A small crowd of Brown students and Providence residents gathered in Alumnae Hall Friday night to groove to the "Hendrix of Africa," as sponsors called him - soulful Malian guitar-player Vieux Farka Toure.
The concert was sponsored by the Mali Health Organizing Project, a non-profit organization founded by Brown students two years ago that works to help slum neighborhoods in Mali design their own health systems.
The proceeds of the concert will go toward construction of the malaria ward of the clinic MHOP is working to fund in Mali, founder of MHOP Caitlin Cohen '08 said, adding that the clinic would serve nearly 60,000 people and should break ground in late November.
Though attendance at the concert was low, the few who battled the rain were rewarded with a unique jazz-funk sound and an energetic crowd, clapping their hands to the music and dancing wildly by the stage.
Toure said he enjoyed the concert because of the "good public" in attendance.
"I am very glad and happy to do this concert because all the people were nice and had a lot of energy. I wish I could come back," he told The Herald after the concert.
Toure strode onto the stage wearing traditional Malian garb and immediately filled Alumnae with piercing notes from his electric guitar. Joining him was a five-person band consisting of a drummer, bongo player, bass player and a second guitarist. Other instruments made cameos, including a tambourine, a triangle and a calabash -- an African bottle gourd that is hollowed out and used as a percussion instrument.
The crowd was actively involved in the concert, dancing nonstop and even participating in a call-and-response segment in which Toure recited Malian lyrics, and the audience repeated them with enthusiasm, despite fumbling over the unfamiliar sounds.
Toure was inspired to play music by watching his father, a two-time Grammy award winner. Despite being the source of his son's musical aspirations, Ali Farka Toure encouraged him to become a soldier rather than endure the challenges of a musical profession. Toure consequently practiced his guitar in secret.
To further develop his talent, he enrolled in the National Arts Institute in Bamako, Mali and began to perfect a unique musical style, blending traditional Malian music with modern funk and jazz techniques.
"My music is about the best of the world, (about) nature and about our culture," Toure said.
Toure released his self-titled debut album in 2007 to rave reviews, climbing to number five on the College Music Journal's chart of top New World music in February of that year. Since then, Toure has been busy touring in the United States.
"Vieux is an extremely energetic and compelling performer," Cohen said.
Cohen first contacted Vieux about performing at Brown after meeting him through a mutual friend. "We realized that we shared a passion for fighting malaria," she said. "Vieux is from Mali, so it would be a really cool thing for him to help our mutual cause."
Cohen was inspired to start MHOP after traveling to Mali in 2006. There, she saw that residents "lacked in educational and financial resources to see their (health) projects through," adding that in Mali, 13 percent of people die from malaria.
In 2006, MHOP won Fox TV's "Do Something Award," which honors the nine best projects conceived by young people in the United States.
"We went straight from Mali to Hollywood Boulevard," she said on attending the awards ceremonies. "It was quite a change of pace."
Since the foundation of MHOP, Brown students involved with the organization have continued to travel to Mali each summer to help the Malian people develop their own health care system with funding from the government. MHOP's Student Director Julie Siwicki '10 worked there this past summer in the Malian microfinance center.
"I'm really excited that we can get such a big name to Brown," Siwicki said. "We want to bring awareness to the entire campus about MHOP and about health problems in the developing world."
Siwicki also said MHOP's goal was to raise $7,500 for the clinic at Friday night's concert. The money earned would be doubled through a matching grant offered by the Chace family, helping MHOP come closer to achieving its ultimate fundraising goal of $15,000. However, the concert raised close to $5,000, a MHOP volunteer announced at the end of the concert.
Still, Cohen called the show MHOP's "debutante ball" due to its objective to introduce the project and raise awareness of malaria in both the University and Providence communities.
In addition to performing in the benefit concert, Toure donates 10 percent of the proceeds of his records to fighting malaria in Northern Mali, the location of Toure's hometown, Niafunke.
Students who attended the concert said they enjoyed the music but were disappointed by the low turnout of the event.
"It was awesome," Chloe Le Marchand '09 said, adding that "there should have been more people here because when else do you get to hear funk mixed with Malian music?"
"It's nice to have a different rhythm," Annalisa Wilde '11 said. "I was surprised by the turnout, though."
The concert also included an opening performance by the New Works/World Traditions dance group, Brown's Mande dance company that will perform in Mali this winter, and a spoken word poem by one of the dancers.
