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Womad 2011

FRIDAY 29 JULY

As the Mondomix crew is an extended family affair we set up camp in the first wide open space we could find. Little did we know that the stage at the other end of the field hosted Molly’s Bar - THE late night session (Frank Sinatra covers til 4am?!) but that’s another story.

As we hammered in the tent pegs a seamless collage of sounds drifted over from Lokkhi Terra on the BBC Radio 3 stage and it felt like we’d actually arrived. A short stroll through the arboretum with its splendid trees and we reached in the main arena which was alive with music.

On the Charlie Gillett stage we came across Aurelio. When Aurelio’s friend and fellow Garifuna cultural ambassador Andy Palacio died in 2008, this young singer from Honduras inherited a responsibility and he has clearly risen to the challenge. Jody: “Aurelio’s set of sensuous paranda had the twang of bachata and merengue and the deep kick of Garifuna percussion. A warm, sweet combo.”

From the Open Air Stage, the music of AfroCubism soared above the site and in many respects signified WOMAD’s original raison d’être. This project has been 14 years in the making, it spans the middle passage from Mali to Cuba, it reunites traditions and in essence has created something fresh and unique. On stage, were a group of heavyweight master musicians but it has to be said that the years have taken their toll on the original Cuban posse, and it has left something of an imbalance. Don’t get me wrong, it was all good on the night but an African super group line-up that included Djelimady Tounkara, Bassekou Kouyate, Kasse Mady Diabate and Toumani Diabate was always destined to deliver AfroCubism’s most mesmerizing moments. The Shrine’s Max Reinhardt caught Abigail Washburn & The Village on the BBC Radio 3 stage: “She cast a fragile but amazingly potent enchantment over us all...and banjo and Fender Rhodes is not the most common duo instrumentation on the block.”

Meanwhile our teenage crew headed off to the Big Red Tent and Mungo’s Hi Fi, a Glasweigian sound system which dished up an earth-shaking selection of rootical and digital dubwise offerings that were injected with an alternative energy by a most vibrant MC named Soom T.

Others set off for the open air stage and got waylaid and little perplexed by Alpha Blondy. Jody: “I had a bit of a ‘what year is it’ moment when I saw him take one of the main slots of the weekend. One of the amazing things about WOMAD is that they have built an audience which is so fantastically open to all kinds of sounds. There’s always a place for old favourites but for me his show was tired.”

The offbeat, bow-tie sporting, CW Stoneking is a wandering Aussie who has a sartorial and musical presence that fits neatly with RW Crumb’s preoccupations with early blues and jazzmen. Clearly a man capable of telling tales, Stoneking’s voice was world-weary enough to convince this listener on the spot.

SATURDAY 30 JULY

Saturday is the big day. We went in search of Japanese shamisen and shakuhachi duo, Shunsuke Kimura and Etsuro Ono. Clearly overjoyed to be at WOMAD these young musicians treated an attentive audience, happy to be chilling in the sunshine, to an impressionistic set that conjured up a breeze in the bamboo groves and also delivered the Japanese equivalent of Appalachian duelling banjos.

Back with the teens, who honed in on the Big Red Tent the whole weekend, an early evening show by Submotion Orchestra was, according to 14 year old Chano “very interesting and new, reminiscent of The xx”. That was followed later by The Nextmen and MC Wrec spinning a set of sure-fire hits in a dubstep/dancehall direction to a sea of young arms punching the air.

Saturday night on the BBC Radio 3 stage was heaving with promise. First up for the evening was Fatoumata Diawara. Wise to shun the image of the Malian diva, so perfectly portrayed by her mentor, Oumou Sangare, she strapped on her electric guitar and gave a conscious and spirited live performance. Fatou addressed issues of war, orphaned children and the need for a woman president in Mali. Max adds: “Her take on a Malian set included some brisk Congolese tunes as well as Bamako bangers...she could be a big force over the next few years with that energy, magnetism and musicality.”

Next up was Argentinian electro-cumbia mad-hatter Axel Krygier - definitely deranged but definitely what some people needed…he had the crowd raving. Loved those little Pablo-like dubwise melodica interludes, and the flute and the crazy dances. Max notes: “Axel Krygier rocked…a cuddly out there Chaplinesque avant rock n roller”.

Meanwhile Baaba Maal at the Open Air Stage generated what felt like the biggest crowd of the festival. Harry Johnstone: “Baaba Maal’s performance exceeded all expectations. He opened with songs from his extraordinary acoustic album Djam Leeli, recorded over 20 years ago with Mansour Seck. By the end of the set he had revved up the tempo, had lines of kids in the audience matching the dancers’ moves on stage and delivered a classic WOMAD performance.”

