Biography
Vieux Farka Touré sings, writes songs, and plays guitar as the second son of the storied Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré. While remaining anchored in his West African heritage, his work also draws from American blues, rock, jazz, pop, and Latin traditions. After his self-titled debut arrived in 2007, he solidified his standing as a world-class guitarist. In June 2010 he performed at the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, the same month he issued the live recording Live that captured his onstage command. Across his career he has joined forces with musicians from many genres. His 2011 studio album The Secret featured Dave Matthews, John Scofield, and Derek Trucks. He cut two multilingual albums with Israeli pianist Idan Raichel under the name Touré-Raichel Collective, then issued Touristes with American ukulele player and vocalist Julia Easterlin in 2015. Shortly after the spare solo album Les Racines appeared in 2022, he released Ali, a collaboration with the globe-trotting Texan trio Khruangbin, titled in homage to his late father.
Born in 1981, Vieux felt music’s pull early. Growing up in his father’s hometown of Niafunké and in the Malian capital Bamako, he first took up percussion and became skilled on both calabash and drum kit. Throughout most of his formative years his father discouraged his musical ambitions, instead pressing him toward a military path that might spare him the hardships Ali himself had faced as an artist.
In 1999 Vieux enrolled at the National Arts Institute in Bamako. Two years later he began teaching himself his father’s instrument in secret and composing original material. His technique sharpened during his studies, and by graduation he had earned local recognition for his command of the same desert-blues approach his father had mastered. He joined the backing ensemble of kora master Toumani Diabaté, who persuaded Ali to accept his son’s decision and offer support. The experience alongside Diabaté supplied international exposure that later proved invaluable. Once his father and village elders granted approval, Vieux and producer Eric Herman started recording his first solo project in 2005. World Village released the resulting self-titled album in 2007, marking Vieux’s independent arrival on the world-music landscape; it also preserved the final studio work of his father, who died in early 2006.
On later recordings Vieux moved beyond his father’s direct influence, folding Latin, rock, and jazz elements into his style. He also partnered with various artists on two remix collections drawn from his initial pair of albums. Fondo, his second studio effort, came out in 2009 on Six Degrees Records. Live followed in 2010, then The Secret in 2011, an eclectic set produced by Eric Krasno of Soulive and again spotlighting Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, John Scofield, and Ali. The Tel Aviv Session, the first of two Touré-Raichel Collective projects with Idan Raichel, surfaced in 2012.
While readying material for his fourth album, Mon Pays, released in 2013, political and territorial unrest erupted in Mali, casting a turbulent shadow over an already patriotic song cycle celebrating the beauty of his homeland. After the Touré-Raichel Collective delivered The Paris Session in 2014 and the 2015 collaboration Touristes with American singer and ukulele player Julia Easterlin, Vieux returned in 2017 with his fifth solo album, Samba. Cut live before a studio audience in Woodstock, New York, the title invokes the Songhai term for “second boy,” a nickname Vieux often heard while growing up. The back-to-roots project Les Racines appeared in 2022; that same year he joined Khruangbin for the full-length Ali.
Born in 1981, Vieux felt music’s pull early. Growing up in his father’s hometown of Niafunké and in the Malian capital Bamako, he first took up percussion and became skilled on both calabash and drum kit. Throughout most of his formative years his father discouraged his musical ambitions, instead pressing him toward a military path that might spare him the hardships Ali himself had faced as an artist.
In 1999 Vieux enrolled at the National Arts Institute in Bamako. Two years later he began teaching himself his father’s instrument in secret and composing original material. His technique sharpened during his studies, and by graduation he had earned local recognition for his command of the same desert-blues approach his father had mastered. He joined the backing ensemble of kora master Toumani Diabaté, who persuaded Ali to accept his son’s decision and offer support. The experience alongside Diabaté supplied international exposure that later proved invaluable. Once his father and village elders granted approval, Vieux and producer Eric Herman started recording his first solo project in 2005. World Village released the resulting self-titled album in 2007, marking Vieux’s independent arrival on the world-music landscape; it also preserved the final studio work of his father, who died in early 2006.
On later recordings Vieux moved beyond his father’s direct influence, folding Latin, rock, and jazz elements into his style. He also partnered with various artists on two remix collections drawn from his initial pair of albums. Fondo, his second studio effort, came out in 2009 on Six Degrees Records. Live followed in 2010, then The Secret in 2011, an eclectic set produced by Eric Krasno of Soulive and again spotlighting Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, John Scofield, and Ali. The Tel Aviv Session, the first of two Touré-Raichel Collective projects with Idan Raichel, surfaced in 2012.
While readying material for his fourth album, Mon Pays, released in 2013, political and territorial unrest erupted in Mali, casting a turbulent shadow over an already patriotic song cycle celebrating the beauty of his homeland. After the Touré-Raichel Collective delivered The Paris Session in 2014 and the 2015 collaboration Touristes with American singer and ukulele player Julia Easterlin, Vieux returned in 2017 with his fifth solo album, Samba. Cut live before a studio audience in Woodstock, New York, the title invokes the Songhai term for “second boy,” a nickname Vieux often heard while growing up. The back-to-roots project Les Racines appeared in 2022; that same year he joined Khruangbin for the full-length Ali.
Albums
