Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin

Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin

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About Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin

Ali Farka Touré trekked the world, bringing his beloved Malian music to the masses. Dubbed "the African John Lee Hooker," one could hear strong connections between the two; both employed a bluesy style of play with gritty textures that call and run in equal measure. While the influence of Black blues music prevailed, Touré sang in the languages of Fulfulde, Tamasheq, Songhay or Bambara, creating a West African blend of desert blues that garnered Grammy awards and widespread reverence. Though he transcended in 2006, Ali's musical legacy lives on through his son, Vieux aka "the Hendrix of the Sahara," an accomplished guitarist and champion of Malian music in his own right. On Ali, his collaborative album with Khruangbin, Vieux pays homage to his father by recreating some of his most resonant work, putting new twists on it while maintaining the original’s integrity. The result is a rightful ode to a legend. Of course Vieux would choose Khruangbin to honor his dad's legacy. The trio’s mix of amorphous, psychedelic funk has garnered mass acclaim across various countries and continents, making sense of Vieux’s beloved Mali. "I wanted to do this tribute with Khruangbin because I adore their music and they are a great example of musicians from a different generation, and from a very different part of the world, who were also inspired and influenced by my father," Vieux says. "I want this album to convey love. It is about the love that I have for my dad and that Khruangbin has for his music." Yet Ali isn’t just a greatest hits compilation. It’s a lullaby, a remembrance of Ali’s life through known highlights and B-sides from his catalog. In the case of "Diarabi," for instance, the quartet updates Ali’s original with pronounced drums, resulting in a sound somewhat rooted in R&B yet mysterious and distant. The mood feels sensual here — less meditative, more romantic. Then there’s "Alakarra," a lesser-known tune. Here, against Donald "DJ" Johnson’s churning funk rock and Latin cues, Vieux, Khruangbin guitarist Mark Speer and bassist Laura Lee hover in the mix, layering the track with gentle choruses that lend ethereal backing. Ali’s ethos of what happens when great creativity is approached through open arms and open hearts. "To me, music is magic, it is spontaneous, it is the energy between people," Vieux says. "I think Khruangbin understands this very well." The genesis of the album dates back to 2019, when Khruangbin, coming off their album Con Todo El Mundo, was beginning to play to bigger crowds. The record was finished in 2021, as a global pandemic shuttered businesses and forced us to take stock of what the earth was becoming. Ali captures this as a moment at peace within a raging storm, a conversation between past and present without allegiance to suffering. Now, given Khruangbin’s reach with legions of fans (including the likes of Jay-Z and Paul McCartney), Khruangbin sit on the point of late discovering Malian music to broader groups of listeners. While there was pressure to preserve the sanctity of the art, you couldn’t feel it in the studio. Vieux wanted to keep things relaxed and open-ended to preserve the natural improvisation of his father’s music. The studio deliberately didn’t worry much about the songs that were going to be played, just relax and be in the moment, Vieux implored. Even the simplest gesture, to Vieux’s dedication to feel and nourishment comes through sonically. "He was bringing a lion fan every day with his face," Lee says with a gentle smile. "Three or four o'clock, he’d pull out the fish and then it was time to eat. He was feeding himself and the moment—it all just felt right." In today’s grind environment in which regular tasks seem immediate though rarely that revelous, Vieux was letting the release unfold naturally rather than forcing its intent. "Not a lot of tuning—therecording process was overthought," Johnson says. "When you’re in situations like that, you live in it, and it’s like—OK, let’s hit that one moment. But from that uncertainty comes magic; those fortuitous moments you simply can’t practice." An amazing thing happens when uncertainty is present, Speer says, "where you get into that zone of everything, it’s taking a chance and not knowing where it’s going to end up, and letting it be." It’s that spontaneity that vibes and is what happens. That in essence, is the mission statement of Ali—master work in sanctifying the love surrounding it. Just as vital as the music of Ali is love. To unfasten places, Vieux and Khruangbin are spreading the good word to a completely new generation. "I hope it takes them somewhere new, of putting them in places they haven’t or heard," Vieux says. "It’s about the love of new friendships and making something new again." — Marcus J. Moore Music Journalist with The New York Times Author of The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America

Taken from Last.fm

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