Cultural Dessert

2009 was one of the best WOMAD Festivals I can remember. The weather was (mostly) kind - sunny but not too hot until the rain finally arrived on Sunday afternoon - and there were some wonderful performances. I saw 18 full sets and caught snatches of several others and there were many highlights. I liked the female vocal harmonies of the folk fusion band Acetre whose modern take on the traditional music of the Extremadura region halfway down the Spanish/Portugese border reminded me of both Värttinä from Finland and, particularly, the Warsaw Village Band (reviewed here in September 2008). It was a privilege to see both the outstanding Wassalou divas of Mali in one weekend - Rokia Traore (reviewed here in February 2008), and Oumou Sangare (reviewed here in March 2009) both producing stunning performances culminating in joyous dancing that never wanted to end. It was fascinating to see the legendary Ethopian singers Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete as part of an all-star showcase of the Ethiopiques series (reviewed here in November 2007). And I was entranced by the amazing three-octave voice of the Azerbaijani singer Gochag Askerov. Great to see Berlin's 17 Hippies (reviewed here in October 2007) live at last. Peter Gabriel performed specially to promote the charity Witness.org - ending with a powerful rendition of 'Biko' in memory of the Russian human rights activist, Natalia Estemirova, who was killed in Chechnya two weeks ago. Peter Gabriel also sang a movingly slow version of Paul Simon's 'The Boy in the Bubble' accompanied by strings. But after much deliberation my pick of the weekend has to be the French group Caravan Palace who play the gypsy jazz swing of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli to pounding high-tempo electronic beats. It's infectiously uplifting - doing for the Hot Club De France what Gotan Project did for tango but much less earnestly. Caravan Palace are playful and cheeky without ever being anything less than stylish. Their stage performance is compellingly theatrical and had everyone in the massive Siam tent dancing. Best known for inspiring Christopher Walken to dance his way round a hotel lobby (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mahYSenVRPM) Caravan Palace's eponymous album (which you can listen to free on Spotify) is guaranteed to cheer you up and get you moving.