| Ali and Toumani | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté |
| Cover: | Ali and Toumani.jpeg |
| Released: | February 23, 2010 |
| Recorded: | Livingston Studios, London 24th,25th,26th June 2005 |
| Genre: | African Blues |
| Length: | 49:41 |
| Label: | World Circuit |
| Producer: | Nick Gold |
| Chronology: | Ali Farka Touré |
Ali and Toumani is a 2010 record by Malian musicians Ali Farka Touré on the guitar and providing vocals and Toumani Diabaté on the kora. It is the second album featuring the two musicians; it is a follow-up to In the Heart of the Moon which was released in 2005. The album was recorded in 2005 in London prior to concert dates in Europe following the release of In the Heart of the Moon. The album was released after Touré's death in 2006.[1]
Ali and Toumani features some older songs from Touré's repertoire: "Sabu Yerkoy", which celebrates Mali's independence, dates from the 1960's, and "Sina Mory" is the first song Touré ever heard on guitar in 1956. According to Diabaté, "[t]he album was going to be a summing up of all the albums that Ali had done in the past...It was the very last album he made."[2]
In a 2010 review for Pitchfork, Joe Tangari said that the sessions for the album were recorded with "uncompomising intimacy" and that the album, along with In the Heart of the Moon, were "uncommonly beautiful". Tangari concludes, "It is not challenging music. Anyone can approach it easily, and it is the perfect initiation to Touré's talents for listeners who haven't yet heard him."[3]