Making Tracks 2024 - Grand Junction, Paddington, London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 203, December 2024.



Making Tracks 2024
Grand Junction, Paddington, London
3rd October 2024

Now on its fifth edition, Making Tracks is one of those not-to-be-missed occasions once autumn rolls around. Eight young artists, each from a different musical world, get together for two weeks of concerted collaboration, which continues to evolve across a two-week tour. This year featured participants from the UK, Syria/Germany, Denmark, Kenya, East Turkestan and Finland (see makingtracksmusic.org/fellows for the full list; they deserve more recognition than space allows here!).

For this tour’s penultimate concert at London’s Grand Junction, we were treated to two-and-a-half hours of unique collaborations interspersed with solo showcases from each musician. All eight remained on stage throughout, and it was always exciting to see who would stir to join in the next piece – will it be a medley of Newfoundland, Uyghur and Swedish songs? A composition for Arabic violin and tama (talking drum)? Hurdy-gurdy and Kenyan drums? It’s impressive just how accomplished these musical relationships were after such a short – albeit intense – gestation. Interspecies connections were also emphasised this year, with nature embraced as an equal participant, from transcriptions of whalesong to electronically-wrangled biosignals of sea-kale. The high, intricately decorated Victorian church ceilings of Grand Junction afforded interesting reverberations, highlighting acoustic elements that would have been lost in a less cavernous venue – a lovely marriage of sound and space.

Making Tracks has hit upon a winning formula, for the creation of both beautiful music, and lasting artistic partnerships. In his opening speech, director Merlyn Driver referred to the concert as “nourishing music” – this really is the sort of project that can achieve meaningful new musical directions.


Photo: Making Tracks 2024 at Grand Junction, by Andrea Terzuoli. L-R: Nina Harries, Anna McLuckie, Shohret Nur, Christian Mohr Levisen, Kasiva Mutua, Ossi Raippalinna, Ayman Hlal (Helen Anahita Wilson is obscured behind Hlal).

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino + Justin Adams & Mauro Durante - Jazz Cafe, Camden, London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 179, July 2022.



Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino + Justin Adams & Mauro Durante
Jazz Cafe, Camden, London
17th May 2022

It’s a logical double bill: celebrated Italian pizzica group Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, and CGS leader and violinist Mauro Durante’s duo with global blues guitar explorer Justin Adams – a newer but nevertheless heralded formation. Both outfits were on top form.

The duo were up first. The contrast between silky, elegant folk violin and gritty rock-inflected electric guitar (echoed in Mauro’s clear voice and Justin’s growl) creates the friction that allows the unlikely fusion to spark. The two meet in sparse, contemplative atmospheres with deep emotional resonances. Mauro’s turn on the tamburello (tambourine) called to mind the bendir of Justin’s work with Maghrebi music, and showed the profound musical intelligence and artistic respect at play.

CGS upped the ante by several levels. As the group opened with solo zampogna (bagpipes) and four booming tamburellos, the audience’s swaying quickly made way for large pockets of spontaneous Italic choreography. CGS do have beautiful and intense songs, sung with full-chested passion and bringing to mind medieval cities and pan-Mediterranean cultural connections… but the fireworks really come when all seven members of the group – tamburello, accordion, violin, voice, whistles, bouzouki and dance – thrash out frenetic, extended, heart-pounding pizzicas, whipping the crowd into a rhythm frenzy of sweat and limbs reminiscent of many a mystical ecstatic trance.

The joy and relief of the return of live music is still palpable and acts like a halo around artists and audience alike, filling souls and moving bodies. It was the warmest day of the year so far outside, and inside the Jazz Cafe, it was positively sweltering.


Photo: Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, by Vincenzo de Pinto.

Making Tracks 2021 - The Sanctuary, Walthamstow, London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 174, January/February 2022.



Making Tracks 2021
The Sanctuary, Walthamstow, London
11th November 2021

After the success of 2019 and a virtual version in 2020, this was the second in-person edition of Making Tracks' fellowship programme. Eight up-and-coming young European-based musicians got together for a two-week incubation residency on the west coast of Scotland, before setting off on a two-week UK tour. It all culminated in this concert in a cosy church in Walthamstow.

This year’s Making Tracks fellows were Ahmet Ozan Baysal (Turkey; bağlama, voice), Robert Bisha (Albania; piano, çifteli, voice), Iona Fyfe (Scotland; voice), Liz Hanks (England; cello); Simon Leleux (Belgium; doholla, daf), Pheobe riley Law (England; sound art), Thamires Tannous (Brazil; guitar, voice), Azin Zahedi (Iran; santur, flute). Their set alternated between solo spots highlighting each musician’s own work, and collaborations in duo, trio and quartet arrangements devised during their month-long adventure.

Mashing together intercultural ideas and distinct musical vocabularies can often end badly, but the sensitivity and relationships of these musicians – as well as their obvious musical mastery – meant that each collaboration was full of intrigue and beauty. Particularly inspired combinations included Fyfe and Bisha’s jazzy take on Hamish Henderson’s 'The Flyting of Life and Death' (with flavours of Tigran Hamasyan), and Tannous, Zahedi and Hanks performing an as-yet-untitled new composition.

Making Tracks has really special spark, making disparate artists comfortable enough to explore in ways they wouldn’t have thought possible. Keep these artists on your radar - and if you weren’t lucky enough catch it this time around, look out for the live album coming in 2022.


Photo: A bunch of Making Tracks fellows tuck in overlooking Loch Long in west Scotland, by Merlyn Driver.

Martin Carthy + David Delarre - The Round Chapel, Hackney, London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 163, December 2020.



Martin Carthy + David Delarre
The Round Chapel, Hackney, London
16th October 2020

In a year where ‘live music’ has mostly meant sitting around a computer screen, it was an utter delight to gather with real-life human beings to witness music being made in the flesh. This was the second of the Fire in the Belly concert series, set in Hackney’s beautiful Round Chapel. The converted church was spacious enough to accommodate a socially-distanced audience, and what was lost in cosiness was made up for in camaraderie.

