“Notes fall from his fingers like rain on to water… kaleidoscopic” – Guardian
Vieux Farka Touré, often called “The Hendrix of the Sahara”, hails from Niafunké, Mali. He is the son of legendary Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré, who died in 2006. Ali came from a historical tribe of soldiers and defied his parents by becoming a musician. Thus, when Vieux reached his teens, he declared that he also wanted to be a musician. However, his father disapproved because of the pressures he had experienced as a musician. Rather, he wanted Vieux to become a soldier. Vieux eventually convinced his father to give him his blessing to pursue music shortly before Ali passed.
Initially, Vieux played drums and calabash at Mali’s Institut National des Arts, but he secretly began playing guitar in 2001. When Vieux announced plans to record an album, cancer had already weakened Ali Farka Touré. Ali recorded a couple of tracks with him. There, those recordings, which appear on Vieux’s debut CD, rank among Ali’s final ones.
When the COVID pandemic hit in 2020 and all touring ground to a halt, Vieux stayed focused on his craft at home. He worked tirelessly in the studio he built at his family’s compound. The resulting album, 2022’s Les Racines, finds Vieux returning to his deep roots. Here, he explores the desert blues music that he spent most of his career experimenting with and expanding. In 2022 Vieux and Houston-based psych-rock superstars Khruangbin released a long-awaited collaborative album. Sir Elton John called it “one of the albums of the year – absolutely wonderful music.”
With each new project Vieux broadens his horizons, embraces new challenges and further entrenches his reputation as one of the world’s most talented and innovative musicians.
Recommended for fans of Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen, Cheikh Lô and Khruangbin.
