Six Degrees

With two full-length and two remix albums behind him, this 29-year-old Malian guitarist is happy he rebelled against his father’s advice – the legendary musician Ali Farka Touré forbid him from pursuing music. Papa and son reconciled long before the elder’s 2006 death when he realized what his offspring could do with six strings and a genetic imagination. Though Vieux’s albums stand on their own, the stage is where he really excels. Culled from four concerts in Australia and America, these renditions of “Fafa,” the reggae-influenced “Diaraby Magni” and a beautiful interpretation of “Slow Jam” offer the listener a sense of this young man’s capabilities. When Jeff Lang joins him on “Walaïdu,” two electric blues guitars merge into one of the greatest spectacles of modern musicianship today.