WOMADelaide 2010 part 2

Saturday

The punters have all til mid day to revive their aching carcasses before the show starts for the next installment. I feel last nights' cold in my bones and the weather forecast is not too bright so I brace myself...

The quirky pop of Australia's Mama Kin is good to start the day- led by the bouncy Danielle Caruana the band charms the crowd with their soulful rythm & blues-infused music and what they lack in depth, they make up in effort.
The first real revelation of the day appears when Mariem Hassan takes to stage 3, a magnificent voice from the Western Sahara desert. A tall, bony figure dressed in colorful Muslim traditional garb, she powerfully brings her songs accompanied by a small band of guitarists and percussionists. She sings in her native tongue songs that are deemed too politically sensitive for her to return to her native country (she's been exiled for 2 years now), mixing the traditional chant up with the type of desert blues currently being so gratefully lapped up by the masses these days, colouring the sound with a touch of pop and reggae. Definitely recommended for the people raving about Tinariwen.
It's hard to see what Dean & Britta have to do at a world music festival until you realise that America represent the world too....since Australia flood the festival with some of their popular pop-acts too so should the US. This band-gig is a tune-up to two shows the pair (joined by a keyboard-player and a drummer) will do later, a tribute to Andy Warhol and playing the music they composed for a DVD containing several of the pop-art's director screentests for Factory-mainstays like Nico, International Velvet, Edie Sedgewick and Lou Reed...the latter's influence on Dean Wareham is striking as bot musically and vocally the performance is reminiscent of the mellower, spacey moments of Velvet Underground. Poor sound lets the band down for most of the time and the melancholic sounds (infused with a Galaxie 500- and a Luna-song) don't quite get the appreciation of the crowd who want a more happy experience out of this- arch miserablist Wareham not caving in.
The contrast with Los Amigos Invisibles could not be more striking- the sextet mixes up Cerrone-like disco, latin rhythms and psychedelic rock to a tasty salsa that has the crowd jumping around in no time. The Venezolan band has been around for over 15 years, has a tight rhythm section and brass and professionally plays the crowd, however, it is not until the keyboard player removes his shirt and starts to freak out like a demented Dr. Teeth behind his instrument the flame really catches the fuel. The hour flies by, the dancers knackered after another hard work-out, the band garnering an appreciative new fan base.

The clouds start to gather pace and the wind picks up dramatically during the last gig so when I make my way to the small stage 6 to see Mamadou Diabate there's a lot of people putting on raincoats to shield themselves from what seems the inevitable downpour. On the stage the Malinean kora-great has no trouble warming up the seated crowd with some inspired play- where his fellow countryman and kora-legend Toumani two years ago wrapped in the audience with his classical, more wandering approach of play of the 21 strings, Mamadou chooses to play repetitive motifs creating a hypnotic atmosphere, making the listener forget about the pouring rain around him. Diabate has a busy schedule as he also plays in a trio named Djan Djan this weekend- here he showcases his solo-virtuosity. Rightfully he won a Grammy Award this year for the excellent Douga Mansa-album. A superb gig.

It's a shame that now the rain decides to plunge down as this forces a lot of people to leave the area- many parents take their children for some shelter outside of the Gardens and since a few stages and outdoor performers don't have a roof above their heads it forces them to cancel several shows. Conversely, several in'tent'-performances draw large crows, like the Taste The World-session with Mariem Hassan. The music on the main stages continue and, when around 6pm the rain dies down, the crowds have thinned out but many people return later on this evening. The main drawcard at that time is Aussie superstar Xavier Rudd who has no problem getting his devoted young crowd to their knees with his didgeridoo-infused Ben Harper-pop.
I opt to check out something Scandinavian instead- on a small stage double-bassist Pekka Lehti and accordeonist Markku Lepisto bring their improvisational compositions to life. Delving in the world of jazz, folklore and avant-garde the duo impress with their prowess and storytelling, albeit that the latter goes fairly slowly because Pekka's English is studied- it takes the speed right out of the performance. Most of their music are hommages to their native country Finland and Helsinki in specific, the city where both men at one stage lived. The music works as a film score with at time bright, vividly coloured music (especially when Markku plays solo) or a meandering, thoughtful piece like Dawn is introspective and gorgeous.

Quick intermezzo to grab some food and drink and there lies the only rub of the festival- it is bloody expensive- a schooner (big plastic glass) of beer is six dollars and a plate of food you can't get for under a tenner...rest assured that it's real 'world' food bought in large frozen quantities, freshly defrosted and ready-made served in Indian and vegetarian tents...
Fortunately the music is fresh...

Frank Yamma may still be an unknown Aboriginal singer/songwriter for many but in the wake of the incredible success of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu locally but also internationally you may hope there's a reawakened interest in our own singers...Yamma is one of the current crop of talented singers who sings alternately in English and his own language of the Pitjintjantjara. He has a gravelly voice and comparisons with Tom waits aren't uncommon, yet his direct lyricism and his acoustic guitar picking are as clear as day. His band consists of members of famed Australian music group My Friend The Chocolate Cake and they add piano, cello and percussion to the gentle songs that have a raw edge courtesy of the grit in the lyrics, depicting some of the plight but also memories of home and the odd lovesong. In true Aboriginal-musical sense there's a lot of repetition in the verses which means the songs go on a fraction too long at times but the small crowd give the big man a warm appreciative heads up.

The Bamboos are the providers of the first upbeat session of the Saturday night as they funk it up on the small stage. Featuring vocalist Kylie Auldist they have an easy hometown victory as they deal their mix of soul, acid jazz, hip hop and straight-laced funk to a shivering crowd, looking to recover from the (disappearing) rain and early night chill.
for the less dance-orientated crowd there's the combination of slide-blues guitarist Jeff Lang, Malinean kora-legend Mamadou Diabate and tabla-player Bobby Singh a.k.a Djan Djan. It is like dueling banjos between the lute and the guitar with the classic Indian percussion playing metronome. The little jam sessions that often result in soloing between Diabate and Lang gel well but it's not until the end the fireworks really start to go off. The result- a fair draw between the two string artists and a joyful experience for the listener.

Last up is the gentle son-and guajirasound of one time- Buena Vista Social Club-member Eliades Ochoa and his Cuarteto Patria. The Man In Black of Cuban music is well in his sixties but his vocal cords still sound young and supple. The one gripe you can have about this concert is that since the Cuban styles in which is band excels is very much organised in structure (the call 'n response-chants and the rhythm) a lot of tracks sound very much alike but the quality of the music is sublime. Cuarteto Patria is one of the top orchestras from Cuba at the moment, Ochoa delivers his trademark tres-guitarplay with flair and we all dance the salsa Cubana...

After checking out DJ Gilles Peterson who delivers a set filled with classic Latin and African beats for the hardy kids out there who want to keep on grooving, it's time to check out the inside of my eyes.....