ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Ali Farka Toure was a master multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. He profoundly influenced Malian musicians as well as those across the African continent and around the world. In 2001 and 2002 I visited Ali Farka Toure at his home in Niafunke, near Timbuktu in northern Mali. We played music together talked about the blues and its roots in Africa. The result of our meeting was a documentary film directed by Martin Scorcese (Feel Like Going Home) and an album featuring blues and traditional Malian music (Mississippi to Mali). A successful businessman, he supported many people with his transport business, his mechanic's garage, his hotels, his record manufacturing and sales ventures, and his vast farm and cattle holdings. He was born a noble, but he lived a simple life, displaying the ideals of love of culture, service to the less fortunate and hard work. These ideals and how they manifested in all his works -- musical and otherwise -- are what made his music so inspiring. This book will be a portrait of the man and his music, recounted by those who knew him and worked with him. Ali Farka passed away in 2006, but the music he left us will never die.
I traveled to Mali in 2008 and conducted the first interviews that led to the beginning chapters of the book. But I need to interview many more people to finish the project. I will return to Mali in December as a guest of Vieux Farka Toure (his son). I will need funds to pay the people I will interview. I will transcribe each interview from video and then translate from French to English. Once back in the U.S., I will need funds to pay for the printing and design of the book. I need your help to make this project a reality.
Remember, no donation is too small and anything you give will be appreciated. You will not be charged anything until after the project meets its funding goal, so there is nothing to lose!
Ali Farka Toure's life and music is a testament to the kinship that still exists between Africa and her sons and daughters who were scattered across the earth. As he once told me, "the Blacks left with their culture and they did not lose this spirit, this awareness. But, biography, ethnicity, legends...they lost that. But their music is African."
Please join us today! Together we can celebrate the life and the music of the great sage, the master musician, Ali Farka Toure.