Sunday, July 11th, 2010
Day Three, Rainforest World Music Festival: A Thunderous Climax!
by Madanmohan Rao
World Music Editor & DJ
Day Three of the 13th Rainforest World Music Festival was probably one of the wettest ever, with rain pouring throughout the evening performances and lighting and thunder providing a continuous backdrop. But the afternoon workshops were magnificent, as was the trademark finale with all 20 bands sharing the stage for the last jam!
At the final press briefing, the bands shared some of their views on cultural preservation, fusion, and audience reactions at the festival. “Fusion should not become confusion,” some joked. “Even if some of the young festival-goers seem more interested in drinking and chatting among themselves than listening to the artistes, at least the music subconsciously permeates through their ears,” others joked!
Hameed Kawa, founder of the Musafir Gypsies of Rajasthan, also urged that societies not forget their traditional roots, and that youth be taught culture and music every day in school in additional to the usual subjects.
Some of the musicians also discussed what were surprises for them at the festival, in terms of unusual instruments or styles or differences and even similarities in musical traditions. For instance, some observed that the diversity of bagpipes around the world was remarkable.
In addition to the afternoon jams, some bands such as Layatharanga said opportunities were discussed for cross-collaboration in future albums. The band is a good example of the increasing amount of global influences in music beyond the usual rock and jazz: some Asian music is now picking up traits of Caribbean, Latin and African music.
The afternoon workshops kicked off in fine style with jams between guitarists in one session and percussionists in Indian carnatic and gypsy styles in another (an unusual mix!).
The blues jam anchored by Oscar Jimenez of Watussi was fabulous, and their rendition of the Cuban song Chan Chan with Jerry Kamit on Sarawak sape, Hendri Lamiri of Debu on violin, Anastasia Karaseva of Reelroad’b on harp, Fatoumata Dembele of Farafina on vocals, and especially Etsuro Ono of Kimura-Ono Duo on Japanese shamisen turned out to be a world-class track and could easily be the anthem of the Festival!
There were also two magnificent percussion jams; one was anchored by Daood Abdullah of Debu, and featured scorching solos and a group jam. Madou Kote and Kalifa Hema from Farafina delivered thundering rolls on the djembe (the group makes its own instruments), and Alexandre Meirinhos and Manuel Meirinhos of Portuguese band Galandum Galundaina showcased a range of percussion instruments made from wheat shakers, wooden spoons, shells and old vodka bottles! Sadiq Khan from Musafir Gypsies of Rajasthan and Juan Medrano Cotito of Novalima also rounded off the lineup in fine style.
The best-run workshop was coordinated by Johari Morshidi of Malaysian group Bakih, who walked up and down the row of percussionists kicking off call-and-response interchanges and raising the pitch to crescendo levels. The lineup included Giridhar Udupa and Pramath Kiran of Layatharanga and the youthful Naghib Shanbehzadeh from Iran.
The heavens then opened up after the workshops, and thunder and heavy rains accompanied most of the evening performances. Still, the show went on (also despite electric glitches from excessive rainwater) with Pingasan’k, a Sarawak group specialising in an extremely rare large multi-stringed bamboo tube zither made from a section of bamboo found almost exclusively in the Upper Padawan Mountains.
One of the most outstanding bands of the evening was Yerboli, from Xinjiang Uygur in eastern China. Earthy vocals, wild dombra solos and a blend of rock wowed the audience. The trio De Temps Antan then delivered a stomping mix of fiddle, accordion, harmonica, and guitar from Quebec.
The Musafir Gypsies of Rajasthan showcased a blend of gypsy, Hindu and Muslim influences in their mix of whirling dance and percussive chanting music. Musafir have also featured in the classic film on gypsies, Latcho Drom.
The band Galandum Galundaina from northeast Portugal picked up the tempo with a humorous mix of traditional and modern renditions of their folklore, though staying away from more commonly known forms like fado.
The evening lineup ended on a perfect note with Peru’s Novalima and a terrific set of ambient and Latin house-influenced tracks. With a fresh and innovative Afro-Peruvian texture, the band kept the audience moving their feet and hips.
The trademark grand finale featured all the 20 bands on stage, each performing about a minute of their music and then jamming together! Memories of the three-day world music extravaganza blurred and bonded together, and the audience was determined to be back again for the next Rainforest World Music Festival on July 8-10, 2011!
This was not the last chance for me to blow my vuvuzela, however – that would continue later on in the night during the football World Cup finals!
