Vieux Farka Touré

blues · electric blues · folk

Vieux Farka Touré is a Malian guitarist, singer and composer, born in Niafunké on 12 March 1981 and the son of Ali Farka Touré. He grew up in a military family and met early resistance to a musical career, teaching himself guitar before enrolling at the Institut National des Arts in Bamako. His desert blues is rooted in Malian song forms while drawing openly on rock, jazz, reggae and soul. He released a self-titled debut in 2006 and followed it with UFOs Over Bamako (2008), Fondo (2009), The Secret (2011), Mon Pays (2013), Samba (2017) and Les Racines (2022), recording for labels including Modiba, Six Degrees, World Circuit and Dead Oceans. The Secret reached number one on CMJ's New World chart. With the Israeli musician Idan Raichel he formed the Touré-Raichel Collective, which released The Tel Aviv Session (2012) and The Paris Session (2014), and he has recorded or performed with Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks and John Scofield. In 2010 he played the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup alongside Shakira and Alicia Keys. His widest-reaching record is Ali, made with the Houston band Khruangbin and issued by Dead Oceans on 23 September 2022: eight Ali Farka Touré songs, chosen by Ali's eleven children, cut over a week at Khruangbin's barn studio in Burton, Texas in June 2019 and held back by the pandemic until it was finished in 2021. It charted in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, holds an 80 out of 100 average on Metacritic, and drew a five-star review from The Guardian.

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