Two-time Grammy Award winner Ali Farka Toure, one of African music's most famous ambassadors, died today in his native Mali after a lengthy battle with bone cancer. He was in his late 60s.

Toure, one of the pioneers of the Malian blues music that connected with a global audience in the past decade, died in his sleep at his home in the Malian capital of Bamako, according to Mali's Culture Ministry.

"Ali was for Mali, for Africa, and for the rest of the world a very great musician, a musician who leaves behind him a fabulous heritage," Malian Culture Minister Cheick Oumar Sissoko told Reuters.

"We are receiving phone calls and e-mails from around the world today," he said on Malian state radio.

Toure's music, an alluring amalgam of African percussion and the blues of the American south, reached many Western ears for the first time on Talking Timbuktu, his 1994 collaboration with American guitarist Ry Cooder.

That album netted the duo a Grammy, but Toure took a break from recording for a few years after that.

He released Niafunke in 1999, an album of traditional Malian music that Toure recorded in his childhood town of Niafunke in northwestern Mali.

Toure spent most of his time late in life in Niafunke, living and working on his farm and becoming the town's mayor in 2004. The town became a pilgrimage spot for many music-focused tourists.

In 2005, Toure teamed with fellow Malian legend Toumani Diabate for In the Heart of the Moon, an album of traditional Malian string music recorded at Bamako's famed Hotel Mande. The album landed Toure a Grammy at last month's awards.

Toure was born in 1939 in the village of Kanau on the banks of the River Niger, near the trading post of Timbuktu. He was his mother's 10th son but the first to survive infancy.

"The name I was given was Ali Ibrahim, but it's a custom in Africa to give a child a strange nickname if you have had other children who have died," he said in a biography posted on the Web site of his record label, World Circuit.

The nickname they chose for Toure was "Farka," meaning "donkey."

"But let me make one thing clear," he said. "I'm the donkey that nobody climbs on!"

In 1968, a fellow student in Bamako introduced Toure to American blues artists like Albert King and John Lee Hooker. He was immediately struck by his thought that "this music came from here [Mali]," and said it solidified his focus on Malian blues.

Talking Timbuktu introduced Toure to a much wider audience, but he seemed reluctant to capitalize on his increased fame, touring the US only twice after its release and largely staying in Niafunke and tending to his farm.

He did become a mentor to many Malian musicians, most notably popular singer Afel Bocoum. He also participated in director Martin Scorsese's widely acclaimed Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues PBS series in 2003, including the show Feel Like Going Home, which focused on the roots of the blues in Africa.

He was scheduled to appear at the annual Festival in the Desert in the Sahara Desert in 2005, but canceled his appearance at the last minute, citing poor health.

World Circuit plans to release Toure's last recorded solo album later this year.

"An exceptional guitarist, he transposed the traditional music of his native north Mali and single-handedly brought the style known as desert blues to an international audience," the label said in a statement.