Support came from David Delarre, Eliza Carthy’s regular guitarist, playing an enjoyable set built around traditional repertoire from his twin homes of Hackney and Essex. ‘I've missed having applause,’ he grinned near the end of his set, and the audience obviously relished giving it.

Then, framed by a magnificent arch, lit by fairy lights and with a church organ as the backdrop, Martin Carthy gave his first live performance in seven-and-a-half months. Perhaps there was a little rust to be shaken off, with some verses taking a little while to come to mind, but the high spirits of the evening kept everything running with alacrity. With his aging but soulful voice and nimble, meaty guitar playing, Carthy’s songs brought us from the beginnings of his career all the way up to his Imagined Village days.

For many present, it was the first real concert for a long time and, with new restrictions brought in just an hour after it finished, maybe the last one for a while too. But what a joy it was while it lasted!

Kerekes Band - Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 156, April 2020.



Kerekes Band
Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary
12th January 2020

On a freezing January evening in Budapest, Kerekes Band certainly knew how raise the temperature. They should do, too – they’ve been going for 25 years. This was the first in a whole year of celebrations from Hungary’s premier ‘ethno-funk’ group, and it had been months in the planning. Across two hours, they presented music spanning every step of their career, from their beginnings as a traditional táncház band to the high-octane disco-roots that makes them stand out above the rest.

It started slow and acoustic, one instrument at a time, first with just end-blown shepherd’s flute, joined by viola and kobza lute and eventually bass guitar and drums to round off the quintet. From there, it just ramped up and up. Traditional melodies transformed into wild psychedelic headbangers, and covers from ‘Voodoo Child’ to ‘Jungle Boogie’ become folkified alongside pieces from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Norway.

A particularly inspired addition to this anniversary concert were special guests PásztorHóra, doubling the size of the ensemble on stage. The young, all-acoustic folk group linked past and present, sometimes literally; the most exciting moments of the concert came when PásztorHóra’s jaunty, cimbalom-led pieces flowed seamlessly into Kerekes’ biggest hits.

The eternal problem with concert halls is that they’re seemingly designed to discourage dancing. It was the same tonight, with Kerekes Band playing music that practically screams for bodily movement in front of a happy but resolutely seated audience. Until the encore. For those last 20 minutes, the floodgates truly opened and I don’t reckon there was an occupied seat in the house. After 25 years, no audience can resist Kerekes Band’s deep grooves – they provided a heat that lasted long into the cold, foggy night ahead.


Photo: Kerekes Band with PásztorHóra live at Müpa Palace of Arts, Budapest, 2020, by Kotschy Gábor.

Latvijas Radio Bigbends - Spikeri Concert Hall, Riga, Latvia

First published on jazzwise.com



Latvijas Radio Bigbends
Spikeri Concert Hall, Riga, Latvia
30th January 2020

Next to the Daugava river in Riga, an old warehouse has been transformed into one of the city’s most innovative new music spaces. And for two nights, the Spikeri Concert Hall was transformed again, into a giant live-room recording studio for a session from the Latvijas Radio Bigbends (Latvian Radio Big Band).

It was an intimate performance in many ways. Not only was the audience small – the 100 tickets for each show were in such demand that they were allocated by lottery – but the band themselves played entirely without amplification. Listening to the instruments without the adulteration of a sound system was a really liberating experience, and one that brought the audience much closer to the music in an emotional sense. In such close quarters, the feel of the massed horns takes on a physical quality as well as a musical one, although with the occasional downside of the soloists becoming drowned in sound during some of the more hectic moments.

The Big Band was as tight as you’d expect from a state-funded ensemble – not that that makes it any less impressive. The band’s line-up represents a distillation of the country’s varied jazz scene, with the sax section especially acting as a who’s-who of Latvia’s premier players. There were also special guests in the form of Gints Pabērzs on soprano sax, Lithuanian trombonist Jievaras Jasinskis, and Atis Andersons, whose Hammond playing was a delight throughout, his solos adding a classic bluesy hue to proceedings.

The programme of the evening was a set composed by the Big Band’s musical director, tenor saxophonist Kārlis Vanags, entitled Identitātes (Identities). The most striking element was Vanags’ use of contrast. While there were nods to big band’s swing origins, it was the unexpected juxtapositions that pricked the ears the most. In some places, shrill horn blasts pepper sumptuous sustained piano glissandi; in others, wordless vocals seamlessly blend into full-spread trumpet chords. In ‘Jaunā Dzīvība’ (New Life), quiet clouds of layered polyrhythmic sound provided an impressionist backdrop to Rihards Goba’s Santana-like guitar solo. And then, out of nowhere, we’re treated to a simple, elegant solo piano piece in the shape of ‘Iekšējā Balss’ (Inner Voice). The concert ended on one of those big, bold pieces that’s just perfect for a 70s cop movie, complete with wah guitar and a grooving organ trio section to top it off. With the repertoire constantly chopping and changing and catching the listener off-guard, Vanags’ compositional through-line meant that the concert had a conceptual unity that elevated it from a fun big band gig to an accomplished artistic showcase.

The performance was arranged as a live recording to become the ensemble’s forthcoming album, to be released on up-and-coming Latvian jazz label Jersika Records. It was live in every sense, too: the whole concert was mixed onto two-track tape as it was performed for a fully analogue experience; with no editing possible after the fact, there’s no hiding place. And they rose to the occasion. It was a night mercifully free of tedious retakes. Having performed (and recorded) the same concert two nights in a row, there was no need to hang on the audience’s patience by playing the same pieces over and over.

Along with the intimate venue, it all created a relaxed and friendly atmosphere for all involved – perfect for a live recording – and together with the top-notch performances and forward-thinking composition and concept, this was a very special show. Keep your eyes out for the album’s release in the late spring.