As Baaba Maal’s ecstatic show culminated we took our place at front of the Siam tent in anticipation of Danyel Waro’s set of maloya music from Réunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. This conscientious objector and cultural activist is considered a national treasure on the island and is a champion of maloya. It’s rebel music, a compound rhythm which has its origin in chants of enslaved workers on the sugar cane plantations. It is a potent force of Réunion identity and, at different times, it has been banned by the French colonial authorities. The intensity of the performance just built and built. Spell-binding call and response vocals in Creole meshed with deep harmonies and filled the Siam tent while the rhythms of hand drums and Waro’s hand-made kayamb kicked in with a power that I can only compare with Haitian Voudou.

Max: “Lau are a magic carpet ride and the Charlie Gillett Stage worked for them - you got transported into rarely glimpsed musical realms as long as you snuck right into the moshpit. Martin Green's surreal MCing made the outdoor space into an intimate folk club. I also loved the virtuosity, formality and gravitas of Le Trio Joubran...recognition of Palestinian musicians of this sublime stature by one and all is vital given the villification process that goes on in wartime. Oi Va Voi showed the crowd why they play such huge gigs out east from Kiev to Moldavia and Brigitte their lead singer is a superstar stunning front person with a voice that could launch a thousand ships.”

SUNDAY 31 JULY

Sunday’s midday musical brunch came in the form of Louisiana’s Savoy Family Cajun band. Currently on tour in the UK, the classic combination of accordion, violin, keys and acoustic guitar plus the charismatic lead voice of Anne Savoy easily won over an adoring crowd, some of whom waltzed and gently jived to their alternatively foot-stomping and dark songs.

The much anticipated Aziz Sahmaoui and the University of Gnawa followed in the Siam tent. This 5 piece took no prisoners with their unified chanted vocals and tight bass lines and rhythms skillfully delivered on hand drums, an upturned calabash, caxixi and metal castanets. Aziz shone on ngoni and oud (lute) while the keys player doubled-up on kora. In an offbeat fashion the University Of Gnawa has all the dynamics of a classic rock band and Aziz Sahmaoui’s experiments in fusion through the groundbreaking Orchestre National De Barbes and as a percussionist with the late Joe Zawinul underpin a vision that shone through on their version of his mentor’s ‘Black Market’.

Harry Johnstone: “The Penguin Cafe drew rapturous applause from a crowd of thousands crammed around the Big Red Tent on Sunday afternoon. Their spiralling folk orchestral symphonies were almost entirely composed by founder Simon Jeffes, a polymath musician influenced by Brian Eno and Philip Glass. Jeffes died of a brain tumour in 1997, but the group was resurrected in 2009 by his son Simon. The success of their return coincides with a flowering folk movement in the UK, but above all owes itself to the timeless and sheer mesmerising beauty of pieces such as ‘Music for a Found Harmonium’ and ‘Telephone and Rubber Band’.

Jody: “Ghana’s veteran highlife guitarist/singer Ebo Taylor was one of my highlights of the weekend. It’s his first time back in the UK since 1965 (welcome back Ebo!) when he was a student hanging out on London’s jazz scene with Fela Kuti, and there is a strong Afrobeat drive to his sound. It was a joy to hear ‘Love and Death’ live, a song with deceptively dark lyrics which just sounds all the more moving from a voice cracking with age.”

It’s a testament to WOMAD’s packed programme that you just can’t do it all…Asa, Baloji, Nomfuso & the Lucky Charms, Bombino…we know you rocked! This year WOMAD also hosted a successful attempt to break the world record for the largest air guitar ensemble (for the charity Action on Hearing Loss). Shall we kick off the inaugural air-accordion (or air-kora) session in 2012? See you there!

Paul Bradshaw

with Max Reinhardt, Harry Johnstone, Jody Gillett and thanks to Chano, Taiyo and Sonny.

Photo: Fatoumata Diawara by Rosie Hallam

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// ALSO

• WOMAD 2010
• Djon Maya (clip)
• Cimarrón, "Quitapesares"
• WOMAD Charlton Park 2010
• WOMAD at the TOWER OF LONDON 19 & 20 September 2009 - win tickets!
• Mondomix 2010 top 20
• Leimert Park, Leimert Park - South Central's Cultural Oasis
• Khaled, Liberté
• Darbar Festival 2010, Darbar Festival 2010



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