2015’s Womad festival will not only be remembered for the impressively eclectic lineup, but also for the weather – rain on Friday and Sunday, but a gloriously hot Saturday.
Festival veteran Totó La Momposina set the mood on Friday, reviving the music of Colombia’s Caribbean coast, with its rousing and sunny fusion of Indian, African and European styles, although she was singing to a crowd of damp umbrellas. She’s celebrating her 75th birthday this week, and was in glorious, gutsy voice, backed by musicians and dancers including her children and grandchildren.
This was a great year for remarkable septuagenarians. From the Brazilian Amazon came 76-year-old Dona Onete, an engagingly commanding and feisty singer who only started recording three years ago, and held court from a jungle-themed throne. From Africa came the Mahotella Queens (including two of the original trio so admired by Mandela), and the Ethiopiques star Mahmoud Ahmed, still in distinctive and stately voice, backed by a French band.
Mali’s Kassé Mady Diabaté provided the finest vocal tour-de-force with a late-night set that ranged from the soothing to the startlingly powerful, backed by an acoustic trio of balafon, kora and n’goni. There was also an impressive return from Senegal’s Cheikh Lô, who demonstrated his lilting, soulful vocals and fusion of funk, mbalax and other West African styles. He also joined the lineup of Atomic Bomb!, the exuberant American band that revives the music of Nigerian electronic funk pioneer William Onyeabor. Their past guests have included David Byrne and Damon Albarn, but Lô seemed mysteriously under-rehearsed.
The best newcomers were also African. South African a cappella trio The Soil proved that their stagecraft is as classy as their harmony vocals, and claimed that their “fourth member is God” – which could make the division of royalties interesting. There was another memorable debut for Ibeyi, twin sisters whose father was the Cuban Buena Vista conga star, the late Miguel “Anga” Diaz. Their cool, minimalist style involved keyboards, percussion and electronica, and exquisite a cappella harmony singing.
With a lineup that included oud, spike fiddle and bass clarinet, French band L’Hijâz’Car switched from lyrical passages to startling improvisation, while from London’s global musical melting pot LoKki TeRra joined the Bangladeshi musicians of Shikor for an unlikely but successful fusion that matched Asian influences with Cuban jazz. Bringing the festival to a close on the Charlie Gillett stage on Sunday, the classically-trained Turkish Kurd singer Olcay Bayir was both emotional and powerful. She didn’t deserve the rain.
