![]() ![]() Cooder has carved a reputation of delving deep and exploring the vast legacies of American musical legacies, most notably the rustic strains of the blues. That was the moment when the desert blues got its worldwide exposure. And it was inevitable for him to meet the ever curious guitar adventurer and producer Ry Cooder. At the time, his music was wide spreading across Africa when cassettes were the chosen medium for the desert and were used as main distribution channels as much as these days cell phone memory cards are used in West Africa for distributing music. ![]() For years before the world came to know his music in the '80s, he merged the sounds and the rhythms of his native Mali with the sounds of the blues which inevitably drew comparisons with another great artist, the blues legend John Lee Hooker. Toure's music was the finest example of desert blues that was unconcerned with boundaries. It was him who singlehandedly introduced the world to this music and its cultures behind. The popularity of this movement and music can easily be pinpointed to the music of the great Malian artist Ali Farka Toure, a towering musical figure and cultural icon. The sound that forms the basis of their music, apart from the dominant sound of the guitars, shares the same yearning and pace as the American blues, and the sonorities of the strings resonate in a way that has already been heard on old blues recordings. ![]() Artists such as Tinariwen, Terakaft, Boubakar Traore, Tamikrest, Bombino, Habib Koite, Vieux Farka Toure, Amadou and Miriam, to name but a few, can be seen and heard touring the world, performing at prestigious world music festivals and producing brilliant and popular recordings. The bands and musicians that are part of this genre come from an area that is spread across Western Africa that stretches from Mali to Libya gathering people of various ethnic groups. These days the genre of desert blues boasts one of the most vibrant music movements around the world. ![]()
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