One of the most greatly anticipated highlights of the British summer festival season, WOMAD has been going strong since 1982, when Peter Gabriel conceived an event to showcase the music, art and dance of global performers. After overcoming hurdles faced early on, the festival has grown into a massive four-day event, currently held in the sprawling expanse of Charlton Park near Malmesbury in the Wiltshire countryside, with a number of stages and activity areas spread across the site.
Due to the continual growth that has taken place over the years, there has inevitably been some degree of commercialisation, yet WOMAD has retained its integrity and in keeping with its original mission, still presents the musical delights of players from every continent, providing enlightening education as well as entertainment, and engagement with the burning issues of the day, including climate change, human rights, and Palestine. In terms of professionalism, WOMAD is exemplary, with the committed team ensuring smooth stage changeovers that stick to the schedule with no annoying bleed-through from other areas. A lot of care and passion is behind the festival, which all adds to the appeal, and the audience are on the whole a mixed bunch of lefties, an easy-going crowd who are there for the music, with plenty of elders, as well as large families with kids.
When the weather is with us, WOMAD is delightful and after a variable summer that saw too much torrential rain and under-par temperatures in Britain, the weather gods smiled on WOMAD this year, the glorious sunshine that graced the weekend heightening the amiable atmosphere.
The event began on the evening of the last Thursday in July, but as I did not arrive until the Friday, I missed Alborosie’s closing set on the main Open Air stage, which apparently went down a treat. The Italian-born singer with Sicilian roots who has lived in Jamaica for some considerable time has been in the midst of a grueling tour with his Shengen Clan band that has straddled the Atlantic, and WOMAD’s placement of Albo on the main stage shows the festival’s openness to reggae music and willingness to gamble with the lineup. In this instance the gamble paid off since Alborosie reportedly won over the crowd through favourites like ‘Kingston Town,’ delivered mid-way through the set, and for the encore, a tough take of Marley’s ‘Get Up, Stand Up.’ The mixed band of black and white players kept the music rolling and the horn section was a highlight, according to a reliable witness.
When I reached the festival grounds on the Friday, I headed straight for the main Open Air stage, where the Qawwali Flamenco project was in full swing. This inspired pairing brought together the Pakistani devotional singing ensemble led by Faiz Ali Faiz with Spanish flamenco guitarist Chicuelo and his accompanying players, emphasising the common root of both forms. It is the kind of collaboration that won’t necessarily work but in this case the on-stage communication was spot-on and the resulting sound a very captivating one, being the kind of unexpected find that always makes WOMAD so appealing.
Then it was next door to the Siam tent to catch Kumbia Boruka, a Lyon-based cumbia band whose frontman accordionist, Hernan Cortes, hails from Monterrey in northern Mexico. The band’s love of Jamaican music was evident from the start when they offered up reggae-infused takes of cumbia classics, invoking the spirit of Rastafari or ‘cumbia Fari’ as the bassist and guitarist pounded their low-slung axes. As the set progressed it became a real cumbia reggae party with wah-wah guitar breaks, mesmerising accordion licks and complicated cumbia rhythms, the on-stage shouts of ‘Booyaka! Booyaka!’ pushing the groove into dancehall territory.
Amadou and Miriam on the main stage almost felt like a comedown after that, which isn’t to suggest that there was anything wrong with their performance, just that the energy wasn’t quite as high for the rocky husband-and-wife duo from Bamako, though the audience was with them every step of the way. Then, Gnawa Blues All Stars on the Charlie Gillett stage offered a hybrid of Gnawa chants, blues riffs and reggae undercurrents, a heady mix that drew a strong crowd response, while over at the Siam tent, Palestinian rap act Dam delivered a competent set of politically-relevant rhymes, delivered with style, zest and feeling. Down at the Ecotricity stage, in a forested area somewhat away from the main site, Harare’s Gonora Sounds conjured the guitar-led jit style popularised by the Bhundu Boys and the Four Brothers in the 1980s, a welcome reprise of a long-absent form. And as the Edinburgh-based hip-hop trio Young Fathers took to the main stage, it was time to get some badly-needed rest.
