Two-time Grammy Award winner Ali Farka Toure, one of Africa’s best-known performers, died Tuesday in his native Mali after a long illness. He was either 66 or 67.
Mali’s Culture Ministry said Toure died at his home in the capital, Bamako, after a long struggle with an unidentified illness. His record company, World Circuit Records, said he suffered from bone cancer and died in his sleep.
Toure melded traditional Malian stringed instruments and vocals with the American blues guitarwork he considered firmly rooted in West Africa, where most North American slaves were shipped from.
One of the original progenitors of a genre known as Mali blues, Toure played a traditional Malian stringed instrument called the gurkel.
He was best known overseas for his 1994 collaboration with American guitarist Ry Cooder on “Talking Timbuktu,” which netted him his first Grammy.
He won his second Grammy in February, taking traditional world-music album honors for his “In the Heart of the Moon” album, performed with fellow Malian Toumani Diabate.
World Circuit Records said Toure had just completed work on a new solo album.
Across this deeply impoverished west African nation, people mourned Toure’s passing and radio stations suspended regular programming to broadcast his signature lilting sounds.
“A monument has fallen. With the death of Ali Farka Toure, Mali is losing one of its greatest ambassadors,” said Mbaye Boubacar Diarra, a television producer.
“I’m completely in mourning,” singer Djeneba Seck said through tears. “It’s as if I lost my father.”
From Herald news services
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