THE “father of the desert blues”, Ali Farka Toure  was born in 1939 into Mali’s “noble” caste — which meant he was forbidden to play musical instruments. Growing up in Niafunke in Northern Mali, he secretly made a one stringed instrument with a tin can and baling wire.

After working on farms and as a chauffeur he became a recording engineer at Radio Mali. He acquired an electric guitar and sent tapes to Sonafric, the Paris-based record label which issued them on albums featuring the hypnotic vocals and mesmeric guitar playing which would later propel him to international stardom. 

The albums were poorly distributed but BBC DJ Andy Kershaw found a copy of one while on a record-hunting trip in Paris. Kershaw played tracks from the album on his radio show and the response from listeners was overwhelming, prompting Anne Hunt, co-founder of World Circuit Records, to head to Mali to find Toure — finally locating him via messages on Radio Mali. She brought him to Britain where he recorded a debut set for the label in 1987.