Album Review: The Tel Aviv Session by Toure-Raichel Collective

Full marks to both Vieux Farka Touré and Israeli keyboard player Idan Raichel for this very daring venture. Going into the studio with two other musicians -- on calabash and bass -- to improvise and see what happens takes not only skill but also plenty of guts. Did it pay off? From the material here the answer is a resounding yes. This isn't about ego, it's about conversation -- which also means plenty of listening.

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Agently mesmeric set in which the Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré teams up with Israeli keyboard player Idan Raichel for a series of improvised, largely instrumental pieces in which both musicians quietly extend their range. Raichel has become something of a hero across the Middle East for his adventurous fusion of Israeli, Arab and African themes, though his band, the Idan Raichel Project, sometimes veer towards classy global easy-listening. Here, he allows the African guitar hero to dominate many of the tracks, with Touré moving away from his driving, electric-guitar blues-rock style to concentrate on laid-back acoustic riffs and improvised flurries that at times echo the work of his legendary father, Ali Farka Touré.

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The players here set about forging exciting new traditions. Martin Longley 2012 When leading his own band, guitarist Vieux Farka Touré has lately been getting increasingly deeper into the Hendrixian electric zone, his Malian desert roots steadily saturated by rock’n’roll seepage. This project reveals a different aspect, as Touré comes closer again to his heritage, concentrating on the acoustic guitar.

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