In August 2000, Damon Albarn traveled to Mali for Oxfam’s On The Line project…where he also planned on hooking up with some of his favorite musicians.  While in the  capital Bamako and its surrounding villages, Albarn  sat in on club and private jam sessions, playing concerts and street corners, bars and boats.

He also did some recording and when he got back to London, he had more than 40 hours of tape of those musicians such as kora player Toumani Diabate and guitarist Afel Bocoum. Albarn added his own ideas as well - reggae, dance,dub and electronic music. Oh and he pulled out his melodica.

He then sent the work in progress back to Mali for further contributions from the musicians. The result was the 2002 release Mali Music and it’s this month’s featured album on Radio M.