Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Music Section: Part One: Ali Farke Toure and Toumani Diabate

Sometimes c.d.'s pick me. It's happened at Target, Roadrunner Records, Cheapo and the Electric Fetus. From across the room certain albums call my attention like my mom's dog Sophie when she clamps down on her rope toy and growls with glee as she wrestles me for the toy. Absorbed completely in our task she and I are happy to play and it's supremely good fun.

For example: One day as I me walked through the modern rock section at Cheapo I saw a c.d. staring at me from across the way. Knowing full well what this meant since it's happened to me before, I walked past it at least twenty times (I absolutely did not the have $18 to spend on it!) and steadfastly refused to even pick it up and look at it. The colors and the cover photo were my perfect valentine. The feeling I got from the album brewed in my chest for days afterward.

In the Heart of the Moon is a perfect representation of what I love about music. It's a living thing. It reflects every aspect of my spiritual practice. It is a unique recording because it is a profound experience. I've heard from musician friends that improvisation is a difficult place to achieve Utopian or Beatific experience in music. People need to play together for many hours to gain the fluidity of the exultant improvisation. This aspect of In the Heart of the Moon is tenfold. These musicians are reviving and co-creating a grassroots/folk musical tradition in it's ideal form - as integral to the fisherman as to the Mayoral office. A celebration and a call to co-creation as made possible by all beings.

This album is one of the best I've come across in a very long time. The best because it resonates with all the love and understanding inside me. It brings to life an aspect of myself I am learning how to share. The albums I've had this experience with are few, but they all have the same calling card: they latch onto me the way Sophie latches onto the rope toy. They catch my eye and my heart leaps when I see them.

They have all become part of my spiritual library.

The following entry is an excerpt of the liner notes for
In the Heart of the Moon by Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate.

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