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Vieux Farka Toure: The Sound of Jaws Dropping
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Dirty Linen, Vieux Farka Toure: The Sound of Jaws Dropping >>
-by Chris Heim
This is a story of families, mentors, and friends, of ties to home, culture, and tradition. It is ironic, then, that in some ways it begins with an act of defiance.
Vieux Farka Toure is the son Ali Farka Toure, one of Africa's best-known and most highly regarded musicians. He carries both the gift of that legacy, and also its burden of responsibility and expectation, all playing out on an intemational stage. And, as the now fairly well-known story goes, it began with the elder Toure, who regarded the music business as both difficult and treacherous, discouraging his son from following in his footsteps.
"Vieux groomed himself as a musician in (his home village of) Niafunke as a teenager," explained Eric Herman, friend, producer, bandmate, and translator here. "He was coaxed along a bit by Afel Bocoum (from Ali's band), who used to bring him along to rehearsals. It was there he picked up the drum kit, which is what he learned first, and then calabash. When he became a bit older, Ali stepped in and said, 'Look, I'd like you to join the army." Vieux resisted stubbornly and said, 'No, I want to pursue music'
"He went against his father's wishes and enrolled in the Arts Institute in Bamako. Luckily, it was a public school, and it was free, because Ali kind of cut him off financially at that point. In the Arts Institute, he picked up the guitar and began playing and quickly showed himself to be kind of virtuosic on the guitar."
Herman and Vieux first crossed paths at the Arts Institute. The Canadian born student had studied there and then returned a few years later, planning to record a malaria relief benefit album. This was an intended followup to ASAP: The Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project, a compilation put together by Herman and Jesse Brenner, partners in the Modiba production and record company. So far it has raised over $140,000 for Darfur relief efforts.
Herman realized his friend had become an accomplished guitarist and talented interpreter of his father's music, and the focus quickly switched to recording Vieux's self-titled debut [World Village 468065 (2006)]. (The malaria relief idea was not entirely lost--10% of the proceeds from the CD goes to a UNlCEF-affiliated organization that distributes mosquito nets to children and pregnant mothers in Niafunke.)
There was another reason for urgency. Ali was seriously ill with bone cancer (He passed away in March 2006). This would be the only time father and son would record together, cutting tracks that also honor familial ties-- "Diallo" (a tribute to Barrou Diallo from Ali's band and a mentor to Vieux) and "Tabara" (written by the father of Toumani Diabate, the famed kora player who has also been a mentor to Vieux and who appears on two tracks on the new CD, as well).
For Vieux, his father's legacy was "his demeanor, his character, his public character, which was so inspiring to so many people, his grandeur in public and his ability to really touch people. And then privately, my father imparted so much wisdom to me. Nothing very specific, but in grand, sage, proverbial terms which imparted life lessons about how to deal with people, how to treat your family and your colleagues and your associates. It inspired me to continue that sage-like wisdom and transmission of values in my own music."
Vieux also pointed to Ali when asked about the modem feel to his music, with its quicker tempos and hints of rock and reggae. "My father was the first innovator who inspired me," he explained. "His collaborations with Ry Cooder and other people had a lasting impression on me. He was an innovator in his own right. Even the fact that he played and popularized African guitar blues--that in itself was innovative in its time.
"There wasn't any deliberate picking and choosing of influences. I'm of the young generation. I listen to everything, and music just seeps into my sensibility. If I do have to be more precise, I would say I really have always been fond of the Tuareg music, and that has an element of rock to it that I brought to the songwriting tradition."
Crisp production also gives the disc a contemporary feel. Though recorded in only a few days, Herman said a great deal of time and attention went into the final mix. "Everything, every tiny little note was very carefully calculated from the production end. Mostly it was because I felt such an enormous weight of responsibility on my shoulders. Ali had to come in the first day and get his recording in quickly before he left for a Paris hospital for several months. So there was this strong aura of immediacy in the studio. And then all these absolute legends of music and heroes of mine were participating. I felt just such an enormous pressure once I flew back to New York with the recordings actually in my hands, and I said, 'Well, I certainly am going to take my time with all this.'
In addition to Vieux's own album, an eclectic remix CD is also in the works, with contributions from Nickodemus, Cheb I Sabbah, Eccodek, and two finalists from an online contest to remix the song "Ana." It holds the promise of reaching beyond the usual world music circles and, Vieux added, "People in Mali are going to have their jaws on the ground when they hear these remixes, because no one else has been able to really capture the American aesthetic in their music, so far as I've heard yet in Mali. This is really going to turn heads over there, and I'm really excited about that."
With his CD atop the world music radio charts, and his initial North American concerts selling out (more are set this summer), Vieux is off to an impressive start. But many challenges remain ahead for the young musician, who is seen not just as the son of a musical giant, but as a representative of the next generation of African artists.
"I don't want to speak for all the other artists of my generation, of course," Vieux concluded, "because everyone has different attitudes. But for me personally as I see it, my role is to continue to push forward the principal message of the African artist, which is really a way of transmitting the cultural wisdom of African people. We need to keep finding new avenues to reach people and continue to spread our message further and wider." 09/01/07
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