When people says Malian guitarist and singer Vieux Farka Toure plays desert blues, it’s part of a complicated story. The connection between the music of West Africa and the many strains of African-American music is fairly obvious in some ways. Enslaved Africans brought their rich musical culture to the Americas and — despite oppression and laws forbidding drumming — those traditions flowered and morphed in the United States. African-American music has gone on to reach the whole world, including Africa, with many African-derived strains of culture ping-ponging back to the mother continent. So, John Lee Hooker and Jimi Hendrix have influenced generations of African guitarists.
Vieux Farka Toure is the son of legendary guitarist Ali Farka Toure (who died in 2006). The son, like the father, is part of a music culture in Mali that extends back hundreds of years. Music-making is central to life in Mali, and Malians view excellent music as one of the features that their country is blessed with, like a natural resource. Farka Toure, who listens to jazz, rock, blues, hip-hop, Arabic music and other styles, has collaborated with American musicians like Dave Matthews, John Scofield, Derek Trucks, as well as with the giants of West African music. This month, Farka Toure releases his new record “Samba,” which is not about Brazilian music but rather about a word that refers to endurance, dignity, fearlessness and one’s sense of place within a family.
Vieux Farka Toure plays at the Ballroom at the Outer Space, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden, on Saturday, April 8, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $17 to $20. 203-288-6400, thespacect.com.
