This was the last album he made before his death and, like its predecessor In The Heart Of The Moon, it was recorded in the Hotel Mande in Bamako. Many were disappointed with that album: it was undeniably beautiful but perhaps too intimate, Toure and Toumani Diabate too involved in each other’s skill and musical cultures to draw in the listener. Well, this one is different.
It’s a return to the plaintive, driving, dry-as-dust desert blues of his early albums, played with even more assurance and beautifully recorded, and really feels as though it was recorded for an audience. It’s becoming hard to find a mainstream African album without an itinerant Westerner or two popping up on a few tracks, not always to good effect. Here we have Pee Wee Ellis, who has been playing with many Malian musicians, but I’m glad to say his sax doesn’t sound too out of place and adds to the atmosphere on Bato.
More effective is the harmonica of Little George Sueref, Cardiff-born, and now based and playing clubs in London. As far as I know, he’s released only one album of his own and it’s splendid. He sounds perfectly in place and, hopefully, this collaboration means we’ll hear more of him.
Even so, the unadorned title track really can’t be beaten. The whole album is wonderful. Can’t recommend it enough.
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