Ali Farka Touré
Ali Farka Touré was a Malian singer and multi-instrumentalist who blended traditional Malian music with African American blues and is considered a pioneer of African desert blues. Touré was born in the village of Kanau in the northwestern Malian region of Tombouctou in 1939. He was the tenth son of his mother but the only one to survive past infancy. Ethnically, he was part Songhai, part Fula. In Malian society, the musical performance was the duty of a lower caste known as the "Griot", but Touré disregarded this and secretly built a monochord from a tin can and played it with his friends. He bought his first guitar on a trip to Bulgaria, and it was also the first time that he heard the music that was being produced by African Americans in the United States during the 1960s, of which Touré instantly became a fan. Touré was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone's list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He died on 6 March 2006 at the age of 66.
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