Toumani Diabate

This man is on fire. After releasing a gorgeous, unplanned collaborative album with Ali Farka Toure in September 2005, Diabate captures the magic of his Bamako-based band on tape less than a year later. Recorded in two weeks of all-night sessions, the vibe differs utterly from In The Heart Of The Moon's delicacy: full and fierce, the pan-national band (including vocalists) draws on Afrobeat, Afro-pop and salsa to sketch its giant savannahs of sound, underpinned always by Diabate's transcendent kora.