Customer Reviews
A new or the original kind of blues? - By: Mr. J. P. Shields, 23 Oct 2007 
I have not heard any of this kind of African blues music before & I have to say I am intrigued - is this what blues was originally like, or something that has evolved as a fusion of blues & african music, or something different entirely.
Whatever it is, what is true is that listening & making music is worth more that analyzing it & writing about the results.
Ignore the reviews about it being the best blues album ever etc etc & just buy it & listen to it. It's a good, atmospheric, interesting record.
Wonderful and worth buying but not "Album of the decade" - By: G. Dietz, 29 Mar 2007 'Savane' is the last album Ali Farka Toure recorded, & perhapsin the wake of his passing, the hyperbole surrounding this release reached a peak of superlatives-overload, with the estimable fRoots hailing it "the album of the decade". On that recommendation, & having loved an earlier AFT album ("Niafunke"), I ordered it.
It is fabulously atmospheric, genuinely otherworldly - listening to it takes you out into the Malian desert with Toure's bluesy riffs underpinning each of the tunes, & some harmonica & what sounds like a scratchy violin wailing like a desert wind over the top, a rattling kora driftingin & out & the man himself mumbling his hypnotic & heartfelt lyrics. You can almost feel the dustin your throat & the huge space around you (evenin a bedroomin Durham).
But I had expected, from those ecstatic reviews, to be choking back tears of joy & awe & they just didn't come for me. I could be an ignorant oik, of course, but all the tracks have a similar pace & vibe, which may have been deliberate, but there just aren't any gobsmacking moments, apart from the wall of sound created during the tremendous opening track.
So, it's great & a fitting epitaph to the great man, but you know what music journalists are like... They've just got to get their quote on the sticker on the front, haven't they?
Wonderful - By: Alexander G. Marshall, 30 Sep 2006 
One wonders if knowledge of his own mortality drove Toure to produce his two most beautiful & affecting albums-this superb epitaph & the extraordinary In The Heart of the Moon. Many artists knowing of their imminent demise might have retreated into a shell-instead Mr Toure left us these two magnificant heart-rending pieces of African music, encompassing the full breadth of his talent & knowledge, at once both acoustic & electric, heavenly & humane. If you are not inspired & awed by these two albums your heart is dead.
A superb epitaph - By: M. G. Cuthbert, 18 Jul 2006 Savane is a superb epitaph to the late Ali Farka Toure's recording career. All of his releases have been a joy to listen to & this final album is no exception. It just somehow seems like it's the best thing he ever did - &in fact the great man himself said so. If you are a fan, then you will need no convincing. A truly enjoyable recording. Mr Toure, your music will endure.
