Asian Britain music militancy meets rainbow artists


Ah, the relief of briefly nipping away from the frenzy of the Sage, its official showcases and the volcanic activities of its trade fair! A quick stride away from the giant glass Norman Foster-designed edifice, and you can plunge into the offWOMEX offerings in the Baltic building. The programming for this sidelined venue concentrates on the “Best of British”, ranging from London’s Jazz Jamaica to tonight’s innovative Shri Live Project. The former Badmarsh acolyte has spread his bass wings since we last caught up with him in Paris a decade ago. A pioneer of the Asian underground then, he’s now an audacious multi-instrumentalist capable of transforming his bass and tablas into a plethora of instruments with his Brazilian polyrhythms or pulsating distortions.

Shri’s gentle in-your-face music echoed a day which began with a provocative conference entitled “Has Britain failed its communities?” Aki Nawaz of the Fun-da-mental group led a debate that painted a bleak picture of the marginalisation of the music minorities on this island. The outspoken DJ demanded that the music industry accept its musicians without formatting their identities.

Conferences, documentaries and the beehive trade fair then gave way to a 15 showcases as diverse as the colours of the Mondomix logo. The Kyrgyz sextet Tengir-Too started proceedings by electrifying the afternoon audience with their haunting Mana epics. They transported the concert into a lyrical world that artistic director Nurlanbek Nyshanov has crafted over the years thanks to the spiritual and financial complicity of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

The “mother of gypsy soul”, Ljiljana Buttler set a high evening standard as she joined forces with the Mostar Sevdah Reunion. Her swirling vocals managed to fill the huge Hall 1, a difficult feat despite its excellent acoustics. In the cloistered Hall 2 Nder & Le Setsima Group proved to the professionals that Youssou N’Dour has worthy successors with their infectious mbalax. Alioune Palla Mbaye has been absent a few years since his 1995 hit “Pansement”, yet he has lost none of his socially-based vitality.

It needed the magical Berber poetry sung by Cherifa to bring down the temperature a tad. The Moroccan from the Middle Atlas mountains has a purity of voice that is richly complemented by her restrained orchestra of bendirs and a lotar. One of the highlights of the evening came as her stern face melted into a smile at the enthusiastic applause for her sung poetry on everyday rural life.  It was matched by the plaudits for Erik Marchand’s quartet. The Frenchman stayed faithful to his trademark marriage of Balkan rhythms with a Breton soul. His remarkable use of the voice as an instrument was matched by the virtuosity of two of the Balkans’ most outstanding musicians, Costica Olan and Viorel Tajkuna.

Unusually, the hand-held organ was at the centre of the Jagwa Music band from Tanzania. This miniature instrument led a hypnotic collective session highlighted by the athletic prowess of the group’s dancers. The concert was a rare combination of traditional percussions and contemporary song and dance from the Dar es Salaam ghettos.

The showcases closed with Farid and Rami Chehade’s playful spoofs and spiralling solos. The Chehade brothers take a distance from the tragedies that afflict their native Palestine to share a joie-de-vivre that reflects the musical cultures of much of the Mediterranean basin. Unfortunately, the undoubted talents of the individuals in this septet never seemed to coalesce into a cogent whole.

WOMEX reaches its full-day climax on Saturday as bleary-eyed participants enjoy showcases from the likes of Debashish Bhattacharya, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Dele Sosimi and Pedro Luis Ferrer.

Daniel Brown