Photo: Kārlis Vanags conducts the Latvijas Radio Bigbends, by Kaspars Balamovskis.

Transglobal Underground - Hami’s house, West London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 153, December 2019.



Transglobal Underground
Hami’s house, West London
28th September 2019

House concerts are usually the domain of quiet, acoustic musicians rather than percussion-heavy electronica bands. But then, Transglobal Underground have never really taken the usual route. The group came to prominence in the early 90s as pioneers of world dubtronica and have stayed at the forefront of the scene ever since.

On a rainy September night, 20 fans – who had pledged in the band’s crowdfunding campaign in April – crammed themselves into TGU founder Hamid Mantu’s living room for a night of beats, bass and barminess. No quiet acoustics here.

Tonight, TGU were a five-piece, with keys, samples, electric sitar, spoken word and no fewer than three drummers (kit, tabla and darbuka), all put through a small PA. It was thoroughly antisocial in the best way, yet rarely has a club been so cosy. Lit by candlelight and fairylight, air perfumed with nag champa, and walls covered in records and TGU artefacts – the whole thing was a touch surreal.

The set was as special as the setting. Older repertoire that hadn’t been played live for years was featured alongside pieces so new they’d not even been named yet, together with extended spur-of-the-moment jams. They even took requests. To share such an intense evening with a small group in a tiny space is an incredible experience, and created a beautiful camaraderie between everyone involved, band and audience alike. On top of all that, there’s not many gigs where you can periodically switch from chilling on the settee to totally entranced four-limb dancing. What better way to see a genre-defining ensemble?


Photo: Transglobal Underground play in Hami's front room, by Simon Partington

GoGo Penguin - EartH Hall, London

First published on jazzwise.com



GoGo Penguin – Koyaanisqatsi
EartH Hall, London
21st October 2019

Godfrey Reggio’s 1986 film Koyaanisqatsi was a revolutionary piece of experimental cinema, and it remains both hugely influential among filmmakers and a potent reference point throughout popular culture. With no dialogue or plot, the film is driven by variously juxtaposed footage of the natural and the artificial, brought together in a way as to render the familiar abstract. Equally as well-known its own right is the film’s score, written by Philip Glass. It is a masterpiece of minimalism and rightly regarded as one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. When GoGo Penguin rescored Koyaanisqatsi, they had big shoes to fill. First commissioned in 2015, it was so successful that the group have continued to tour their rescore, with a live screening of the film itself, ever since. As part of their October tour, they brought the show to a sold-out EartH Hall.

Chris Illingworth (piano), Nick Blacka (basses) and Rob Turner (drums) have created a work of their own recognisable idiom, a cool combination of icy jazz, sparse electronica and that same minimalism as pioneered by Glass and his contemporaries, by way of driving cinematic funk and classic-style jazz rock. For the work of just a trio, the score fits the epic nature of the film to an impressive degree, and they’re not afraid to employ their own juxtapositions as well, most effective when countering frenetic visuals with forebodingly calm Satie-esque soundscapes. This way they reflect the film’s title, a Hopi word meaning ‘life out of balance,’ and the wordless laments of human destruction presented within.

Comparisons to the original music are unavoidable. In fact, the music was such an integral part of the experience of the film that it’s difficult not to hear Glass’s pieces in the mind’s ear during the most iconic sequences, the images acting as a mnemonic for the sound in a reversal of the usual order of things. GoGo Penguin’s score is gripping throughout, and especially so during the final third where driving grooves are alternated with hypnotic passages and culminate in a slow, poignant finale. Nevertheless, the original score was horrifying in its immensity and inevitability, emotions that the reworked version delivers with a little less power. Taken as a standalone show, GoGo Penguin have done a great job of scoring such an impactful film; it’s just a shame that Koyaanisqatsi’s original soundtrack casts such an indelible shadow that is hard to escape.

Boomtown 2019 - Matterley Estate, nr Winchester

A shorter version of this review was first published in Songlines Magazine issue 152, November 2019.



Boomtown
Matterley Estate, near Winchester
7th-11th August 2019

Boomtown is madness and mania. It’s unlike any other festival I’ve ever been to.

While Boomtown is smaller than Glastonbury in terms of attendance and footprint, the sheer range of delights for the ears and eyes gives Pilton’s finest a close run. With 14 separate ‘districts,’ each with at least one main stage and many smaller and hidden stages totalling more than 100 venues overall, you’re never likely to end up with a gap in your schedule.

The bulk of the musical programming revolves around drum’n’bass, EDM, techno and other electronic music, but there’s plenty of other sounds for those that want it: on my wanderings I came across top-level death metal, grime, punk, hip-hop, soul and jazz of all colours, as well as the largest reggae stage in Europe, set within a huge, naturally-occurring amphitheatre provided by the picturesque South Downs. And of course, there’s more than enough to set a Songlines reader up for the weekend too.

Much like the rest of the line-up, Boomtown’s world music offerings were many and varied, from the mosh-fest of premier Gypsy punks Gogol Bordello who provided an electrifying retrospective headliner set, to San Salvador, the voice, drums and nothing else Occitan sextet who came fresh from two storming sets at WOMAD to a just-as-impressive show at Boomtown. Scottish folk was particularly well-represented all throughout the festival this year, and Talisk and Elephant Sessions gave a wonderful double-bill in a flame-heated medieval town square with back-to-back sets of pumping, clubland-inflected instrumental folk that got the crowd rowdier than any of the electronic stages.

