FINAL NAMES ADDED TO WOMAD BILL | Festival News

WOMAD– The Worlds Festival Charlton Park 28-31 July 2011

VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ, CREOLE CHOIR OF CUBA AND OI VA VOI COMPLETE THE LINE-UP

The i’s have been dotted, the t’s have been crossed, the vol au vents defrosted. Just when you thought that no more high-quality names could be squeezed onto the bill of WOMAD Charlton Park 2011, along comes a final selection of artists to add even more weight to a line-up that’s already arguably the strongest in years.

A year on from playing to a televisual audience in the billions at last summer’s World Cup opening concert, we’re delighted that Vieux Farka Touré is able to return to Charlton Park at the end of the month. This is a man who, over the last few years, has confidently stepped out of his father’s shadows (the Malian great Ali Farka Touré, of course) to become heir apparent to the African blues throne. For this ambitious, unblinkered young man, the sky’s the limit and the world is waiting.

The Farka Tourés are far from the only family firm represented at WOMAD. In Louisiana, where Cajun music remains king, The Savoy Family Cajun Band is the closest thing to a royal dynasty. The clan – music historians, instrument-makers, all top-drawer musicians – ooze that lonesome bayou sound, taking us on wings of song to the swampy, sticky heart of Louisiana. And, while we’re talking families, let’s not forget Gaz Mayall. Son of British blues legend John Mayall, he’s been immersed in music ever since he took his first independent breath. But while Dad reaches for the blues guitar, Gaz arms himself with vintage vinyl as he DJs us into submission with his wise selections of ska, rocksteady, bluebeat, classic R&B and well beyond.

Gaz is one of several home-based artists making up this final wave of confirmed artists. Oi Va Voi have been around for several summers now and once boasted KT Tunstall in their ranks. But no matter the line-up, they’ve always successfully married the deep-lying traditions of Jewish music with an appealing pop sound to strong effect. Also calling London Town home, Lail Arad is most definitely – in that time-honoured vernacular – one to watch. Guitar-picking female singer-songwriters are ten-a-penny, but Lail stands out thanks to her songs’ pithy observations on modern life, all delivered with plenty of swing and sass – and a devilish way with a sharp lyric.

There’s also a healthy representation from the Iberian Peninsula. Spain’s Amparo Sánchez is well-known to the WOMAD faithful through fronting Amparanoia, an outfit who mixed and matched Latin styles with rock and reggae. Now solo, of late Amparo has been collaborated with Arizonan alt-country masters Calexico. From the ancient city of Cácares (home to WOMAD’s 20-year-old Spanish festival) come the Barrunto Bellota Band whose names belies the fact that they’re merely a duo. However, their sound – made on just violin and accordion – is a fulsome one, equally at home on uplifting or mournful tunes. No-one does mournful like neighbouring Portugal’s fado singers and we’re delighted to be welcoming one of the very finest, Ana Moura, to deepest Wiltshire. A woman possessed with one of Europe’s greatest voices, her performance – like all her others – to be utterly spellbinding.

But Ana faces some stiff competition in the vocal stakes. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was the greatest exponent of the Sufi devotional singing style known as qawwali. So it stands to reason that his understudy, the person who’d fill his shoes whenever the great man fell ill, is no slouch either. And Faiz Ali Faiz certainly is no slouch, a singer whose gravity-free vocal lines rise through the air like curling plumes of smoke. Iarla Ó Lionáird is another remarkable singer. Best known to WOMAD audiences as the voice of perennial favourites Afro Celt Sound System, this man of West Cork possesses a voice both mesmeric and spiritual. If it’s harmonies you’re after, check out Las Balkanieras, a fiery female trio from various points across Easter European who lay their fruity vocals over a base of gypsy, dancehall, dubstep and Euro-pop.

Many performers gracing the WOMAD stages embrace their native lands’ traditions, even if they’ve relocated elsewhere. The Creole Choir of Cuba are one such outfit that, despite its name, focuses its sights on the deep musical traditions of Haiti, the country from which many of the choir’s ancestors were forced to flee and resettle in neighbouring Cuba. Aziz Sahmaoul is a performer who continues to embrace the music of his Moroccan homeland, even though he’s an adopted Parisian. A former singer with Orchestre National de Barbes, his latest outfit – the University of Gnawa – matches chaabi and gnawa traditions to the sounds of Senegal. The rapper Blitz The Ambassador is another ex-pat who looks back to his home country for inspiration. Born and raised in Ghana but now a resident of New York City, Blitz has turned plenty of heads with his socially conscious words and includes Chuck D from Public Enemy among his admirers.

The final slots on the bill are filled by some competition winners. Tori Ensemble topped the pile when Resonance Korea, an organization promoting South Korean culture, put out an open call for a place on the WOMAD bill. Their graceful amalgam of traditional Korean music, jazz and contemporary classical won the day. WOMAD ran its own competition too – an online contest, the winners of which were chosen by WOMAD’s festival-goers. The two bands who reigned supreme were the acoustic group The Bear Beats Band from North Wales and West Country ska outfit The Communicators. Their prize was to make their Charlton Park debuts.