Two generations of African music

-by Andrew Gilbert
Special to the Mercury News

Vieux Farka Toure is the son of Mali's late guitar legend Ali Farka Toure, and a rising guitar star himself who recently released an exhilarating debut album.

Toumani Diabate is the Malian kora master entrusted by the elder Toure to watch over his son after the younger Toure defied his wishes to become a soldier and pursued a career in music,

"My father suffered a lot in his musical career, and he didn't want me to have the same fate," explains Toure, speaking in French through a translator from his home in Bamako, Mali's capital, "Now Toumani is like a father to me. He's not just a musical inspiration, he's a family friend and he's also my own griot," a praise singer who extols Toure's virtues and prowess.

Double bill
In what promises to be the Bay Area's African music concert of the year, Toure and Diabate are sharing a double bill Monday at Villa Montalvo. The show marks Toure's California debut and the only California appearance by Diabate's remarkable Symmetric Orchestra, an all-star West African ensemble documented on last year's magnificent "Boulevard de l'lndependence."

Toure is scheduled to return to the Bay Area on Nov. 4 as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, But Monday's performance is his only West Coast date sharing the stage with Diabate, who has collaborated with an array of artists, appearing on Bjork's album "Volta," jazz trombonist Rosweii Rudd's "MALIcool" and Taj Mahal's "Kulanjan."

Diabate was a close friend and frequent collaborator with Ali Farka Toure (their album "In the Heat of the Moon" won a Grammy last year in the Best Traditional World Music Album category). So, Diabate served as both a counselor and liaison between father and son during the years when the younger Toure was honing his craft in secret, playing along with his father's recordings. As the scion of kora great Sidiki Diabate, who recorded the first album on kora -- a 21string lute with a gleaming, harp-like sound -- Diabate hails from a musician caste, and he encouraged Vieux Farka Toure to find his own sound.

"I was happy to hear that Vieux was playing guitar, but he didn't want his father to know it before." Diabate says from Spain, in the midst of a European tour. "So Ali didn't really know that Vieux had become a great musician, like what he's doing today. Vieux didn't want to show to his father that he's a great musician. So I told Ali Farka, 'Be happy. Let him do what he wants to do, don't try to put any pressure on him.'"

His own style
Of course, his father's disapproval only made Vieux Farka Toure focus on his music more intently, and he honed a style that's raw and jagged, steeped in the reverberating blues-like cadences of northeastern Mali's endless Saharan sands.

In the end, Diabate was able to bring father and son together, a reconciliation captured on Toure's self-named album. Released in February on World Village, the CD features the last studio recordings by Ali Farka Toure, who won his first Grammy for his 1994 collaboration with Ry Cooder, "Talking Timbuktu."

Performing on guitar and vocals, Vieux Farka Toure is touring with a five-piece band featuring Mama Sissko on guitar and ngoni (traditional African lute), Seckou Toure on vocals and calabash (gourd percussion), drummer Tim Keiper and bassist Eric Herman, who produced Vieux Farka Toure's album.

Following his mentor's guidance, Toure has grounded himself in Mali's musical heritage, particularly Diabate's Mandinka culture.

"Toumani talked to me a lot about the Mandinka way, the ancient empire from the west of Mali." Toure says. "I'm from the north, which has an entirely different musical and historical tradition. Toumani taught me that it's important not to have just one style. You must have lots of styles as a musician."

The musicians promote a transnational vision of West Africa that stems from the ancient Mandinka empire, which encompassed a huge swath of territory from the mid-13th to mid-17th century. The Symmetric Orchestra includes musicians from several countries that were carved out of this territory, and the group embodies the cultural ties that have endured.

"I was born in Mali, and my father, who was king of the kora, was born in Gambia, and grandfather was born in Mali." Diabate says. "In Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gambia and Burkino Faso, if you go to different Mandinka countries today, you will always find this Diabate family. So we are one, and I think the most important thing is to say that we are one. No one else can do that for us. We have to do it; we have to prove and show the people we are one."

Created as a vehicle to celebrate the rise of democracy in Mali in the early 1990s, the 12-piece orchestra functions as both a forum for musicians to tell their tales and a laboratory to work out new material. For the past 15 years the group has been performing on Fridays at a Bamako club called the Hogon, a venue designed more for listening than dancing,

"It's not only Malian people enjoying live music, but also foreign people, Americans, Japanese, Europeans." Diabate says. "And if we compose a song, we play it and then we can check the people to see how they feel about it. If they're really happy with it, we keep it and play another, and that’s the way we’ve been working.”