On April 19, the Old Town School of Folk Music in Lincoln Park held an intimate concert featuring Israeli musician Idan Raichel performing with Vieux (pronounced like “view”) Farka Touré. The duo, known as the Touré-Raichel Collective, performed twice during the night, and filled the hall with wonderful sounds and vibes.

 Raichel, who is most recognized for his band The Idan Raichel Project, met Touré by chance in an airport in Germany. Touré, a Malian guitarist, is the son of the Grammy award-winning musician Ali Farka Touré. The younger Touré learned to play the guitar in 2001 and quickly garnered a unique talent. The two instantly connected, and before you know it, Touré was on his way to Tel-Aviv, Israel, to participate in a jam session with Raichel. After jamming in the studio for a while, someone turned on the recorder and thus The Tel-Aviv Session, their album, came into being.

 Touré and Raichel’s performance on Thursday was phenomenal; the mix of Malian and Israeli beats and melodies was breathtaking. Touré played the acoustic guitar with brilliant fashion while Raichel did his magic on the piano, including every part (inside and out) of the piano. The beauty of the concert was both musicians ability to incorporate their own musical style in each song. Since The Tel-Aviv Session was produced from a jam session, the songs they performed gave them room to make up and add different tunes.

 The Touré-Raichel Collective at Old Town was a vivid performance of world music and entertainment. Touré and Raichel have recently completed their North American tour, but I highly recommend checking out their album, The Tel-Aviv Session.