Biography
Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Sidi Touré gained a measure of recognition in his homeland of Mali both through his distinguished family name and royal ancestry and through his performances. Born in 1959 in Gao, where Songhai serves as the local tongue, he cultivated a distinctive droning style of songhai blues much as fellow Malian Ali Farka Touré did, though Touré himself hails from Gao rather than Bamako. As a youngster he fashioned his first guitar, yet his royal household—long celebrated in song within their historic town—had produced no actual musicians and urged him toward a different path.
He defied that expectation by joining his school band as a vocalist and later assuming the role of lead singer for the regional ensemble known as the Songhaï Stars. The group earned first-place honors at the Malian Biennale festivals of both 1984 and 1986, the initial victory coming with an original composition, and afterward embarked on tours. Persistent booking challenges led to the ensemble’s dissolution in 1990. Touré then spent a year performing with Niger’s Carnaval Band of Maradi before settling in Bamako in 1992, where he sang with the National Badema, formerly the group of Kassé-Mady Diabaté.
His music simultaneously honors and questions its cultural origins, weaving together songhai, takamba, and the hypnotic holley traditions while addressing an array of contemporary topics. In 1996 he issued his debut solo recording, Hoga, on the Stern’s label; modest sales prevented an immediate sequel. He nevertheless kept performing with musicians drawn from the northern reaches of Mali and Niger as well as the western Sahel. Guerilla filmmaker Vincent Moon, also known as Mathieu Saura, filmed him performing on the streets of Gao for an installment of the French television series Take Away.
Touré returned to recording in 2011 with the acoustic album Sahel Folk on Thrill Jockey, captured live in a series of duets with friends at his sister’s home. His next release for the label, Koïma, appeared in spring 2012 after being tracked in Bamako with a four-piece backing group. In fall 2013 he delivered Alafia, cut in both Bamako and Nantes, France, amid one of Mali’s most turbulent modern eras. For his fourth Thrill Jockey project he bypassed his modest tin-roofed Bamako space in favor of Studio Bogolan, a premier Malian facility; the sessions yielded the 2018 album Toubalbero, on which he guided an ensemble of emerging talents through a vigorous, hopeful collection of electro-acoustic material.
He defied that expectation by joining his school band as a vocalist and later assuming the role of lead singer for the regional ensemble known as the Songhaï Stars. The group earned first-place honors at the Malian Biennale festivals of both 1984 and 1986, the initial victory coming with an original composition, and afterward embarked on tours. Persistent booking challenges led to the ensemble’s dissolution in 1990. Touré then spent a year performing with Niger’s Carnaval Band of Maradi before settling in Bamako in 1992, where he sang with the National Badema, formerly the group of Kassé-Mady Diabaté.
His music simultaneously honors and questions its cultural origins, weaving together songhai, takamba, and the hypnotic holley traditions while addressing an array of contemporary topics. In 1996 he issued his debut solo recording, Hoga, on the Stern’s label; modest sales prevented an immediate sequel. He nevertheless kept performing with musicians drawn from the northern reaches of Mali and Niger as well as the western Sahel. Guerilla filmmaker Vincent Moon, also known as Mathieu Saura, filmed him performing on the streets of Gao for an installment of the French television series Take Away.
Touré returned to recording in 2011 with the acoustic album Sahel Folk on Thrill Jockey, captured live in a series of duets with friends at his sister’s home. His next release for the label, Koïma, appeared in spring 2012 after being tracked in Bamako with a four-piece backing group. In fall 2013 he delivered Alafia, cut in both Bamako and Nantes, France, amid one of Mali’s most turbulent modern eras. For his fourth Thrill Jockey project he bypassed his modest tin-roofed Bamako space in favor of Studio Bogolan, a premier Malian facility; the sessions yielded the 2018 album Toubalbero, on which he guided an ensemble of emerging talents through a vigorous, hopeful collection of electro-acoustic material.
Albums
