Product Description

Alafia [Digipak] - CD

Product Description

When Malian songwriter and guitarist Sidi Tour first emerged on the international scene in 2011, he was regularly compared to Ali Farka Tour, his countryman and predecessor. There was a similarity in means, sound and even surnames, and both musicians hail from the Songha region of Northern Mali. The signature blues-inflected guitar and plaintive vocal melisma of Songha folk music carries melodic and repertory characteristics that extend from Ibrahim Dicko Tour s mentor to Ali Fakra Tour s pioneering work. Over the course of two recordings last year s critically-lauded Koma and his revelatory debut Sahel Folk and attention from NPR, SPIN and Pitchfork, among others, Tour s musical identity has fully come into its own.

On September 17, Tour returns with Alafia, his third international release for Thrill Jockey and his most focused recording to date. Tour deals with the strife and political instability plaguing his home region using the effortlessly broad musical language he s internalized since his youth. Regional styles, including takamba, holley, and abarbarba (the butcher s dance), along with his longtime interest in international music, form the underpinning to Tour s lyrical ode to his country.

Recorded between two locations Nantes, France and Bamako, Mali during what has become the most contentious political impasse for Mali since the country s independence decades ago, Alafia mirrors the dramatic nature of the situation. Mali is a massive, culturally diverse and largely peaceful nation that is still struggling to maintain order following a Tuareg rebellion in Tour s home region in the North last April. The ensuing chaos that followed led to a coup in the capital, leaving a power vacuum in which Islamic extremists have cast a dark and violent shadow over Northern Mali.

While Tour s Gao was under control of Islamic groups, the band recorded in Nantes on the heels of Tour s first European tour. Recording in Bamako took place after the Sahara Soul tour with well-known Malian acts Bassekou Kouyate and Tamikrest, while Northern Mali s biggest cities had been liberated. Alafia is marked by these contrasting contexts and the varied mind-frames they imply. The album s title, which means peace, is a simple word that sums up an album of thematic complexities joy, dialogue, reconciliation, multiculturalism, respect and the fight for a better society and in-depth explorations of the Songha folk music from Tour s beloved home region.

The winner of two Malian national awards for best singer, Tour led Gao s regional orchestra, The Songha Stars, and, in 2011, he released Sahel Folk, his debut album for Thrill Jockey and toured North America for the first time. This tour took him to prestigious venues and festivals, including New York s Lincoln Center, Chicago s Old Town School of Folk Music and the Chicago World Music Festival. Through Thrill Jockey s introduction of Tour to new audiences, he is beginning to achieve success and critical acclaim abroad.

Backed by this band of young talented musicians, who have joined him on severals tours, he invited friends from the North to participate to this album: the singer Lela Gobbi, the kolo player Bert Ibrahim, and the rising star guitarist (and Tour disciple) Baba Salah. Tour also opens his music to Malian traditions outside the Songha realm with the n'goni virtuoso Abdoulaye Kon aka Kandiafa and the legendary Fula flute player Cheick Diallo.

Tour and will tour the U.S. this fall with twice-Grammy-nominated Cedric Watson under the banner of the International Blues Express. He will return for his own headlining tour in Spring 2014.