Chance Meetings: The Touré-Raichel Collective and "Azawade"

Chance plays a huge role in our lives, and history wouldn't have been the same without chance meetings. Would we have ever heard of Lewis Carroll had he not by chance met a young girl named Alice who inspired him to Wonderland? Where would Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet be today if the Titanic had not had a chance encounter with an almost 90 years prior to the movie? What would rock music be like today had John Lennon not met Paul McCartney at a church party, or if Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, former school chums, had not bumped into each other on a train years later? What would our lives look like if Woz hadn't met Jobs?

I'm not trying to suggest that today's random tune, a collaboration between Israeli and Malian musicians, is of the same caliber, but it's fascinating that sometimes chance meetings lead to some really good things. Azawade is by the The Touré-Raichel Collective, which developed out of a chance airport meeting between singer and guitarist Vieux Farka Touré of Mali and pianist Idan Raichel of Israel. Promising to perform together, they fulfilled the promise in 2010 at the Tel Aviv Opera House. An impromptu session the day after at a recording house led to three hours of improvised musical recordings and was the birth of the collective. In 2012 they released their debut album, The Tel Aviv Session, on which this song, Azawade, appears.

The Touré Raichel Collective - Hawa - The Tel Aviv Session

Sunday is, for a great many people around the world, a day of rest and worship, and often that rest and worship is accompanied by music.  For me, when Sunday rolls around and it happens to coincide with music that appears from nowhere and puts me in a reflective mood, it is as if Sunday came into its own and rose into its own and into what it is supposed to be.

Today's musical highlight does just that.  Hawa is a song from the Touré Raichel Collective.  Beginning with the vaguely reminiscent blues style of Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, it eases into a lazy beat and rhythmic rise and fall that all but forces your mind into reflective submission.  While that description may seem discordant, you don't really feel the pull.  All of a sudden, you realize that you are in reflection when ethereal voices begin to chant to the newly introduced piano of Idan Raichel and you briefly come back to reality before the guitar sends you falling back into an almost spiritual reflection again.

What luck that the great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré didn't manage to discourage his son Vieux Farka Touré from taking up music, and that Vieux Farka Touré enrolled himself in music school in Bamako! What luck that When Vieux Farka Touré wanted to release his own solo album, and his producer had to get permission from the village elders including Ali Farka Touré and the great Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté, that they allowed the album to move forward! What luck that Idan Raichel, a highly successful backup musician in Israel, decided to pursue his own solo projects!  What an amazing coincidence that these two highly talented men met each other by chance in an airport in Germany, became deep and lasting friends, and after a session of music together decided to form the Touré Raichel Collective!

One could say that it might seem like the hand of a higher power was involved.  And on this Sunday, where many people will take a day to reflect and tend to spiritual matters, music like Hawa can only aid us in those endeavors.

Hawa is from the Touré Raichel Collective's album The Tel Aviv Session (Amazon, iTunes), released by the Cumbancha label in 2012. Here is an excerpt of the song performed live.