Tel Aviv Meets Mali
Idan Raichel
, an
Israeli composer and multi-instrumentalist, works with singers and musicians from all over the world.
But Raichel's
new album breaks with his own rhythm. Instead of switching musicians every song (often enlisting 50-100 per album), he's teamed up with a single other collaborator--the Malian guitar virtuoso
Vieux Farka Touré.
The resulting album is an intimate collection that showcases both musicians. Raichel plays a simple piano; Touré plays acoustic guitar. Though the album is almost entirely wordless, the conversation between the two cultures feels eloquent and natural. Raichel plays a
Sephardic-style melody, which Touré picks up and repeats in his guitar-picking. Then both musicians chant the melody together, in a sort of Hasidic
nigun.
Curiously, this isn't the first time that Jewish and Malian musicians have made headlines together--last year's
House of Friendly Ghosts album featured Brooklyn-based band The Sway Machinery and Malian singer Khaira Arby. Who knew that the two cultures made such a musical
shidduch?