Vieux Farka Touré is worried. In the courtyard of the Family House in Bamako, people come and go. Touré, in a sky -blue boubou (a kind of robe) sits on a braided chair. Greetings, shakes hands. And then looks at his phone again. There is a hassle with a piece of land where he has grazed cows, he says with a deep sigh and rubbing one hand over his bald head. He has been working on it all day.
Because yes, Mali’s world famous blues guitarist is also a farmer. Just like his even more famous father Ali Farka Touré, who died of cancer in 2006. Father Farka, a legendary guitarist and multiple Grammy winner, played on the largest stages in the world, but prefers to be on his country in Niafunké, a small town in the north of Mali, adjacent to the Niger river. He didn’t experience it anymore when Jihadists drove his family in 2012.
The lands of Vieux Farka Touré (44) are closer to the capital. He likes to go there, he says. Just empty his head. Because also in Bamako the worries are everywhere. “Tout Est Mort”, Touré says seriously. Everything is dead. Not only the advance of al-Qaida and to IS affiliated groups have drastically changed life in the Sahelland, but also the coups in 2020 and 2021. The new military reasonsers broke the ties with France, which continued to be a stamp on its old-colony with soldiers. Other Western countries also partly back and the UN peace mission MINUSMA disappeared in Mali. “Now there is Rien. ” Apart from a few remaining festivals.
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Fortunately, abroad. In April ‘the Hendrix van Mali’ started A new Tour A series of concerts in the Netherlands will follow by the United States, and in May. The kick -off is in the Melkweg. The four of them will be Touré. He on his blues guitar, the other three on Bas, Drum and the Ngoni, an age-old West African string instrument that is considered the predecessor of the Banjo. Touré: “I love that traditional sound.”
Fathers
It is the melancholic sounds of the Mali Blues, from the desert region where father and son Touré grew up and that both became world famous. Especially Ali, whose guitar work was compared to that of blues greats from the Mississippi Delta, was the exponent. In Mali he still counts as a national hero.
Trying to escape his father’s shade, Vieux gave his own twist from his first solo album in 2007, with the necessary rocky runs or jazzy influences, and collaborations with a variety of artists, from the Israeli pianist Idan Raichel to the American Singer-Songwriter Julia Easterlin. In 2022 the album came there Ali At, recorded with the psychedelic funk trio Khruangbin from Texas.
With their help, Touré re -reinterpreted some of his fathers’ most famous songs, almost hypnotic, Such as ‘Diarabi’about a lost love that has received a warm, soulful layer in the Touré-Khruangbin version. NRC gave the result four balls.
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It is a record as he is, says Touré, who has since taken a seat on the couch in the studio he built at home. Six guitars hang on the wall with brown floral wallpaper.
“I make traditional music that I mix with modern. Sometimes that is rock, sometimes reggae. But I always stay in my world. I wanted to go a step further with Ali’s music. The album that I made with Khruangbin is listened to by a new, young generation. A generation that Ali Farka Touré did not know, but now there was a sofarist.”
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Shortly before Ali Touré also released a solo album, his sixth: Les Racines (the carrots). His father is also central to that, but as a tribute to his traditional Saharasound with crispy guitar runs, the harp -like getting of the Ngoni and Touré’s warm voice that sings about peace and the community in Songhai and Bambara.
“The name Farka is a blessing and a curse,” says the guitarist. “Ali is Ali with his Grammy’s and success. There was a moment, in the beginning, that people were always talking about ‘the son of’, ‘the son of’. That was why I first went my own way. I did that. I have proven myself and today, Dieu Merciknow the world who Vieux Farka Touré is. But if you go into exile, you also have to know how to get home again. “
Because that’s how it felt, he says. “I wanted to make that record for a long time, but it didn’t feel like the right moment. I had to be in the skin of it Le Vieux crawl and that at all time. ” Especially since his father’s game was spontaneous, he stepped into the studio and just started playing. So we did that. No difficult bridges and arrangements, but putting everyone together in the cabin. That is Du Ali Farka. “
For example, Touré also wanted to record the record with Khruangbin. But that was quite difficult, he says. “They didn’t know the music. I finished my part in two days, but they preferred to be busy with one note for a day. Voucherthey are super stars, they want it to sound in a certain way. But I said: the idea was that this would not be Khruangbin or Vieux Farka Touré, but a new creation on Ali’s music. ”
No allure
With the result he is very happy, the guitarist emphasizes. “They are very nice guests, without allure. They really worked hard for this album.” It is also why he likes collaborations; A new atmosphere provides new ideas. And with the hit machine from Khruangbin, Touré reaches a new audience. Although that is mainly outside of Mali. “Here the youth is no longer interested in real music,” says Touré.
Mali’s new generation of artists is more concerned with rap, Afrobeats. Or, in Touré’s words: noise. “Boem, boom, boom. And just scold.” He looks dirty. He makes responsible music, says Touré. But that no longer fills rooms in Bamako. “If I were giving a show here,” he points out to the courtyard, “then it would not even be full. But take such a rapper And the football grounds there is running away. “
He should be Minister of Culture, Touré muses, who recently received the honorary distinction Chevalier de l’Ordre National by Mali’s President. “Then I would say voucher,, ” Les Garsthis is not serious. We have such a rich musical history. If it continues, it will be lost. ” If artists are knocking on to his studio, he is strict, says Touré.