It all starts with the mercurial Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré doing a little black-slope run down some scales, to whoops of anticipation from the crowd. Most of his tracks tonight begin with this offhand prelude, common to west African music – a foretaste of what’s to come. What invariably follows is a dazzling workout ranging across cultures and lineages, where Touré’s lacy fluency is always offset by anchoring groove.
The 43-year-old has been dubbed “the Hendrix of the Sahara”, an honorific that requires unpacking. (The same label has been used of Niger’s Mdou Moctar, a rising star of the region.) Touré’s electric guitar playing is, yes, off the hook. But he is no showboater. He plays the guitar tonight as though it were an extension of his own inner monologue, rather than as an instrument to be bitten or set alight. Notes fall from his fingers like rain on to water, where the insistent refrains of his rhythm section – three-strong, here – anchor the arpeggios and filigree.
