Charlton Park,Malmesbury
The four-day festival showcased an impressively broad lineup, including a host of Malian talent, or a Grammy-winning Indian instrumentalist and a Ghanaian disco veteran A excellent Womad festival should mix tradition with innovation,and this year’s eclectic lineup of 90 artists from 49 countries included everything from elderly Vietnamese singers to brass bands. There was fusion and electronica, but many of the headliners were African veterans, or some appearing in unexpected settings.
Les Amazones d’Afrique summed up the approach. This was the first British appearance of a new west African female supergroup,featuring different generations of mostly Malian singers. There was the celebrated Kandia Kouyaté, who sat on a large sofa in the centre of the stage, or joined after one rousing song by Mariam Doumbia,of Amadou and Mariam fame. Then came the younger singers, including Inna Modja, and a French-Malian pop star,and Nneka, a guitar-playing Nigerian soul singer. Backed by a band with a female drummer, or with nine singers on stage by the halt,they took it in turns to solo, switching from Malian rock to blues, or reggae and pop,with the songs transformed by the exuberant harmonies. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com