Touré was approaching the age of 50 when he came to the attention of the burgeoning world music community in the West via a self-titled album in the late '80s. As he once told Option, his are songs 'about education, work, love, and society.' If he and Hooker sounded quite similar, it's probably not by conscious design, but due to the fact that both drew inspiration from African rhythmic and musical traditions that extend back many generations.

Widespread success on the order of Hooker was somewhat elusive, though, as Touré sang in several languages, and only occasionally in English. Touré's delivery was less abrasive than Hooker's, and the general tone of his material somewhat sweeter. The guitarist, who also played other instruments such as calabash and bongos, shared with Hooker (and similar American bluesmen like Lightnin' Hopkins) a predilection for low-pitched vocals and midtempo, foot-stomping rhythms, often playing with minimal accompaniment. There is a lot of truth to the comparison, however, and it isn't exactly an insult. “Camions Sauvages” (“Wild Tracks”), co-written with Chao, neatly sums up the downside of power: “You, the driver of this bad truck / Can’t you brake a little?/ Your bad car kills giraffes, / Hippopotamuses, and children.” Amadou & Mariam appear August 8 at Joe’s Pub.One of the most internationally successful West African musicians of the '90s, Ali Farka Touré was described as 'the African John Lee Hooker' so many times that it probably began to grate on both Touré's and Hooker's nerves.

“Dimanche” has been called the next “Buena Vista Social Club,” but even if the album never makes it to Starbucks it’s still a felicitous combination of warm vocals, Chao’s reggae beat, and a subtle political sensibility.

The albums reached the Spanish-French pop star Manu Chao, who produced their new record, “Dimanche à Bamako,” which went gold in France and won the equivalent of a Grammy. In the late nineties, the couple began releasing albums that owed a debt to the incantatory blues of the Malian legend Ali Farka Touré, while incorporating bits of soul and reggae.

He was twenty, and she was seventeen the two were married in 1980 and toured in various bands together. In 1975, the guitarist Amadou Bagayoko and the singer Mariam Doumbia met at the Institute for the Young Blind, in Bamako, Mali.

Ali farka toure discography