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Setlist
Tour Dates
May 19—SPACE—Evanston, IL
May 20—Le Poisson Rouge—New York, NY May 21—World Café Live—Philadelphia, PA May 22—Race Street Live—Holyoke, MA June 8—Crystal Ballroom—Somerville, MA June 10—Infinity Hall—Norfolk, CT June 11—StageOne—Fairfield, CT June 12—Afrika Nyaga Fest—Providence, RI August 4—Celebrate Brooklyn—Brooklyn, NY Read More
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“You finally made it,” shouted a gentleman from the crowd after the second song.
In fact he did, Vieux Farka Touré making good on a postponed show from September of last year.
The introduction from the emcee stated it was their biggest crowd since the Dakota re-opened after the pandemic and the crowd and Touré seemed primed for a festive night.
The first few songs had everyone seated, though, with Touré playing an acoustic guitar, Marshall Henry on bass and Adama Kone on the percussive instrument, the calabash. They played like they were sitting around a campfire, slowly passing the time with an open, soulful sound trying to fill the infinite space of a desert night.
Touré played with a warm and playful spirit. He enjoyed interacting with his band mates with a back and forth between him and Henry as if they were still fine-tuning a song.
Touré highlighted songs from six of his previous albums, which was ironic considering he has a new album being released this week - Les Racines. Maybe he’s contractually obligated to wait for the release date of 5/20/2022. After all, this concert is almost a year behind schedule. Hopefully, a returning tour to the Dakota will be in the works.
After setting the mood, Touré stood up, strapped on the electric guitar and played “Fafa”, which sounded quite a bit like “Azawade”, a song from The Tel Aviv Session, a collaboration he did with Israeli piano player, Idan Raichel. We Heart Music covered their concert at the Dakota ten years before. Touré remained seated that night for the music did not call for him to go electric.
Touré has earned a moniker of being the Jimi Hendrix of West Africa. I like the Malian Desert Blue Prince. He definitely has a distinct, singular sound forged by Malian musical traditions and the Blues found in Chicago, the Delta or anywhere else where the Blues can be.
Touré is the son of legendary guitarist Ali Farka Touré. The father did not want his son to become a musician for he thought being a professional soldier would provide a more stable life. But talent would not be denied and the son secretly took guitar lessons behind his father’s back and eventually won his approval.
Touré has the technical skill as well as the soul of a virtuoso. And when he launched into “Samba Si Kairi” he filled the intimate venue with an epic guitar solo like he was playing a football stadium. And as quickly as he brought the crowd to a standing ovation, he channeled B.B. King by wailing on his guitar in “Walaïdu”.
To draw the evening to a close, Touré encouraged the crowd to stand up and dance with the final two songs, songs rooted in the west coast African tradition, the type of music that made it very easy to stand up and sway, which everyone in the audience did.
| dave ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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