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I just got back from a visit to Mali and music was one of the highlights of the trip. I wrote about some of my musical adventures in Mali at my travel blog. Anyone who follows world music knows there was no way I could have experienced the music of Mali's greatest contemporary musician, Ali Farka Touré, since he died in 2006. (He's the one who Martin Scorsese pointed out carried the "DNA of the blues.") His 1994 collaboration with Ry Cooder, Talking Timbuktu, won a Grammy and he's widely recognized as the most important bridge between traditional African music and the American blues. I was in a 4WD vehicle as I trapsed around Mali and the CD player would only play the first song of any album. I listened to "Bonde" from Talking Timbuktu at least 100 times. I hope you'll find it as enjoyable as I did.

For those of you who can't watch the video above there's a youtube from the same album here: