Thank you to PopMatters and to Sam Bathrick/ Native Resonance for this beautiful video of the story behind The Touré-Raichel Collective. Watch out for European tour dates this Fall!

From the PopMatters Premiere:

PopMatters’ David Maine recently raved about the collaboration between Afrobeat’s Vieux Farka Toure and Israeli singer-songwriter Idan Raichel, saying “it would be an understatement to say that The Tel Aviv Session is a good record, or even a great one. This is, simply put, one of the best Afro-pop collaborations you are likely to hear, rivaling the elder Toure’s 1994 effort with Ry Cooder, Talking Tuimbuktu.” The album is one of those genre-mashing blends that we at PopMatters can never resist. If our praise hasn’t been enough, then check out the mini documentary on the project below, featuring interviews with the musicians and just see if you can resist the power of this music. Admit it, you can’t.

“The deeply affecting, at times hypnotic album rises from simmering grooves enriched by Mr. Touré’s stinging solos on acoustic and electric guitars and Mr. Raichel’s cascading piano. It’s not so much a cross-cultural exercise as an exploration of common ground.” –The Wall Street Journal

“These players delve into the swirling waters of our globalized music culture and pull out bright fish, almost perfect, as if designed instead of conjured in the heat of improvisation.”–NPR’s All Things Considered

“The chance meeting of Vieux Farka Toure and Idan Raichel in an airport, and the relaxed musical courtship that followed, might just be the world music success story of the decade.”–About.com

“Simply divine…we are beside ourselves here.”–Giant Step

The Toure-Raichel Collective performs in-studio for NPR’s Weekend Edition

Vieux Farka Touré (Mali) and Idan Raichel (Israel), virtuosic superstars from very different backgrounds, join together to create masterworks of collaboration and improvisation. After a chance meeting in an airport in Europe, Idan and Vieux forged a deep friendship that led to an impromptu get together at a small studio in Tel Aviv in November 2010. The resulting recording session – acoustic, spontaneous, entirely improvised, and stunningly beautiful – could only be described as magic, and The Touré-Raichel Collective was born. On the upcoming album The Tel Aviv Session, to be released by Cumbancha, Idan and Vieux have captured an inspired musical moment that will bring to mind classic albums such as Talking Timbuktu by Ali Farka Touré with Ry Cooder, Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert or Vincent Segal and Ballake Sissoko’s acclaimed Chamber Music. The live concert reflects the natural spontaneity and free-form creativity of the recording sessions, allowing audiences to experience firsthand the invention of sublime and transcendent music that crosses boundaries of country, culture and tradition. Please see the tour page for The Touré-Raichel Collective’s upcoming North American tour dates. Click here for The Touré-Raichel Collective’s website.  The Tel Aviv Session will be available internationally on March 27, 2012.

Vieux announces ‘power rock trio’ tour of UK and France February 2nd-18th! Please see the tour page for individual dates.

Photo by Francesca Perry



With “All the Same,” Vieux Farka Toure and Dave Matthews craft a stunning song about the perils of possessing a unique and desirable gift. Both Vieux and Dave are hailed as musical torch-bearers of both their generation and hometown, but with this venerable duty comes the threat of targeted jealousy. “Smiles and promises/Cry real tears ’til you believe/They don’t want you, they want what you’ve got/It may taste sweet but love it’s not.” In an equally stunning video by Native Resonance, a young boy finds himself thrust into limelight and power in a dreamlike world surrounded by entranced peers. The children dance around their newly crowned king who is momentarily blissful sitting on his throne. But adoration quickly turns to jealousy as the same child who crowned the king is the one to topple his kingdom in an attempt to steal the throne for himself. It is in the wisdom of a little girl singing Dave Matthews’ lines that the truth is revealed.

Will Hermes from Rolling Stone says Vieux “joins American peers for a crossover set that slays, primarily because the players come to his music, not the other way around.”  With a star-rating on par with the uber-popular Lonely Island and Tyler, The Creator releases, Vieux’s album is receiving a warm welcome from the music industry mainstream.  Read the entire stellar review HERE.

Note:  Grammy-nominated guitarist John Scofield played with Miles Davis, not Mahavishnu Orchestra.

With his 2010 World Cup performance before a billion people in Johannesburg, South Africa, Vieux Farka Toure has become one of the most celebrated African guitarists in history. Vieux now takes a dramatic next step with his new album, The Secret, produced by Soulive’s Eric Krasno and featuring Dave Matthews, John Scofield,  Derek Trucks, and Vieux’s final collaboration with his legendary father, Ali Farka Touré.

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“The Malian singer-guitarist Vieux Farka Touré plays desert blues with a personal charisma and technical finesse that have led some reviewers to dub him the North African Jimi Hendrix.

It’s a useful, facile handle for Western listeners. But in his edgy, exploratory hourlong Thursday night set at the Satellite, Touré summoned the tender, reflective Hendrix of “Little Wing” and “The Wind Cries Mary” more than the raunchy, insinuating belter of “Foxy Lady.”

Touré’s musical bloodlines are impeccable. Born in 1981, he’s the son of the late guitar virtuoso Ali Farka Touré, who initially discouraged his offspring from adopting a musician’s nomadic life. But the younger Touré’s talents couldn’t be denied. Trained as a percussionist, he also apprenticed with Toumani Diabate, a wizard of the harp-like kora. Both influences color Touré’s guitar playing, which can be delicate and probing, then explode into ferocious rhythmic exchanges with his excellent drummer Tim Keiper.” –Reed Johnson, LA Times

Read more in the full article HERE. Photo: Vieux Farka Toure performs at the Satellite in Silver Lake. Credit: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times