After Nigeria's Fela Kuti, let's move over to Mali, and enjoy some of the finest work from great multi-instrumentalist whose final album, recorded in 2004, marked a crossroads between African music and blues. This was from the third of Hôtel Mandé Sessions, featuring, among many other fine musicians, kora player, Toumani Diabaté. Touré has also worked with several American blues players, including Taj Mahal, Corey Harris and Ry Cooder, but this final album, released posthumously after his death in 2006 aged 66, was critically acclaimed. It mixes those basic blues chord structures, with intricate guitar work that sings out in a way that is far more African than American. More than the blues connection is made in this song ironically compares African life and culture with that of Louisiana, where Touré's narrative talks of leaving his country to discover work elsewhere, where there are not only bombs, but car engines and hard jobs in the subway, where there is vain hope in finding knowledge and wisdom.
J'ai quitté mon pays et ma Louisiane
Mais dans d'autres pays, adieu Savane
J'ai trouvé le métro n'est pas un petit boulot
Mais je suis, je suis un nègre
J'ai quitté un ami et ma Lousiane
Mais dans d'autres pays, adieu Savane
Au lieu de nous donner non seulement des bombes
Donnez nous des moto-pompes, pour qu'on puisse quand meme subvenir à nos besoins naturels
Pour trouver la vie et le savoir et la sagesse.
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