{"id":187,"date":"2014-12-30T10:51:14","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T15:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/culturated.com\/?p=187"},"modified":"2014-12-30T10:51:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T15:51:14","slug":"toure-raichel-collective-paris-sessions-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/toure-raichel-collective-paris-sessions-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tour\u00e9-Raichel Collective: The Paris Sessions Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Israeli Jew and a West African Muslim walk into an airport\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It may sound like the opening line to a decidedly un-p.c. joke, but it\u2019s actually the true story behind this decidedly unique musical fusion pairing forward-thinking singer-songwriter <a href=\"http:\/\/www.idanraichelproject.com\/en\/\"><strong>Idan Raichel<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and Mali\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vieuxfarkatoure.com\"><strong>Vieux Farka Tour\u00e9<\/strong><\/a>, the son of legendary singer-guitarist Ali Farka Tour\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After a chance encounter at a Berlin airport in 2008, the unlikely duo became friends, eventually performing together in November 2010 at the Tel Aviv Opera House. The next day they entered a recording studio with Israeli bassist Yossi Fine and Malian percussionist Souleymane Kane.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4JpjBkozWwM\" width=\"640\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The resulting 2012 album, <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong><i>The Tel Aviv Session<\/i><\/strong><\/span>, was a seamless blend of West African rhythms and Israeli melodies, with Tour\u00e9\u2019s bluesy guitar and voice creating a musical dialogue with Raichel\u2019s improvised piano.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Their follow-up album was originally set to be recorded in Mali, but violent conflict in the region sent the group to Paris instead. &#8220;The situation in Mali was very tense during the period that we recorded this album,&#8221; Tour\u00e9 told me in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There were often demonstrations in the streets, and I could not guarantee that everything would go smoothly for Idan\u2019s trip. As a famous Jewish musician, he could be a target for the Islamists. So we decided it would be better to record this new album in Paris and then, inshallah, we can do the next album together in Mali.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/vieux_and_idan_2_by_jason_marck.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-189 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/vieux_and_idan_2_by_jason_marck.jpg\" alt=\"The Paris Sessions Review\" width=\"648\" height=\"407\" srcset=\"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/vieux_and_idan_2_by_jason_marck.jpg 648w, https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/vieux_and_idan_2_by_jason_marck-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/vieux_and_idan_2_by_jason_marck-330x207.jpg 330w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Two years of touring has tightened up their sound considerably, and <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong><i>The Paris Session<\/i><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0sounds like a musical ensemble truly finding its groove, recalling Ali Farka Tour\u00e9\u2019s work with Ry Cooder on <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong><i>Talking Timbuktu<\/i><\/strong><\/span>. &#8220;In every concert that the Idan Raichel Project performs, when the audience is going into the venue, they listen to this Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Tour\u00e9 album,&#8221; Raichel says. &#8220;It\u2019s an amazing, important influence to me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>From the opening song, \u201cFrom End to End,\u201d to the closing \u201cAlla,\u201d Tour\u00e9\u2019s West African blues riffs largely drive the album\u2019s sound, with nimble guitar and soulful vocals echoing a tradition that resonates from Mali all the way to the Mississippi Delta. He sounds especially strong on an exceptional cover of his father&#8217;s &#8220;Diaraby,&#8221; which Raichel&#8217;s sparse\u00a0piano updates to haunting emotional effect.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Raichel wisely focuses on complementary melodies for the most part: Only on the middle section of \u201cTidhar\u201d does his jazzy improvisational piano style\u00a0seem slightly incongruous to the organic musical whole. But for the most part, this is an inspired cross-cultural collaboration so stellar, you&#8217;ll find yourself wondering why nobody ever\u00a0thought of blending Jewish and Muslim musical traditions before. <em><strong>\u2013Bret Love<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>If you enjoyed our review of The Paris Sessions, you might also like:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/greenglobaltravel.com\/2014\/10\/09\/interview-african-muslim-israeli-jew-toure-raichel-collective\/\"><strong>INTERVIEW: The Tour\u00e9-Raichel Collective<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>IDAN RAICHEL &amp; VIEUX TOUR\u00c9 SELECT DISCOGRAPHY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>2006- \u00a0<em>The Idan Raichel Project<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>2009- \u00a0<em>The<\/em>\u00a0<em>Idan Raichel Project:<\/em>\u00a0<em>Within My Walls<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>2009- \u00a0<em>Vieux Farka Tour\u00e9: Fondo<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>2011- \u00a0<em>Vieux Farka Tour\u00e9:\u00a0The Secret<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #008000;\">2012- \u00a0<em>The Tel Aviv Session<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>2013- \u00a0<em>The Idan Raichel Project:\u00a0<\/em><em>Quarter to Six\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>2013- \u00a0<em>Vieux Farka Tour\u00e9: Mon Pays<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>2014- \u00a0<em>The Paris Session<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Israeli Jew and a West African Muslim walk into an airport\u2026 &nbsp; It may sound like the opening line to a decidedly un-p.c&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/toure-raichel_colle79b4b90__press_resolution.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5slei-31","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}