The Toure-Raichel Collective

You don't often hear piano in West African blues, probably because they're so hard to haul across the desert on camel back, but The Tel Aviv Session, out now on Cumbancha, makes the case. This is a fascinating collaboration recorded late in 2010 in Israel with Malian guitar hero Vieux Farka Toure joining Israeli pop star Idan Raichel, along with Israeli bassist Yossi Fine and Malian calabash player Souleymane Kane. The piano is sort of shocking the first and second time through, but it makes sense later like the shimmer of mirage pools over the roll and drone of desert blues.



Hard to imagine this being anything but a one-off, so if you want to see it, I'd suggest hitting one of these dates:

April 12 Washington, D.C. The Hamilton
April 13 New York, NY City Winery
April 14 New York, NY City Winery
April 15 Somerville, MA Somerville Theatre
April 16 Minneapolis, MN Dakota Jazz Club
April 17 Platteville, WI UW- Platteville Center for the Arts
April 19 Chicago, IL Old Town School of Folk Music
April 21 Atlanta, GA Rialto Theatre
April 22 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex
April 23 Santa Cruz, CA Kuumbwa Jazz Center
April 26 San Francisco, CA Herbst Theatre
April 28 Seattle, WA The Triple Door
April 29 Vancouver, BC Norman Rothstein Theatre
April 30 Vancouver, BC Norman Rothstein Theatre
May 01 Calgary, AB Temple B'nai Tikvah