On the Sunday afternoon, it was Grace Petrie’s turn to blow the crowd away. With her mix of English folk and singer-songwriter roots with a punk attitude, her ultra-political songs in defence of butch lesbians, transfolk, the welfare state and the young and angry (and against the Tories and all their works) gave visions of a millennial’s Billy Bragg. With a stand-up’s wit and defiant but cautiously optimistic lyrics, her set prompted tears, fury and joy from this reviewer. Other highlight sets included Asian overground pioneers Asian Dub Foundation, dub-soaked jazzwoman Nubya Garcia and Soweto’s hottest BCUC – I also spent a particularly glorious 3am submerged in the festival’s psytrance forest curated by Bristol’s Tribe of Frog.

You can have an amazing five days of festival entirely absorbed in the brilliant and varied musical line-up that Boomtown has to offer. But if you do, you’ll barely be experiencing half of it. Because Boomtown isn’t just a festival, it’s an entire immersive universe.

The Boomtown storyline has been developing for 11 ‘chapters’ (years) now, with an evolving plot of political wrangling, internal tensions and, this year, the presence of an unsettlingly benevolent AI overlord. This story is not just a vague, hinted-at theme though, but a full-blown, interactive theatre piece spanning every district and the whole weekend.

Every district is fully built-up from amazingly detailed sets – there’s a Wild West town, a medieval/pirate area, an opulent rich-kids’ playground, a huge and gritty downtown with all manner of dystopian inner-city architectures and more. They’re not just soulless façades either; they’re packed with interesting nooks and crannies and intriguingly unmarked doors that can lead you to a raucous Irish pub, or maybe a sophisticated burlesque show or an extremely loud techno club made from an old caravan with a shoulder-to-shoulder capacity of ten. The whole thing is a masterclass of maze-making. Each area is populated by scores of actors acting out in-depth plots relevant to their district – I was particularly engrossed in the saga of the American Old West-style Copper County, which saw town drunk Willie elected by festival-goers to the rank of mayor, only to go mad with power and set up roving vigilante gangs to rough up his political opponents and former allies.

There are so many layers to it. Not only are there the surface stories happening around you, but if you talk to the right characters and ask the right questions, you will get directions and codewords and other interesting folks to meet, uncovering a vast, under-the-surface conspiracy that brings together every aspect of the festival’s lore in one. It’s dizzying in its scale. Just as you can spend the entire festival without touching the more fanciful elements at all, you could easily leave having seen no music but still had an intensely profound five-day experience.

I’ve been to many festivals in my life and seen so much amazing music at them, but my first visit to Boomtown this year will stay with me for a long time. The music was brilliant, undoubtedly, but when it’s experienced in conjunction with an entire reality-bending story, it becomes much more than a music festival, but a wonderful, self-contained world. It’s madness, but I can’t wait to go back.


Photo: Boomtown's epic reggae stage, The Lions Den, by Scott Salt.

The Spirit of Tengri 2019 - Abai Square, Almaty, Kazakhstan

First published on songlines.co.uk and in Songlines Magazine issue 150, August/September 2019.



The Spirit of Tengri
Abai Square, Almaty, Kazakhstan
25th-26th May 2019

Even in Almaty – Kazakhstan’s cultural capital – the Spirit of Tengri festival is considered a highlight of the city’s cultural calendar. Now in its seventh edition (and with ever-attractive free entry), this year’s event drew in over 10,000 attendees of all ages, the already large crowd bolstered by boisterous (but good-natured) teenagers – the festival coincided with the last day of school celebrations. Over two days, 17 artists from 17 different countries took to the stage on Abai Square, overlooked on one side by the city’s famous Kok Tobe mountain and on the other by a giant statue of the renowned poet Abai Qunanbaiuly. The festival makers surely know how to put on a show: the audience were treated to very high production values that felt almost Eurovision-esque, from fancy lighting and giant screens all the way down to the cheesy short videos introducing each artists’ native culture… and on top of all that, it was very, very loud.

The festival’s ultra-broad remit is to present ‘contemporary ethnic music,’ and in practice that mostly seems to mean artists that play their national folk music with some sort of twist from other genres. It’s a concept that allows for a huge scope of artists and the mixtures range from the successful (Ezza’s Nigerien Tuareg rock, Svjata Vatra’s Ukrainian ska and Raghu Dixit’s Kannada folk-pop) to the cringeworthy (GeoTRAIN’s Georgian polyphony-jazz, Abbos’ Uzbek classical Europop). The Kazakh music scene was also represented by bands at the start of each evening – Ashina and Ethno5 – who blended traditional instruments such as the kobyz (fiddle) and dombra (lute) with synthesizers, rappers and heavy rock. Local DJs also provided entertainment in between the live acts, of whom Alena Lobastova – the only named woman on the bill – was the standout, and could certainly thrill festival crowds in the UK.

And the great thing is, the crowd loved every band. Whoever took to the stage, from whatever country, playing whatever instruments and mixing up whatever cultures (and no matter how successfully), the audience went absolutely ballistic. There were sections of the crowd that were never not dancing, and every piece was concluded to rapturous applause.

The musical highlight of the weekend came at the end of the festival’s first night, which was closed by Hungarian group Kerekes Band. The group play a furiously jazzy, punky funk based on the music of the Csángó people of Hungary and Romania, led by the charismatic Zsombor Fehér on the electronically-enhanced shepherd’s flute. In a banging set full of special moments such as a too-funky-by-far mash-up of their most famous piece ‘Csango Boogie’ and Kool & the Gang’s ‘Jungle Boogie’ and a special guest appearance from Radik Tyulyush of Huun-Huur-Tu providing Tuvan borbangnadyr, they blew everyone away when they led the whole audience in a singalong of the Kazakh national song ‘Kozimnin Karasi’ (written by Abai) learned especially for the occasion – a real spine-tingling moment.

This is a festival that knows what its audience wants and gives them exactly that for an entire weekend. As you might expect, that gives the Spirit of Tengri one of the most electric atmospheres you could hope for.


Photo: Ruslan Trochynskyi of Svjata Vatra gets down with the crowd at the Spirit of Tengri 2019, courtesy of onparty.me.

Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali - Barbican Centre, London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 148, June 2019.



Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali
Barbican Centre, London
30th March 2019

When the great qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan died in 1997, it fell upon his nephews to continue his legacy. Since then, Rizwan and Muazzam Mujahid Ali Khan have secured their status among the most highly respected qawwali musicians on the international scene. That reputation was on show at their recent concert in London. The event was sold out far in advance and the musicians’ reception was incredible. The crowd was raucous, cheering each song as it was announced with wild enthusiasm.

The massed voices of the ten-man qawwali party is one of the world’s most powerful musical spectacles, and it was again tonight. Soaring and roaring above the chorus were the solos of Rizwan and Muazzam themselves, who amazed with feats of breath, tongue and vocal control. There’s no getting away from the fact that this was undoubtedly a concert instead of a traditional mehfil-e-sama. Because the party were on stage, they were very much separated from the audience, leading to a slightly sterile atmosphere at times. No-one in the crowd was transported to spiritual ecstasy or got up to present offerings to the party. It reflected musically, too, with aspects of the arrangements and performance obviously Bollywoodified to some degree.

Nevertheless, the group’s experience allows them to give the audience just what they want, and the crowd duly responded. The concert’s two-and-a-half hours passed in what felt like 30 minutes. It wasn’t the most solemn or devotional occasion, but it was certainly a great night of wonderful music.


Photo: Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali, by Stuart Bruce

Africa Oyé 2017 - Sefton Park, Liverpool

First published in fRoots issue 412, October 2017



Africa Oyé
Sefton Park, Liverpool
17th & 18th June 2017

Africa Oyé has the rather clunky tagline of ‘the biggest live free African music festival in the UK’. All true, but it is also one of the best UK festivals full stop – a joyous celebration of music and culture and a true community event. Every year, an audience of families, friends and music fans of all ages and backgrounds head to Liverpool's beautiful Sefton Park for a weekend full of legends and up-and-comers of African and Afro-diasporic music.

The festival has long been seen as a jewel of the city’s cultural calendar, and with 2017 marking their 25 year anniversary, they pulled out all the stops for this special edition, inviting back some of the many stars who had graced the Oyé stage over its history. They were helped by some good luck, too. After last year's event was rather dampened by a torrential downpour, there was much relief that this year took place during June’s heatwave, and not a single cloud could be spotted all weekend. An estimated 80,000 people came by, making it the biggest edition yet.

The line-up featured twelve artists from eleven African countries – from Madagascar to Mauritania – as well as the UK and Jamaica, and special slots for community music and dance projects from across Merseyside. Unlike most summer festivals, though, missing an artist is not a problem at Oyé: there’s just the one stage, and the field is encircled some of the best Caribbean and African kitchens in Liverpool. They add the tastes and smells of jerk barbecues and curry goat to the colourful costumes, the beautiful sounds and the beating sun to complete the multisensory party.

Saturday set the bar with wonderful performances from Angolan semba legend Bonga and the new stars of Zimbabwean music, Mokoomba. Sunday, however, took everything to another level, every artist fitting the vibe to a T.

The day kicked off with the discovery of the weekend: the duo of Kenyan oud player Anwar Ali and British guitarist Dave Owen and their laid-back, romantic Swahili songs were a lovely start to a sweltering Sunday afternoon. The day continued and the knock-out acts kept coming, including the overall highlight, Jupiter & Okwess International. The powerful figure of Jupiter presided over some of the heaviest and darkest Congolese funk you’re likely to hear, and provided an interesting contrast with the band before, the Odemba OK Jazz Allstars, representing the DRC’s golden age of dance band music. Two groups playing very different takes on the same traditions, and both making the Oyé crowd bounce.

Filling Oyé’s traditional Sunday-night reggae headliner was the oft-sampled reggae legend Max Romeo. The singer’s Jah-laden roots music had the crowd – by now including a large portion of Liverpool’s Rasta community – dancing as hard as they had all day and brought the festival to a fitting close.

After 25 years of music and dance, and hopefully many more to come, a sunburnt and rather merry punter was the one to sum up just what the festival means: “I love Africa Oyé, it's like Christmas for Scousers!"

Photo: Odemba OK Allstars live at Africa Oyé 2017, by Mark McNulty.

Bagpuss: The Songs and Music - Cecil Sharp House, London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 97, January/February 2014.



Bagpuss: The Songs and Music
Cecil Sharp House, London
20th October 2013

Oliver Postgate is arguably the king of children’s television. His shows such as Ivor the Engine and The Clangers are rightly held as classics, but probably his most fondly remembered work was a series of stories about an old, saggy cloth cat named Bagpuss. The music in Bagpuss was integral to the show and the English- and Scottish-style folk songs brought with them whimsical tales of such characters as Uncle Feedle, the ragdoll with an inside-out house; and the porcupine who sailed around in a balloon.

Indeed, it was these original songs and stories that were performed at London’s Cecil Sharp House for one of their family folk events. The concert was presented by the Marvellous Mechanical Mouse Organ – which comprised of the original composers and performers Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner, alongside Sandra’s daughter Nancy Kerr and her partner James Fagan (themselves a rising folk duo).

The musicians performed perfectly for their target audience, each taking on the role of a character from the TV show and encouraging all the little mice in attendance to sing, dance and clap along (which even some of the older mice couldn’t resist) as well as holding their rapt attention throughout some of Postgate’s wonderful tales.

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon of music and storytelling, and it’s encouraging to see a roomful of young children having fun and enjoying folk music. Some even knew all the words to the songs already – the next generation of folkies are starting early!

Photo: Bagbuss, by Fluffymuppet. Used under licence CC BY-NC 2.0.

Africa Oyé 2013 - Sefton Park, Liverpool

First published on Musika.uk.com in June 2013.



