Alhassane Toure Abdoulaye (Abdallah)

ABDOULAYE ALHASSANE TOURE 

Abdoulaye Toure is a brilliant muli-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and producer from Niger and Mali. His principle instrument is guitar, and he sings and plays kurbu, gurmi, godje, calabash drum and a number of other Central Saharan instruments. He was the founder, musical director, composer and lead guitarist for the wonderful Niger roots band, Mamar Kassey, that toured internationally to rave reviews. Mr. Abdoulaye Toure is the Quincy Jones of Saharan music, having launched the careers of Moussa Poussy, Elh Taya, Adams Junio and many other singers from Niger, for whom he composed and arranged all of the music. Of the same tradition as Ali Farka Toure and Ibrahim Dikko, Abdoulaye Toure is a master of the music of many Saharan cultures and languages: Songhrai Tuareg, Zerma, Hausa and others. His original music is rich in complex rhythms, beautiful blue modes, and full of joyous enthusiasm.

Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure has brought string-picking wizardry from the desert towns of West Africa to the nightclubs of New York City. Born in 1963, in Niamey, Niger, to a Sonrai family from Gao, Mali, he passed his youth in a multi-ethnic neighborhood surrounded by Peul, Bambara, Sonrai, and other peoples, and as he put it, "They all played music." Local radio filled his ears with the sinuous, bluesy strains of desert folklore and the melodious bombast of Mande griots. When his parents returned to Mali, Toure recalled, "They came back with cassettes by Ibrahim Hamma Dicko, Fissa Maiga, and Ali Farka Toure, who sang in a language we understood, and I was incredibly inspired by the originality of this music." 
Toure can cradle an acoustic guitar and fingerpick his way through desert trance grooves, and he can also take up a flatpick, and wail on electric-edging desert folklore into the realm of blues and rock. One day, he plans to return to Niger to set up a studio and form an international touring band. For now, Toure is merely one of the most riveting African guitarists to be found in the United States.