The
formation and success of The Touré-Raichel Collective, the band led by Israeli
keyboardist and songwriter Idan Raichel and Malian guitarist Vieux Farka
Touré—icons in their own countries and abroad—is a reminder of the unique power
of music to bridge geographic, ethnic, political and religious differences. As
a follow up to their acclaimed 2012 debut, The Tel Aviv Session, the group will
release a new album, The Paris Session, September 30 on the Cumbancha label.
The Touré-Raichel Collective will tour the U.S. this fall; please see below for
an itinerary.
Although
a collaboration between an Israeli Jew and a Malian Muslim has unavoidable
political implications, what inspired Touré and Raichel to work together was
not the potential to make a statement; they simply connected as artists and
friends seeking to find musical common ground.
They met
for the first time by chance, in 2008 at the Berlin airport, where they
expressed mutual admiration and a desire to get together and play. Touré’s
father, the late great Ali Farka Touré, was one of Raichel's musical heroes and
inspirations. Raichel invited Touré to Israel, where they assembled a few
musicians and convened an unscripted, improvised jam session. The chemistry
between Touré and Raichel was instant and profound. They assumed the name The
Touré-Raichel Collective and used the material from that first gathering as the
basis for an album, The Tel Aviv Session, which found poignant, musically
beautiful common ground between the artists’ cultures.
Since
they recorded their first album in Tel Aviv, the plan was to make the follow-up
in Bamako. But the latter was deemed too risky at the time, so the artists
traveled to France to record. For three days Raichel, who produced, and Touré
sequestered themselves at Studio Malambo in the outskirts of Paris where they
were joined by a number of special guests. While The Paris Session is the
result of the same freeform approach that was used in the first album, this
time around they decided to feature more songs with vocals, a wider range of
instrumentation, and appearances by musician friends such as Senegalese artist
Daby Touré on bass, Israeli trumpeter Niv Toar, Malian singer Seckouba Diabate
and others. Touré and Raichel have honed their interplay over the course of
multiple tours together, but the album possesses the same spontaneous,
heartfelt magic as its predecessor.
Due to popular demand, The Touré-Raichel Collective has undertaken multiple international tours and performed on some of the world's most prestigious stages. In June of this year, Touré returned to Israel to join Raichel's band The Idan Raichel Project in a performance at Masada, an archeological site of immense significance in Jewish history.
One
highlight of the recording is a rendition of the song “Diaraby,” written by Ali
Farka Touré and featured on his landmark collaboration with Ry Cooder, Talking
Timbuktu. Raichel says that there was a period of six or seven years during which
he had listened to the song nearly every day. Upon sharing a stage with Vieux
for the first time, Raichel suggested they play the elder Touré’s song
together, and doing so brought tears to Raichel’s eyes. He describes feeling “a
big, big circle from Ali Farka Touré in Niafunke to me in Tel Aviv, then going
back to Ali’s son.”
More
broadly Raichel says of his collaboration with Touré, “I’m a musician from
Israel, and I will always make Israeli music. And Vieux Farka Touré for me
represents the spirit of Mali. I think world music artists by definition are
people who reflect the soundtrack of the place they come from. I think that
this collaboration between Mali and Israel—and remember we don’t even have
diplomatic relations between the two countries—creates a new imaginary island
located somewhere between Bamako and Tel Aviv.”
Touré
says, “Idan comes from Israel, he’s Jewish. I come from Mali, I'm a Muslim.
This project shows the point where there are no real differences between us.
Working on these recordings we learn a lot about each other.”
It all
works, first and foremost, because Touré, Raichel and their guests manage to
make singular music. Reviewing The Tel Aviv Session for NPR’s “All Things
Considered,” Banning Eyre wrote, “If Raichel and Touré had planned a
collaboration, it's hard to imagine that they could have topped the casual
charm of this impromptu encounter.” Hosting the Collective on WNYC’s
“Soundcheck,” John Schaefer called the debut recording “one of the year’s most
surprising and infectious world music releases.” Wall Street Journal rock and
pop music critic Jim Fusilli has described the collaboration as “not so much
cross-cultural exercise as an exploration of common ground.”