Africa Oyé
Sefton Park, Liverpool
22nd & 23rd June 2013

Africa Oyé is the UK’s largest free African music festival. Having previously featured world-famous African musicians such as Baaba Maal, Remmy Ongala and Bassekou Kouyaté, Oyé have also presented artists from the African diaspora in the Caribbean such as Culture and Luciano, and been the stage for the UK debuts of Tinariwen, Ba Cissoko and more.

This year, the organisers had all the incentives they needed to stage a bumper edition of the festival – not only was 2013 Oyé’s 21st birthday, last year’s event got rained off and had to be hastily rescheduled and moved (in a much-reduced format) to an indoor venue. The weather was kind to the festival this year, and, while it was showery and blustery enough to make the audience a bit uncomfortable, the party went ahead as planned, in Liverpool’s Sefton Park.

Unfortunately, the first of the two days got off to a disappointing start. Marred by overly-bassy sound, the first three sets became somewhat of a chore to listen to. It was the penultimate band of the Saturday, Son Yambu, who finally managed to get the festival flowing, their old-style, trés-led Cuban son warming up the soggy crowd in time for that day’s headliner, Osibisa. The Ghanaian veterans brought their trademark mix of disco, rock and West African and Caribbean sounds, including their hit ‘Sunshine Day’ and a cover of Miriam Makeba’s ‘Pata Pata’, to finish the day on a high note.

Cape Verdean hip-hop and reggae outfit Jay opened the Sunday (without the sound problems that plagued their set the day before) to a smaller, but no less appreciative crowd. Two funky Ghanaian acts followed, Yaaba Funk and Atongo Zimba, the former presenting hip-shaking highlife, and the latter giving the crowd an updated version of North Ghanaian traditional music, with the help of former Stone Roses guitarist Aziz Ibrahim and blues collaborator Ramon Goose. Typically groovy Afrobeat from Dele Sosimi set the stage perfectly for the highlight of the festival, Mokoomba. As opposed to the Shona bands that dominate Zimbabwean music, Mokoomba sing in the Tonga language, and seem to be capable of playing any style of music, from jit, jive, isicathamiya and soukous, to reggae, blues, and even hints of heavy metal. They’ve been hailed as the ‘next big thing in world music’ and that’s hard to argue with after the show they put on, rounding off a much more enjoyable second day to the festival.

A successful weekend of great music then, somewhat marred by technical difficulties early on, but with a line-up to keep you dancing all day long - and there’s certainly something to be said for only having one stage so you don’t miss anything, too. Perhaps the festival didn’t present the stellar line-up that may have been expected, but as a charity mostly reliant on government and council funding, Africa Oyé certainly showed that they can continue to put on a great party despite low funding – a feat they will doubtless continue to recreate for another 21 years or more to come.

Photo: Yaaba Funk at Africa Oyé 2013, by Graham Morgan. Used with permission.

Son of Dave - Bedroom Bar, London

First published on Musika.uk.com in December 2012.



Son of Dave
Bedroom Bar, London
27th November 2012

In the cosy, low-ceilinged Bedroom Bar in Shoreditch, the crowd slowly fills up during the evening’s opening act, Into the Moon. This Parisian ensemble, led by American singer Leander Lyons, take music from the place where rockabilly, hot jazz and gypsy music from throughout Europe meet. Having studied with gypsy musicians in France and Turkey, the violin of Mirabelle Gilis swings in and out between the vocals and guitar-work creating an attractive melding of styles that works equally well being played fast and furiously or in a more relaxed and contemplative manner.

After receiving much appreciation from the at that point packed venue, Into the Moon made way for the event’s main act. Originally from Winnipeg, Canada, Son of Dave (stage name of one Benjamin Darvill) graced the stage in a white suit patterned with old-style newspaper lingerie adverts, bolo tie and silk dressing gown, together with his usual shades and wide-brimmed fedora. The rest of his stage-show is no less eye-catching.

Darvill has been credited with popularising the use of the loopstation to create every part of a track from scratch, live and with minimal musicians – as opposed to its previous use of layering sonic textures, usually on guitar, to create dense soundscapes – and he provided a fine demonstration of his trademark skill here. Pieces emerge from beatbox, shakers and basslines (created by pitch-shifting his vocals), giving room for the driving harmonica and a voice that can range from squeaky and playful to low and menacing.

Although he’s rightly known for his mastery of the blues harp, Son of Dave’s music seems to take more musical influence from grooved-out funk than anything else. The dry humour, stage presence, and other intricacies are taken from the blues, and the genre can be heard more obviously in some songs than others, but a blues label would probably do a disservice to a man whose repertoire far exceeds it.

Mostly playing a selection of tracks from his past three albums on the night, Darvill also previewed new material from his latest album, currently in post-production. As well as a few covers including the track ‘Black Betty’ (“written by some guys in a field, recorded by Leadbelly years later, and then ruined by Ram Jam”), he also performed new compositions such as the bluesy track ‘Shake Your Hips’.

While most of the crowd were fully immersed in the grooves emerging from the stage (even being able to be led on a sing-along on the second song of the set), Son of Dave seemed irate at several points in his set due to the amount of chatter coming from the back of the venue. Ever the comedian, however, Darvill used his sharp wit to make light of the situation and channel the energy even more so into his music. By the end of the gig, the supercharged wave of music and madness had raised the temperature by what felt like 10 degrees, and the crowd were cheering for long after their one-man-band had left the stage. And all that from one man in a big hat.

Photo: Son of Dave, by Andrew Dubber. Used under licence CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Mulatu Astatke + Criolo - Koko, London

First published on Musika.uk.com in November 2012.



Mulatu Astatke + Criolo
Koko, London
18th November 2012

Mulatu Astatke is widely known as the father and king of Ethiojazz and in recent years has started to become regarded as one of the pioneers of jazz itself, Africanising the hard-bop ensembles and sensitivities of the late 50s/early 60s America with traditional Ethiopian scales and rhythms.

