WOMAD 2018: Day 2

Here’s Michael Flynn and Tim Gruar with photos and reviews from Day 2 of WOMAD 2018 in New Plymouth.

The second day of WOMAD was as chaotic and wonderful as ever.  With more big headliners like Kamasi Washington and Mista Savona sucking in the crowds and getting them moving with frantic energy, they helped WOMAD live up to it’s well earned ‘festive’ spirit and reputation.  Many kept last night’s costumes and could be seen boogieing around the site like they never left.  That also added to the flavours of the day.

For us campers, the night was calm and quiet, so we all got a bit of a sleep in and at least a bit of breakfast before heading down to the bowl.  Judging by the friendly and chilled vibe around me,, even the children, of which there were many, we’re having a great time – even at 6AM!

By gates opening all 17,000 expected ticket holders, musicians, stall holders, and stall holders had already arrived and were in the mood to party.  It was hot but overcast, perfect weather.  The versatile and dynamic Cameroon singer Blick Bassey was on the Gables Stage when I arrived.  I’d seen a little bit of his act the night before in the cooking tent but I was not prepared for his amazing falsetto solos.  Soaring to spine tingling heights, his voice was almost like a tin whistle at times but much sweeter.  His act is really just him with banjo or a child’s electric guitar, playing simple repetitive riffs but it’s what you do with that which counts.  He’s a real showman, perfect for a festival, having everyone eating out of his hands.

Also on the Gables Stage, I saw the incredible performance of Daymé Arocena.  Backed by one of the tightest jazz trios I’ve ever seen they played their way trough music that smashed traditional Cuban styles against Cumbian, Mambo, Salsa and Cha-Cha and then blending it up with classic College Jazz and delivering it with a full on Rock’n’Roll attitude.  Arocena may be small in stature but her personality was ten feet tall.  Her voice is so full of soul and character, with that radiant smile coming through on every note.  Her beautiful smile and charm won over the crowd getting them up dancing Cha-Chas and bouncing around like there was no tomorrow.  Most of her set came from her CD Cubafonia, which is almost impossible to pigeon hole.  As she told me earlier in the day Cuba is a melting pot of styles from Africa slave culture to Chinese gold diggers, exiled from California.  That’s the best description you can get of her roots.  Her set threw in a few English numbers but for me the winner was La Rumba Me Llamo Yo, the funkiest Rumba on the planet.  It’s still ringing in my ears.

Hopetoun Brown – aka Tim Stewart (claps, vocals, trombone) and Nick Atkinson (sax)  – are two lads that grew up together, on the same street and in the former mega funk outfit Supergroove.  So it was appropriate that they decided to use Che Fu’s Misty Frequencies as the holler back track for the audience participation section of their set.  The rest came from their two albums, which is a pretty stripped back collection of brass driven blues and Dirty New Orleans- type tunes with a downtown busker feel.  They also brought out Finn Scholes on trumpet from Carnivorous Plan Society to do Own It.  Scholes stayed around for a stunning solo on Burning Fuse, and a wonderfully jazzy turn on the xylophone as well.  Much of their stuff is like a meld of old time street blues.  Later, they grabbed Callum Passells from Aldous Harding’s band a tune as well, a nicely seedy torch song.  These guys seem to know everyone.  I hear Stewart, who’s also a professional chef, will be knocking up some seawater and potato focaccia bread with homemade onion dip at the Taste the World tent later, so I’ll definitely pop along for that.  Later that night, I caught the Hopetoun Brown boys helping out with Aldous Harding’s mournful set.

One of the most colour performances I saw came from Jojo Abot.  More a performer than a singer, her music was probably best described as digital pop – sung in a multitude of languages.  However, it was her incredible costume of long flowing red dreadlocks, camouflage and blood red flourishes that stood out.  Onstage, she was accompanied by a danced whose face was partially painted in a shimmering gold design, like a modern interpretation of female warrior war paint.  She also had a producer creating sounds from a set of keyboards and premixed tracks, in time with a bear chested drummer keeping time with angry tribal beats.  This was a fierce performance.

I missed most of Dragon’s set running between interviews and other gigs but from what I heard the foursome were in fine form, providing the party atmosphere for the night with their mandatory set of well loved hits – Rain, April Sun in Cuba, Kool & The Gang’s Celebration and See No Evil, to name but a few.  Nobody was complaining down at the Bowl stage – most were singing backstreet the top of their voices.

Every WOMAD had a crazy gypsy collective, and this year it was Toronto’s Lemon Bucket Orchestra who provided the Oom pa pa.  Originally a four piece, they’d managed to smuggle another six players and a sousaphone into their suitcases.  The music was predictable but perfect for a mid-March summer’s evening knees up.  With full bellies and few drinks under their belts the audience at the Brooklands stage found their dancing feet.

