B &W Bowers & Wilkins

Daby Touré and Skip McDonald

This preview can only be heard at low bitrate mp3 quality, to hear the quality at which our music is delivered when you subscribe sign up here.

DOWNLOAD ALL TRACKS

Daby Touré & Skip McDonald In Session
As soon as they met, they knew each other. Skip McDonald: an old school bluesman from Dayton, Ohio, and long-time resident in London, UK. Daby Touré: a thirty-something musician raised in Mauritania, West Africa, now a leading light on the Paris, France scene. And having met and jammed one summer’s night at Real World they kept on meeting and jamming at festivals around the globe. For both men this was more than mere coincidence. Given the way they played together, the way their music flowed organically, spontaneously – hey, even psychically – it seemed like fate. Destiny. A sign.
Click to enlarge

Their inevitable Real World album – magicked in one creatively fecund week in RW Studio’s state-of-the-art Big Room - pays testament to a remarkable musical union. "We’re two children of Africa who have both ended up somewhere else," says McDonald, the son of an African-American blues guitarist who used to lull his son to sleep with bedtime songs instead of stories. "This collaboration combines our huge range of influences. It takes us in and out of the Motherland." He pauses. "Which is where all music comes from anyway," he says.

As front man for 21st Century blues project, Little Axe  - whose albums on Real World include Champagne and Grits, Stone Cold Ohio and the forthcoming Bought For a Dollar, Sold For a Dime – McDonald has often likened himself to an archeologist, ploughing the roots of American blues. “I’ve gone from gospel and funk to reggae and dub. Now I’m entering new territory; I don’t even know what to call it yet.”

Daby Touré, then, might best be viewed as an explorer. “All the traditional music I picked up when I was young is still in me and that doesn’t change,” says this urbane singer/songwriter, a member of a musical dynasty forged on the banks of the Senegal River and the man behind Real World albums Diam and Stereo Spirit. “But in my music I am still searching, and mixing, and trying new things. I am African but I am also European.” A Gallic shrug. “I am a modern artist.”

"We’re two children of Africa who have both ended up somewhere else"

Aided by the intuitive rhythms of drummer Keith LeBlanc (Little Axe/Tackhead), McDonald and Touré brought their sensibilities to bear on a clutch of songs assembled for and by the occasion.

Here are covers of such Little Axe classics as Sinners and Time has Come. New songs – Dionguanu, Almudo, Riddem – written by Touré. Songs that showcase the interplay between McDonald’s weighty guitar grooves and Touré’s lighter, freewheeling musicality. Songs that feature McDonald’s deep dramatic vocals and Touré’s gloriously agile singing range, his lyrics an often improvised mix of English and four different African languages.

Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge

"I sing whatever comes to me in the moment," says Touré, who variously played shakers, guitar and bass or simply tapped his fret board with his fingers. "I try and convey emotion in my voice and melodies. When Skip plays guitar it is easy for me to find the right feeling."

"We understood each other from our first meeting," he continues. "Skip said to me, 'Whenever you call me, I will come'. And he has."

He flashes a grin. "Which is very African, you know."

Sign in

Member log in
Society of Sound Music

Forgotten Password?