At the converted theatre that is Camden’s Koko, Astatke played a relatively rare UK date joined by a London-based jazz band. Without a particular album to promote, the 69-year-old percussion player led the seven-piece ensemble through somewhat of a ‘best of’ concert, showcasing highlights of his long career, from his classic pieces used in the Éthiopiques record series, such as dark grooves of ‘Yèkatit’ and ‘Yèkèrmo Sèw’ (the latter a take on Horace Silver’s ‘Song for My Father’ and ‘Señor Blues’) to tracks from his latest ‘modern jazz’ albums with the Heliocentrics and the Either/Orchestra such as ‘Motherland’ and ‘Chik Chikka’.

Due to the nature of the ensemble, each track had many different influences as various members of the band took their turns to solo: James Arben of the Heliocentrics on saxophone, bass clarinet and flute moving effortlessly from bebop to free jazz and back; double bassist John Edward, seemingly of the Charles Mingus school of madcap bassery, not limiting his playing to the strings of his instrument; ‘Mr Alex’ on cello sounding like anything between an electric harpsichord and an entire, joyfully discordant horn section. Meanwhile, Astatke’s vibraphone, as well as the obvious comparison with Milt Jackson (both for his instrument and the flowing quality of his melodies) also evoked thoughts of Thelonious Monk in his playful use of dissonance and the heavy textures of more contemporary musicians such as Django Bates, all the while keeping the grounding firmly in Ethiopia.

Due to an odd bit of scheduling, the evening’s support act performed after Astatke and his band, creating effectively a double-header. Criolo, a rapper and singer from São Paolo, Brazil has been recently hailed as one of the brightest young stars on the scene, and, having collaborated with Astatke earlier this year as part of the Back2Black festival, seemed an exciting addition to the bill. Indeed, Criolo’s band fit the evening perfectly with their take on jazz funk whilst including bossa, tango, free jazz and reggae influences. Unfortunately, the same cannot really be said for Criolo himself nor his hypeman. Between the rapper’s rhythmically unimaginative raps and awkward stage presence and the frankly irritating hyper’s seemingly uncontrollable urge to shout obnoxiously over any of the musicians’ solos, one could be forgiven for thinking they were doing their best to ruin the ensemble’s work. The rapper’s set seemed to divide the audience, with those staying going wild, while others left in disappointment.

An evening of two halves then. One gets the feeling that in a different slot, venue or roster, Criolo may be viewed more favourably, but then, following a master doing as he does best is never easy.

Photo: Ethiopiques, by Howard Stanbury. Used under licence CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Dizraeli and the Small Gods - Jazz Café Camden, London

First published on Musika.uk.com in November 2012.



Dizraeli and the Small Gods
Jazz Café Camden, London
3rd November 2012

Through the chatter of the capacity audience of the Jazz Café breaks a quiet but harsh sound. As the crowd hush, a bagpiper wearing a balaclava and rabbit ears makes his way to the stage, heralding a short a cappella piece in five-part harmony from the rest of the band. If any of the crowd were under the impression this was going to be a straight-up hip-hop gig, this introduction should have been enough to silence such thoughts.

Dizraeli and the Small Gods play folk and hip-hop, occasionally separately, but most times in perfect harmony with each other as well as any other style that takes their fancy, from modern jazz to drum-and-bass to Turkish music. Usually a seven-piece, each member of the band is highly talented and creative within their role, with members coming from hip-hop, folk, classical and jazz backgrounds variously. Tonight, however, the band were eight: missing their violist Jules Arthur, the Small Gods featured both of their regular bassists Bellatrix (who also happens to be the UK female beatbox champion) and Nathan Feddo and introduced Philippe Barnes, the above-mentioned rabbit piper who also contributed versatile flute and keys.

Throughout their whopping hour and forty minute-long set, the Small Gods switched between dancey and chilled, joyous and sorrowful, playing with the emotions of the audience before building the mood up for the grand finale, a raucous and extended edition of the band’s single ‘Never Mind’, whose launch (as well as the group’s signing to Afro Celt Simon Emmerson’s ECC Records) the gig was based around.

Dizraeli himself said in a 2010 interview that “rap is a subgenre of poetry – poetry isn’t necessarily rap, but rap is necessarily poetry”, and at this gig he seemed determined to prove it, slipping seamlessly from full band pieces to often off-mic poems and then further blurring the division between the two forms by spinning yarns over the Small God’s accompaniment. Indeed, a highlight of the set was a solo spoken word version of ‘Maria’, a heart-breaking and beautiful modern-day folk story from the group’s debut album Engurland (City Shanties) which was joined spontaneously by almost the entire audience during the sung refrain – just one of many spine-tingling moments of the concert, along with ‘White Rum’, a tale of love between two cheating parties, and basically any time songbird Cate Ferris opened her mouth.

Joining the Small Gods for their piece ‘Sailor’ was Cambridge-based rapper Jam Baxter. Although Baxter’s verses are as witty and intelligent as Dizraeli’s, he seemed to lack the musicality that really makes the Small Gods frontman stand out from the crowd. Nevertheless, Baxter’s contribution went down well with the ever-appreciative crowd.

Dizraeli and the Small Gods are often referred to as one of Britain’s most ‘exciting’ young acts, and it’s certainly true, as well as ‘intelligent’, ‘funny’ and ‘musically-gifted’. Keep your eyes peeled for these guys, you won’t regret it.

Jupiter & Okwess International - Momo's Kemia Bar, London

First published on Musika.uk.com in September 2012.



Jupiter & Okwess International
Momo's Kemia Bar, London
10th September 2012

Just two days after disembarking from the momentous week-long, train-bound jam session that was Africa Express, one could be forgiven for taking a well-earned rest…but for those with party in their veins, like Okwess International, that’s never an option.