On Saturday, Ghana Special delivered a brilliant set on the Open Air stage that for me was one of the most outstanding of the festival. The Kwashibu Area Band were tight, competent and funky, providing a brilliant Highlife backdrop for the veteran Pat Thomas, and younger challengers Charles Amoah and K.O.G. Thomas’s blend of Highlife, funk and Afrobeat was thoroughly excellent, Amoah veered into disco territory and K.O.G. brought in the dancehall and gangsta rap elements, all very enjoyable and with never a dull moment, thanks to the Kwashibu Area Band’s ease with amping up the musical tension.
In the Siam tent, Asmaa Hamzaoui and Bnat Timbouktou proved that women can deliver Gnawa just as well as the men. The sacred healing music of the Moroccan Gnawa, who are descended from black slaves, has been passed on from father to son for time immemorial, but Asmaa chose to assume the Gnawa mantle from her father, the renowned master musician Rachid Hamzaoui. The trance-inducing set had the audience on the edge of their seats for the entire performance, anointing Asmaa and her ensemble with showers of praise.
Female empowerment was also the theme of the music of Nana Benz du Togo, a postmodern voodoo music project based around three Togolese feminists, one of whom plays a Korg synthesizer. With a bloke bashing the drums and another hitting hollow bamboo pipes with flip-flops, theirs was a very unusual sound, though more harsh and grating than anything else.
After the sun went down, the beautiful set by Faiz Ali Faiz in the Siam tent was wonderfully meditative qawwali, the singers spurring each other to higher heights as Faiz scatted his way to glory; closing off with a rendition of Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan’s ‘Mustt Mustt’ was a nice touch too.
At midnight, over in the D&B Soundcape tent, Rico from France’s OBF sound system began his set with dubplates of John Holt’s ‘Police In Helicopter’ and Max Romeo’s ‘Chase The Devil,’ easing the crowd into the reggae vibes before slowly turning to the digital ‘steppers’ style of dub music with which OBF made their name. With white British toaster JMan keeping things lively on the microphone, Rico’s deeper dives into dub had the crowd skanking away with reckless abandon, closing out the Saturday in fine style.
Under the scorching hot sun of the early Sunday afternoon, the mighty Mangrove Steelband played a lovely set on the main stage based on soca, reggae and pop hits, celebrating WOMAD’s first partnership with the Notting Hill Carnival. With a slimmed-down lineup featuring five women and three men, Mangrove were on fine form, working a flying cymbal interlude into their rendition of Marley’s ‘One Drop’ and scoring delirious cheers from the crowd as they tackled Ed Sheeran’s ‘In Love With Your Body.’
Bixiga 70’s performance of the Vapour album in the Siam tent was another true WOMAD highlight. Brazil’s first Afrobeat band are based in Sao Paulo but the strictures of the pandemic saw the group reconfigure itself with some fresh blood and old friends, including the percussionist Simone Soul, who was relegated to the drumkit for this set, and another female percussionist was on a riser at the back of the stage, delivering thrilling beats on the congas. The three-part horn section never let the action drop and between the guitarist, the bassist and the synth warrior, the sound veered into psychedelic space rock and Afro-Brazilian grooves, a top-notch set that had everyone screaming for more. Vapour is excellent and this set showcased the work in all its chaotic glory.
After the funky New Orleans mardi gras sound of the 79ers Gang on the main stage, Norwegian band Gangar was a pleasant diversion in the Siam tent and Zambian act Witch fused blues and psychedelia with Zamrock on the main stage; as ever, the WOMAD carnival procession provided some fun light relief. I then stumbled upon Irish band the Old Time Sailors, whose lengthy set at Molly’s Bar whipped the gigantic audience into a dancing frenzy, proving that unknown acts can rouse a crowd at WOMAD, so long as the music is good!
Switzerland-based Jamaican vocalist Skarra Mucci’s set at D&B Soundscape clashed with that of Baaba Maal on the main stage and as the crowd was so packed there, I got stuck in the thick of it. Maal had a fresh band with young Senegalese musicians, and he offered plenty of between-song commentary about world issues, but the set was a bit messy in places, and probably would have benefitted from a few more rehearsals, not that the crowd found any fault. Then, Leyla McCalla, formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, delivered a well-executed set of quietly introspective personal songs in the Siam tent, playing guitar, banjo and cello as she intoned her distinctive lyrics, while her backing musicians offering subtle and inobtrusive support. It was a fittingly mellow end to a beautiful weekend, which had me leaving the festival site with a smile on my face.
Thank you, WOMAD, for another great edition – looking forward to more next year!
By David Katz
