There aren’t many festivals where within a couple of hours and a few short steps, you can see a superb African guitar band, namely Mokoomba from Zimbabwe; intense singing from one of Spain’s leading flamenco artists, Israel Fernández; a Brazilian rapper, Emicida, a huge star in his home country with a growing British following and Bombay Bicycle Club. But this is WOMAD, with 150 artists from over 50 countries with 250 performances spread over three days.
Mokoomba’s charismatic vocalist, Mathias Muzaza, told us they last played WOMAD ten years ago. They are a rare thing in Africa these days, a proper band, so often replaced now by backing tracks. Alongside their fizzing guitar they also pulled off a spectacular vocal and percussion sequence.
My wife wondered why there are so few female instrumentalists in African music. This was countered by the Star Feminine Band, assembled by a radio call-out for a sort of Benin’s Got Talent. The six singers and musicians have coordinated dance moves and zebra-like costumes, and wield a spectacular range of guitars and percussion. It’s a shame the music is keyboard- rather than guitar-led, but they have fantastic vocals with ‘believe in yourself’ messages that win enthusiastic applause.
Music transmits universally and Dakh Daughters attracted a large audience as the one Ukrainian group on the programme. They began their set with a one minute silence. The five women wear white face-paint and black tutus and their songs, with scratchy cello drones and chanted vocals, are pretty opaque, illustrated by projections of homes damaged in the war. The meaning of the final song was certainly clear, though, as an outline of Crimea becamed coloured with the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.
In truth, this year’s event didn’t live up to last year’s 40th anniversary, when WOMAD really pulled out the stops, but yesterday bhangra superstar Malkit Singh countered the consistent rain with Hot Hot Hot. The new name to watch was stately Brazilian singer Lia de Itamaracá, in her Eighties but seen rarely out of her homeland, being almost worshipped by her punchy trombone player who bowed down to her in reverence.
The funniest band were Estonia’s Puuluup – literally ‘wood loop’ – playing what they call ‘zombie folk’ on old folk instruments fed through a looping station. Their dialogue and brilliant music had everyone in stitches. It’s unexpected things like this that are the delight of WOMAD.
