Diaraby

Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder, 1994, from Talking Timbuktu. Solo by Ali Farka Touré, Ry Cooder.

From Talking Timbuktu, Touré's hypnotic picking and Cooder's slide show the link between Malian music and American blues.

Diaraby, from Talking Timbuktu, is a conversation between two traditions that turn out to share a surprising amount of vocabulary. Ali Farka Touré lays down a hypnotic, repeating acoustic pattern, and Ry Cooder's slide drifts over it, bending into notes and sustaining them in the spaces Touré leaves open. Neither player dominates; the magic lies in how comfortably their lines coexist. The album helped introduce a wide audience to Malian guitar and sparked plenty of discussion about the roots the music shares with American blues. Listen for how Cooder's slide mirrors the pitch inflections in Touré's picking, as though the two guitars were speaking related dialects of the same language.

Diaraby by Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder is featured in our Desert Blues (#3) list. The solo is played by Ali Farka Touré, Ry Cooder and the song was released in 1994.

In our lists

• Beyond the Canon — #21
• The Greatest Desert Blues Guitar Songs — #3
• The Best Ry Cooder Guitar Solos — #14
• The Best Ali Farka Touré Guitar Solos — #1

Sources