Ali Farka Toure

The album that shoved Ali Farka Toure to the forefront of African music paradoxically isolated him from his African roots and drove him to retreat from the world for years after its release. It was also, incidentally, a long-overdue synthesis that connected the dots between Delta Blues and West African music, with the help of co-conspirator Ry Cooder. But all of that overwhelming significance aside, Cooder and Toure's collaboration simply enchants: they approach the West African repertoire with reverance, their guitars tracing like light fingertips over the hypnotic surface of the music.