post here.
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