Often dubbed the 'Hendrix of the Sahara,' Vieux Farka Touré faces huge expectations every time he steps on stage. As the son of Mali music legend Ali Farka Touré, he’s used to it.
"Of course, it was difficult following in the footsteps of my father, who was like a king in Mali," Vieux admits. "But you must take the good with the bad."
"I was blessed to inherit talents in music from him. In addition to being my father, he was the wisest and kindest person I have ever known. He taught me so many things, not just about music but about life and being a man worthy of respect."
Touré senior won global acclaim for his pioneering mix of traditional Malian music and the blues (he was often called 'Africa's John Lee Hooker'). However, the struggles he faced as a musician saw him forbid his son from following in his footsteps.
A budding drummer and calabash player as a child, Vieux indulged his passion in secret by playing along with his father's recordings in hiding. Eventually, he defied Ali's orders by enrolling in the National Arts Institute in Bamako where he found his instrument of choice: the guitar.
Father and son would reconcile in time to record together for Vieux's self-titled debut album in 2005, a year before Ali passed away from bone cancer.
"This was one of the most powerful, emotional experiences of my life," Vieux recalls. "We all knew that he would not be around for much longer, so this created a very heavy feeling in the studio. When we played together I could feel our ancestors moving my hands."
Much like his father, Vieux has used his artistic weight to speak for his country. On his 2013 disc, Mon Pays, he teamed with kora player Sidiki Diabaté, whose father Toumani famously collaborated with Ali on two Grammy-winning albums. The disc celebrated Mali's cultural legacy at a time of war.
"The country was being split apart and I wanted to do what I could do to remind the people of Mali that this is our country," he explains. "We have a long and proud history here, and we must not let foreign invaders erase this history and this culture."
While he says the situation has improved, Vieux notes, "There are still serious political conflicts in the north of Mali, and there are still issues with foreign interference and terrorism."
Still, he takes it in his stride. "Mali is a very poor country when we speak about the economy," he says. "But Mali is very rich when we speak about culture and history. As a musician, both of these things affect you."
Often viewed as the successor to Ali’s distinct brand of ‘phantom blues,’ Vieux has crafted his own musical identity by taking his father’s template and adding contemporary influences, from rock to dub, into the mix.
"The best piece of artistic advice [my father] gave me was to trust in my own instincts and to not let others pressure me into doing things I do not want to do," Vieux says.
"This sounds very simple, but in fact it can be very, very hard. Having the simple encouragement of my father to do what I feel is right has been enormously helpful."
This attitude has led to disparate collaborations with Israeli singer-songwriter Idan Raichel, American indie singer Julia Easterlin and alternative rock star Dave Matthews. With a new album scheduled for April, Vieux promises the best has yet to come.
"Rock, reggae, funk, blues, acoustic and traditional are all represented," he says. "It was first recorded in Woodstock, in one day in front of a live audience. The audience then came into the studio to watch us record there. After adding more in Woodstock, I took the recordings back to Bamako and did more work with musicians in Mali."
Shanghai: Jan 13, 7.45pm (doors open at 7pm), RMB80-180. Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall.
Beijing: Jan 15, 8.30-11.30pm, RMB100-150. Yugong Yishan.
Film Screening: They Will Have To Kill Us First
A week before Vieux Farka Touré’s show, Woozy Community Films screens this award-winning documentary about Mali’s legacy of Saharan blues. After Islamic hardliners took control of northern Mali in 2012, they enforce one of the harshest interpretations of Sharia law and ban all forms of music. The stirring documentary follows the country’s revered musicians’ efforts to preserve Mali’s cultural legacy as they are forced to go in hiding. The film is being screened in China for the first time and is in English with Chinese subtitles. A curated playlist of contemporary pan-African music will be played before and after the movie.
Beijing: Jan 6, 8pm, free entry. AOTU Studio.
Shanghai: Jan 7, 6pm, free entry. DADA, see event listing.
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