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Sample Track 1:
"Ana" from Vieux Farka Touré
Sample Track 2:
"Ma Hine Cocore" from Vieux Farka Touré
Layer 2
CD Review

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Allaboutjazz.com, CD Review >>

Despite Vieux Farka Toure's clear internationalist trajectory—traces of rock, funk and reggae run through his arranging and soloing—the most successful tracks on this impressive debut album are the most traditional sounding and the ones featuring older musicians. Given Vieux's relative inexperience, this is hardly surprising: he plays the guitar much like his father, but has still to acquire his old man's depth and presence. He's made a more than promising start though, and may do so yet.

Toure senior is featured on two tracks, the feisty “Tabara” and “Diallo,” both of which are basically showcases for his electric guitar. Vieux's mentor, kora player Toumani Diabate, plays on another two, the more contemplative “Toure De Niafunke” and “Diabete.” Ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate, from Savane, is heard on two tunes, including “Courage,” which also features njarka (the liner notes identify the player as Hassey Sarre, possibly an alternative rendition of Savane's Dassy Sarre).

”Diallo” could almost be an outtake from Savane, though it's taken at a faster pace than anything on that album. It lasts over seven rocking minutes and the focal point throughout is Ali's electric guitar. ”Diabate,” at over nine minutes the longest track, is a kora/guitar showcase in which Vieux steps further centre stage than he presumes to do on either of the tracks featuring his father. These two tracks are the album's highlights.

The least successful track is the one in which Vieux makes his most overt embrace of music from outside Africa, the more or less straight reggae tune “Ana.” There's some wild organ, a tasty horn arrangement (albeit one lifted almost wholesale from the London Soothsayers band's album Tangled Roots), but the Malian and ex-Jamaican strands coexist, rather than mesh with conviction. “Courage,” featuring Toure's near contemporary, vocalist Issa Bamba, is a more successful fusion: the Frankish, poppy topline set inventively against Sarre's njarka and Kouyate's ngoni.

Despite its flaws, this is an assured and convincing debut, further distinguished by benchmark performances from two West African superstars. Will Vieux continue to move in his own globally inclusive direction, or follow the dynastic desert blues route? We'll have to wait for the next disc to find out.

 03/14/07 >> go there
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