The set grew into being one musician at a time: Alberto Makossa makes an abrupt cymbal crash before slipping into a typical funk rhythm on the drum kit; Cubain Kabeya joins in with Latin-tinged percussion in the form of congas and bongos; followed by Yendé Balemba on bass, Choulé Mubiayé on rhythm guitar and Richard Kabanga on lead guitar, each introducing themselves musically but with little fanfare before dropping into the groove, which has been aided by Nelly Eliya adding her shakers to the mix. Finally, a lanky, powerful-looking man walks slowly onto the stage and assumes the central position in front of a pair of yuka drums. This is Jupiter Bokonji, leader of Okwess International.

Although the band’s instrumentation is similar to that of their compatriots Staff Benda Bilili (their rhythm and bass guitars are even made by the same, increasingly famous Kinshasa luthier Socklo), their overall sound seems to owe more to the hypnotic repetition of the likembé, Richard’s lead guitar lines flitting between funk and something approaching dark soukous sounds through the typical distorted ‘Congotronic’ tone, sometimes even sounding like a particularly crunchy synthesiser.

Aside from a handful of tracks on which he takes lead vocal duty from Yendé or Nelly, Jupiter resembles a figure akin to that of a gospel reverend leading his choir – central to the band but not necessarily their music; the nucleus that gives meaning to the band’s cell.

As a venue, Momo’s Kemia Bar may seem somewhat incongruous for a central African band whose main export is dance – it’s very small, stuffy and Moroccan-themed – and perhaps a more open and relaxed vibe could have benefitted the music, but with the night’s capacity crowd (and the help of the four percussionists), the atmosphere felt perfectly intense. From their mid-tempo, groovy opener, each following track ramps up the atmosphere until, by the middle of the set, the audience was already bouncing to the track ‘The World is My Land’, and going wild by the time they tried to leave the stage for the first time.

Called back for the obligatory encore, the band proceeded to play a medley of two tracks over 20 minutes, echoing the shape of their set as a whole: starting fairly laid-back and ending in a riotous fashion.

Now in their 22nd year and umpteenth incarnation, it seems that Jupiter & Okwess International are finally beginning to get the recognition they, based on this performance at least, very fully deserve.

Photo: Jupiter & Okwess International by Pedro A. Pina. Used under licence CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Africa Express - Granary Square, London

First published on Musika.uk.com in September 2012.



Africa Express
Granary Square, London
8th September 2012

How does one even begin to attempt to review such a happening as Africa Express? A rolling, near-constant performance comprising of 6 ‘official’ gigs, tens of pop-up performances and countless hours of jamming and rehearsals in between. All featuring more than 80 musicians. On a train.

This reviewer’s experience of the tour extends only to the London date of the tour, what had been billed as the grand finale. The 5-hour performance was held at the newly-opened Granary Square behind King’s Cross Station. This was the only open-air venue for a paid-entry gig in the whole tour and, as such, there was a real festival feel to the proceedings, one not hindered by the blasting sunshine during the daylight hours of the show.

The concert opened with a (very) short welcome from the project’s co-founder Damon Albarn and then a speech from a Malian friend, regarding the crisis in northern Mali, corruption in Africa and the need to come together as a people to stop these (and all) atrocities, highlighting the significance of cross-cultural collaboration and empathy such as that we were about to witness. After a hearty round of applause, the first piece gets under way, and it’s already an exercise in ‘spot the famous musician’ with a piece lead by desert blues guitarist Afel Bocoum and featuring an ensemble including Fodé Lassana Diabaté on balafon, John Paul Jones on bass and Albarn himself on acoustic guitar. And so it continued throughout the evening, my friends and I exchanging whispers of “here comes Amadou on guitar!”, “Fatoumata Diawara is singing with the Noisettes and Eliza Doolittle, wow!” and “hang on, is that Paul McCartney on bass?”.

Musically, highlights included Nicolas Jaar ‘and friends’ (who happened to include Baaba Maal, Bassekou Kouyaté, Lassana Diabaté and Fatoumata Diawara) presenting an extended West African journey, mixing traditional music from the Mandé world with a subtle electronic background; a version of Led Zeppelin’s 'Kashmir', led by rappers Kano and Bashy and featuring Mehdi Haddab on electric oud, Rokia Traoré on typically scintillating vocals, the horn section of the Fela! musical and Led Zep’s own John Paul Jones on synth; Amadou Bagayoko leading Okwess International with Baloji on the mic; Rokia Traoré singing a hauntingly beautiful track ‘Dounia’ accompanied by, yes, the ex-Beatle, taking the bassline behind the rest of the band, unannounced…and I could go on and on and on. The stand out performer, however, was Fatoumata Diawara. She was never far from the stage, and for good reason: every time she opened her mouth, fantastic colours flew out – even when she wasn't singing, her dancing lit up the stage.

Through the evening, only three songs somewhat missed the mark – Carl Barât’s offering a bit too noisy, in the wrong way; Eliza Doolittle’s otherwise beautiful rendition of Al Green’s 'Let’s Stay Together' slowed things down a little much; and Paul McCartney’s second lead number…well, it just didn’t work too well, in my opinion – but three pieces out of five hours’ worth still leaves a very large percentage of gold. One criticism I heard from friends further from the stage than myself was that the music was so quiet that a choice had to be made between seeing the stage and hearing the music from the back up speakers halfway back in the crowd, no doubt due to the recent controversies surrounding open air music in London. Complaints raised at other Africa Express gigs, however, seemed to have been addressed here, with ensembles being introduced to the crowd before or after a song, and a five-minute change over between pieces at the very most.

Altogether, the experience was one of overwhelming musical success, and one which wasn’t nearly as shambolic as could have been expected, with the sheer number of musicians and only six days (in between other gigs) to plan almost from scratch. This wasn’t Africa Express’s first triumph, and here’s hoping it’s far from its last.

Photo: Africa Express London Granary Square 2012, by Haydn. Used under licence CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.