Sitar player and daughter of the great Ravi Shankar Anoushka Shankar performed on the Bowl stage to a mellow and relaxed afternoon of listeners.  Given her heritage I was expecting a mainly classical set. However, a quick Google will show you that it was Anoushka has broken the mould working with EDM producers to create a very modern sound.  Today, she gave us a selection of material that could be likened to Enigma or even Thievery Corporation.  The most memorable music came from her new album Land of Gold, which she explained was her personal response to the humanitarian trauma of displaced people fleeing conflict and poverty.  It was made with percussionist Manu Delago, who along with an upright bassist and a chennai player, was on stage today.  Delago mixed up tradditional tamblas with Latin rhythms totally transforming the sound.  Borders and the title track both painted very startling and poignant images about refugees caught in the crossfire of modern political turmoil like Trump’s wall to keep out Mexicans.

I had a brief glimpse at Swedish/Icelandic duo My Bubba, who well surrounded by a distinctly folky mob at the Dell Stage.  Most of their hunny sweet duets seemed songs seemed to be reinterpretations of Jo Nesbo stories about loneliness, noir forests scenes and other sinister things – all told with bone dry humour.

For me, my favourite act of the day was jazz-funk sax maestro Kamasi Washington.  Being a Wellingtonian I’d not yet had a chance to see him play on his last tours, which only included Auckland.  So this was a special treat.

Washington had brought his regular band down, fresh from his Powerstation gig the night before. (You can read the review at www.13thfloor.co.nz).  What struck me immediately was how damn tight this unit was, especially drummers Ronald Bruner, Jr (Thundercat’s big bro) and Robert Miller who both shared the risers behind separate kits, creating this massive storm of fusion beats.

They were joined by Brandon “Hot Sauce” Coleman, and bassist Josh Crumbly and their newest member, trombonist Ryan Porter.  He gave his band leader some real competition, letting loose all over the shop.  Washington’s best tune was a bit of a surprise: a tune he introduced as ‘Anisha and Elroy’ or ‘Charlie Brown goes to Inglewood’.  The track was led by Coleman, who’d rearranged the famous cartoon show theme into a whole rainbow of different funky cosmic colours.

They belted out another couple of genre-bending tunes with plenty of elaborate work on the sax and trombone.  Washington has an inclusive policy about leading, everyone gets a turn.  You can never call his a solis the, even though he takes a heavy part in the performance.

Standing at one side of Washington was singer Patrice Quinn. Except in some of the vocal parts of Truth, which are more like choral interlides, she seemed content to sway about in her own little bubble of bliss. That was until the ultra funky keytone of Coleman’s Moog kicked on The Rhythm Changes. The intro starts off like Stevie Wonder’s Superstition but with Quinn in behind it was heightened beyond anything you can imagine.  Add to that the hyperdrive of this super crew and I, for one, was in ecstasy.  So were the rest of the people at the Brooklands Stage.

Saturday night finished on a high with Aussie Jake Savona’s project: Havana meets Kingston.  This was a collective of Cuban and Jamaican artists including members of the Buena Social Club and legendary dub rhythm section Sly Dunbar and Robbie. Also on stage was a horn section, percussion and Buena Vista’s very classy keyboardist, Rolando Luna, who transitioned between dub tunings and flambouyant Latin piano with remakable ease.  Mista Savona, himself sat mid-stage behind a bank on key boards conducting, directing and announcing the tracks.

The set started with Cuban singer Brenda Navarette’s solo voice welcoming us all.  The song started slow bit built up as more musicians jpined the stage until everybody was on and pumping out an infectious blend of hip sweating Salsa.

It was wonderful to see Buena Vista’s most famous laud player, and his most famous moustache, Barbarito Torres on stage tonight. He gave us two or three killer solos.  Also impressing was English-Jamaicam Randy Valentine on trumpet litterally blowing the house down on Vibracion Positive and Candela.

Amongst the songs was Chan Chan, which appeared on the original Buena Vista Social Club album, only this one was ‘souped up’ with extra deep bass and a dub-step courtesay of our Jamaican heroes.  Both were looking older but their was no denying they still had it, keeping up like it was second nature.  Watching Dunbar play, in his work overalls and construction hard hat, was like watching an alchemist at work and I had the privilege to see him at making magic from the sidelines.  His movements were short and deft but there was so much more going on under the drumskins.  Mr Shakespeare also got a spot late in the set to show off his own skills.  He gave a great stripped back solo sending explosions of deep bass notes reverberating around the whole Brooklands Bowl.

I’d been looking forward to seeing this project since I first saw it on the programme.  The real question I had in my mind was would it work?  However, given Cubans come from a mixed heritage that includes Spanish and African, it’s not a huge stretch to go to dub and reggae.  Most of the tracks tonight tended to follow one genre or the other, rather than fully blending both together.  Either way, it all created fabulous party music which got everybody dancing for the rest of the night – all the way back to the campsite.

Tim Gruar

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Michael Flynn: