Ali Farka Tour%C3%A9

Ali Ibrahim Farka Tour was a Malian singer and multiinstrumentalist, and one of the African continents most internationally renowned musicians. His music is widely regarded as representing a point of intersection of traditional Malian music and its North American cousin, the blues. The belief that the latter is historically derived from the former is reflected in Martin Scorseses often quoted characterization of Tours tradition as constituting the DNA of the blues. Tour was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone s list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and numberon Spin magazines 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Tour was born in 1939 in the village of Kanau, on the banks of the Niger River in GourmaRharous Cercle in the northwestern Malian region of Tombouctou. His family moved to the nearby village of Niafunk when he was still an infant. He was the tenth son of his mother but the only one to survive past infancy. The name I was given was Ali Ibrahim, but its a custom in Africa to give a child a strange nickname if you have had other children who have died, Tour was quoted as saying in a biography on his Record Label, World Circuit Records. His nickname, Farka, chosen by his parents, means donkey, an animal admired for its tenacity and stubbornness Let me make one thing clear. Im the donkey that nobody climbs on! Ethnically, he was part Songrai, part Fula.

Source: Wikipedia