The
Touré-Raichel Collective U.S. Tour Dates
NOV 07 @
The Valley Performing Arts Center – Northridge, CA [LINK]
NOV 08 @
Nourse Theater – San Francisco, CA [LINK]
NOV 09 @
The Center for the Arts – Grass Valley, CA [LINK]
NOV 11 @
Musical Instruments Museum – Phoenix, AZ [LINK]
NOV 12 @
Boulder Theater – Boulder, CO [LINK]
NOV 14 @
Peery’s Egyptian Theater – Ogden, UT [LINK]
NOV 15 @
Meany Hall – Seattle, WA [LINK]
NOV 18 @
Symphony Space – New York, NY [LINK]
NOV 19 @
Weinberg Center for the Arts – Frederick, MD [LINK]
NOV 20 @
Quick Center for the Arts – Fairfield, CT [LINK]
NOV 21 @
Koerner Hall – Toronto, ON [LINK]
NOV 22 @
Swyer Theatre at The Egg – Albany, NY [LINK]
NOV 23 @
Zoellner Arts Center – Bethlehem, Pennsylvania [LINK]
Vieux
Farka Touré is often called “The Hendrix of the Sahara.” Despite his father's
wishes that he join the army, Vieux taught himself guitar in secret and
stubbornly chose to pursue his dream of a career in music and further his
father's legacy. After earning his undergraduate degree from Mali's Institute
National Des Arts and a graduate degree from The Conservatory of Bamako, Vieux
quickly emerged from his father's shadow and established himself as an innovative,
world-class musician and activist in his own right. In his young career he has
released seven critically acclaimed albums, toured the world many times over
and collaborated with some of the world's biggest musical stars, including Dave
Matthews, Lauryn Hill, Derek Trucks and Ry Cooder. In 2010 he was invited to
represent Mali at the opening ceremony of the World Cup in South Africa, where
he performed to a cumulative global audience of over one billion people. In
2013 he released his latest solo album, Mon Pays, as a direct, peaceful and
uplifting response to the violent invasion of his homeland by foreign,
extremist militants in 2012 and 2013. The album was roundly praised around the
world and topped the CMJ World Music Chart for 2013. A tenacious philanthropist
throughout his career, Vieux has worked diligently to assist his fellow Malians
through his Fight Malaria campaign and by raising money throughout his tours
for the refugees of the recent conflict in Northern Mali. Most recently he
founded AMAHREC-SAHEL, a charitable organization providing crucial resources
and assistance to impoverished children in the Sahel region of West Africa.
Since
2003, when his song “Bo’ee” became an instant crossover hit that catapulted
Idan Raichel and his group The Idan Raichel Project to the top of Israel's pop
charts, the keyboardist, songwriter and producer has been a household name in
his native land. In 2006, the U.S.-based record label Cumbancha released an
eponymous collection of songs from the group’s first two albums, bringing the
artist even more international renown. The Idan Raichel Project has headlined
some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including New York's Central Park
Summer Stage, Apollo Theater, Town Hall and Radio City Music Hall, Los Angeles’
Kodak Theater, the Sydney Opera House, Zenith and Bataclan in Paris, London’s
Royal Albert Hall and many international festivals. Raichel has toured and
recorded with GRAMMY-winner India.Arie, including performances at the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C. for President Obama and his family on the first
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day after Obama’s election as well as at the 2010 Nobel
Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Last year, Raichel perform a private
concert for President Obama during his official visit to Israel. In July 2014,
Raichel joined Alicia Keys for a special duet during her sold-out concert at
Nokia Stadium in Tel Aviv. One month later, Raichel shared the stage with
French star Patrick Bruel. Cumbancha released the Idan Raichel Project's latest
album, Quarter to Six, in 2013, which featured guest appearances by Portuguese
fado singer Ana Moura, Palestinian-Israeli singer Mira Awad, German
counter-tenor Andreas Scholl, Colombia’s Marta Gómez, Vieux Farka Touré and
some of Israel’s top emerging singers and musicians.
