Vieux Farka Touré

Often referred to as “The Hendrix of the Sahara”, Vieux Farka Touré was born in Niafunké, Mali in 1981. He is the son of legendary Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré, who died in 2006. When Vieux was in his teens, he declared that he also wanted to be a musician. His father disapproved due to the pressures he had experienced as a musician. Rather, he wanted Vieux to become a soldier. But with help from family friend the kora maestro Toumani Diabaté, Vieux eventually convinced his father to give him his blessing to become a musician shortly before Ali passed.

Vieux was initially a drummer/calabash player at Mali’s Institut National des Arts, but secretly began playing guitar in 2001. Ali Farka Touré was weakened by cancer when Vieux announced that he was going to record an album. Ali recorded a couple of tracks with him, and these recordings, which can be heard on Vieux’s debut CD, were amongst his final ones. It has been said that the senior Touré played rough mixes of these songs when people visited him in his final days, at peace with and proud of, his son’s talent as a musician.

Since then, Vieux Farka Touré has risen onto the world’s biggest stages, from the FIFA World Cup opening concert to landmark collaborations across continents like Khruangbin, Derek Trucks and John Scofield – establishing himself as a defining voice of modern Malian music.