Sidi Touré, with Tom Moran & Rich Ermlick / Thunderbird Café / 09.10.2011 / 9:00 / $12-$15

Words by Brendan

I had never heard of Sidi Touré until a couple of weeks ago when I got an email about this show from a PR agent. I get a lot of those emails, and I can’t read them all too carefully, but the following sentence describing the recording style for Sidi‘s latest album caught my attention: “On the first day they would meet, play and choose a song over a glass of tea, then record that song on the following day.” That just sounded so nice. I started listening to the album and realized, “Holy cow, this music is incredible.” Sidi Touré is an award-winning singer/guitarist from Mali with a recent LP out on Chicago-based Thrill Jockey Records and, at the ripe age of 52, he is embarking on his first ever U.S. tour. Guess where the first stop is? Yup, Pittsburgh. Lucky for you, we have TWO FREE TICKETS for this show to give away! So read on for more about Sidi and how to enter the contest. Go on, do it!

Sidi Touré / Bon koum

Sidi Touré is from Gao, a town in northeastern Mali that was formerly the capital of the ancient Songhaï Empire. The Touré name carries a long tradition of nobility in the Sahel region, and even from childhood, a career as a musician was frowned upon by Sidi’s family. The first guitar Sidi ever played was handmade by Sidi himself, from writing slates, and his brother often broke his guitars to show disapproval. Despite this, he became the lead singer in school early in his life, and later became the youngest member of the Songhaï Stars, a regional orchestra that toured and played festivals. He sang, at first, in the Bambara language, which is common in Mali but not one that Sidi spoke. At age 25, he won a Malian national award for a song of his own composition, “Manou Tchirey”, but this was sung in the Songhaï language. He won this award again the next year, and took the opportunity to lead the his band to neighboring regions where the language is more common. The band lasted a few more years but, unfortunately, broke up after that, and Sidi went to sing with a band in Niger, then another one in Mali’s capital of Bamako. All along, his goal was to share the music of Gao and the Songhaï people and language, and he was finally asked to record an album in 1995, entitled Hoga.

Sixteen years later, Sidi Touré has a second album to share with the world. Sahel Folk is a celebration of the people of his region and, in particular, the concept of collaborating with friends. For each track on this album, Sidi selected one friend to jam with him. They would spend one day sharing tea and choosing a song, and then one day recording the song in Sidi’s sister’s house, only in one or two takes, to capture the raw spirit. The album’s producer, one Covalesky, had grander plans for the process but notes that, “In the face of such beauty and power delivered so simply by Sidi Touré and his friends, there was nothing to add. Everything was there.” Indeed, that “everything” that you’ll find is beautiful folk melodies and rhythms, coupled with Sidi’s powerful voice, singing in Songhaï about political and social change. The track above, “Bon Koum”, is “a song about a man who didn’t share his fortune when he was wealthy, and now that he’s poor, nobody wants to help him.” Other tracks are commemorations of the day French soldiers left Mali, urgings to youths to return to Mali to help the country, traditional folk songs about helping one’s family, or love songs for a beautiful woman. Along with his acoustic guitar and voice, Sidi’s collaborators play kutigui (a type of monochord guitar) and kurbu (a type of three string guitar). The songs are mesmerizing, and I bet you’ll find yourself lost in their mysterious yet inviting vocals and their sparse yet beautiful arrangements. Jambala Maiga and Domu Maiga will be on tour with Sidi, and you can check out some videos of them playing together here and here. You can also check out Sidi’s appearance on Vincent Moon’s The Take Away Show, for La Blogothèque.
 

 
This is going to be an incredible live show. Also performing are local musicians Tom Moran & Rich Ermlick, who play oud and doumbek. This is a rather rare opportunity to see a talented international musician at an intimate place like the Thunderbird. So, leave a note on our Facebook wall, @ us on Twitter, or send me an email to enter the contest! We’ll pick a winner (at random) on Friday morning and let you know who the lucky guy/gal is!

Buy tickets for this show: Online / call 412.682.0177 / Thunderbird Café website

Sidi Touré on the web: Thrill Jockey Records / Musiques d’Afriques / Insound

Filed under: Live Music, Ticket Giveaway