Meet: Vieux Farka Touré

Posted Thursday, November 22, 2007

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"Music is like a house," Vieux Farka Touré says, sculpting the air with his hands as he speaks, in French. "First you build the house. Then you plant flowers in the front yard. You can shade the house with trees, and put a hot tub outside if you want. But no matter what, the house will always be at the center of everything."

In life and in music, Vieux inhabits the house of his father, the legendary Malian musician Ali Farka Touré. The elder Touré brought the hypnotizing West African guitar style to the world through collaborations with Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal, and his own Grammy Award-winning solo albums. At home in Mali, Ali was, until his death in 2006, a farmer and provincial mayor, but most of all, a spiritual leader who carried on the region's musical traditions with the brilliant and innovative playing that echoed the songs of his ancestors. Of Ali's 12 children, Vieux is the only musician, a talented guitarist who also plays calabash and sings; and his first, self-titled album, which includes tracks recorded with his father, marks his debut as the heir to the desert blues.

"Where I come from, if it's God's will, it's good," says Vieux, who is 25 years old, speaking through a translator. On a cold afternoon in January, he sits on a sofa in the house of friends in Queens, New York, wearing jeans, a hoodie printed with his name and, on his neck, a thick silver chain. His band is here rehearsing for their first U.S. tour. While he talks, the sound of soft singing and guitar strumming comes from the next room. "A lot of people speculate 'Is this guy really going to be like his father?' Look, I don't really know. I just do what I feel, and I try not to let outside expectations influence me."

Vieux's instinct is what first led him to music. His father was opposed, and pressed him to pursue a military career instead. History was repeating itself: Ali's family, natives of Northern Mali and descendants of Malian kings, had also discouraged him from being a musician when he was young. But Ali's concern came of his own experience.

"There are a lot of two-faced people surrounding the musicians and people looking to exploit them," explains Vieux. "Ali's feeling was that music ceases to be music when you enter into it as a profession. And my feeling was that everyone has their own path, and mine is one of music. I wasn't rebelling against my father; it was what I felt I had to do."

Vieux Farka Touré applied to the National Arts Institute in the Malian capital of Bamako, although his acceptance was met with a cold response from his father. At the school, he trained in classical theory and African traditional music, and developed his guitar playing to a point that would later surprise Ali, who finally embraced his choice to become a musician when he graduated.

"He started giving me advice and explaining the things that I didn't understand," Vieux says. "He measured out points for me to reach in life, like the lines on a ruler, so I'm trying to follow what he told me. That's the only thing that's directing me, apart from my own instincts. I'm not trying to be like him, I'm trying to continue further on."

Vieux recorded two songs with his father shortly before the elder Touré's death from bone cancer (Ali listened to the finished album, cheering his son's musicianship from his hospital bed). Both the elegant "Tabara," dedicated to "all the women of Mali," and the more upbeat "Diallo," with music and lyrics by Vieux, carry the inherent emotion of father and son's talking guitars.

The album was recorded over six days in Bamako, where Vieux Farka Touré lives in his father's home, a Western-style house built on a central courtyard in the traditional African configuration referred to as a compound. He rehearses in the afternoon, and sometimes stops by a "super café" to check his email before meeting friends. Sitting outside, they drink tea, talk, and listen to a unpredictable mix of music that might include Jay-Z, Alpha Blondy, 50 Cent, Shakira, Phil Collins and Salif Keita.

Vieux always starts his day visiting his elders, "the people who keep a watchful eye on me."

Among these other "fathers" is Toumani Diabate, the renowned kora player, who Vieux says really initiated him into the music scene. His delicate command of the harp-like kora joins Vieux's bluesy improvisations on the 9-minute "Diabate," which the young Touré wrote in his honor.

On every level a harmonic collaboration between generations, the album was produced by Erik Herman, a young American musician who met Vieux when he was an exchange student in Bamako. Herman plays guitar, bass and other instruments on the record, which includes the song he wrote called "Courage." The lyrics of Touré's songs express similar sentiments, with moral messages about responsibility in the quest for peace and freedom. The album also includes traditional compositions, notably "Touré de Naifunké" dedicated to ancestor Samory Touré, "the last king of the Manding Empire." The song "Ana," which Touré wrote and spontaneously recorded with a reggae beat, best reveals his current taste for music by Sean Paul and what Toure calls "Rock Afriqué," and perhaps hints at what's to come from the house of Touré.

"Tradition will always be important to me: You have to express who you are, where you are coming from," he says. "But that doesn't prevent you from adding on to that tradition."