The driving pulse of a darbuka hand drum, expertly handled, was cut by the insistent edge of an oud. The deceptively simple rhythms and haunting string lines melded with the electric bass into a firm foundation to support the sparse and beautiful voice. Alsarah and the Nubatones opened day two of WOMADelaide 2016 on Stage 2 with their very danceable East African retro-pop.
What a wonderful way to start another day of great music.
On Stage 3 the Melbourne outfit, Quarter Street, had transported themselves and their listeners to a Latin quarter in New York in the 1970s. Salsa beats and languid trombones acknowledged the anger and frustration of the trumpet as the edgy piano sliced and diced onto a soft but solid plate of double bass. Sergio Botero's voice translated for us, his lyric punctuated by the percussion. This was intimate music. This was personal.
Soon, it was time for lunch.
WOMADelaide can be relentless. The extraordinary diversity of music, information, play and entertainment can be quite overwhelming. There are so many choices that it can become quite difficult to make one.
A simple repast in a brief window of opportunity should simplify matters, but no. The culinary choices at WOMADelaide are as broad as the menu of music. There are choices from all corners of the globe and of a higher standard than any other festival I have ever attended.
I eventually chose a simple vegetable curry with fragrant rice a kofta ball or two and the most luxuriant dessert for the princely sum of $12.00. It set me up perfectly for the next performance on the main stage.
The Spooky Men's Chorale is extraordinary; slightly scary but extraordinary. This group of seventeen men, dressed in everything from black to very dark grey, hail from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales and give Gregorian Chant a very bad name. They are however, not a 'Men's Group'.
Their beautiful voices in tight harmony sing songs of truth, justice, tool sheds and the Gibb brothers with such authority that a great many people stood in full sun for an hour in fits of laughter, just to witness the delivery. They are utterly brilliant and are scheduled to run a workshop later in the festival.
On Stage 3 Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat presented Persian songs. Their melismatic Farsi voices supported by percussion, double bass and a bowed instrument I am informed is called a kamancheh. The voices themselves were so evocative as they modulated on single syllables as the daf, Persian frame drum, was tossed and trembled with such fragility. The kamancheh was bowed and sometimes plucked in pizzicato, transforming from a third voice to a strident percussion while the double bass was played with such fluidity that I was forced to rethink the instrument entirely. This was beautiful music featuring poetry from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which can sadly no longer be played in Iran.
On the Novatech Stage, Eska was preparing to play. The Mercury award winning songwriter from London was sound checking with a standard rock outfit, drums, bass and electric guitar, but she had a few tricks up her sleeve. Her opening gambit worried me slightly as she presented London 'clubby' songs, her trio of players pumping out poppy backgrounds to her gospelesque ramblings, but the situation changed later in the set.
She was joined by the 'Adelaide [Big] Strings', directed by Julian Ferraretto, a rather large group of cellists, violists and violinists. They crammed themselves onto the stage, Eska took up a baritone ukulele, and the tone changed entirely. The very nature of the repertoire changed, particularly when the saw player arrived.
Eska played keyboards and violin as she sang, with an extraordinary vocal range, a collection of songs reminiscent of Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush and she was very, very good. She's definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Ester Rada's high energy filled the Foundation Stage with soulful Ethiopian jazz. The Israeli born actress turned singer songwriter's backing ensemble of drums, keyboards, saxophone and trombone are a very tight unit and kept the dancing audience busy for the entire set. Her voice and singing style are often compared to those of Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald but there is a singular quality to Rada's approach that is quite distinctive.
Indie folk band Husky were listed to play the Zoo Stage but the relatively small but eager audience waiting to hear the Triple J 'Push Over' competition winners had to make their way to stage 3 to hear the performance. The programming error may have cost some listeners an early song or two but the young Melbourne quartet captivated their audience with honest and well delivered songs.
Asha Bhosle's six decade career as a singer is coming to an end as the beloved Bollywood musician known as Ashaji embarks upon her, 'Last Empress Farewell Tour'. She has recorded over 10,000 tracks for more than 800 movies as a playback singer, but her repertoire is considerably broader than that. Even in her eighties her renditions of traditional Indian songs have great authority and clarity and she can fill a stage with her presence. This was a rare opportunity for the Adelaide audience to witness a true Diva one last time.
The Australian Dance Theatre presented the World Premiere of Gary Stewart's 'The Beginning of Nature' on stage 2 and their performance stole the day. Brendan Woithe's composition, performed by Adelaide's own Zephyr String Quartet and vocalists Shauntai Batzke and Vonda Last, was breathtaking in its elegance. Recorded sound was layered with the heavily effected strings of the quartet to create an eerie, primordial soundscape that spoke of misty swamps and ancient forests as the white clad dancers transformed themselves into trees and strangely evolving creatures before a capacity audience. It was a tale of birth, life, and death and the subtle rhythms that mark the time of that journey. The overlapping patterns of life. It was a superb performance.
De La Soul's only performance for the festival filled the main stage with Hip Hop fresh from New York. The Grammy Award winning trio's beats and samples blared across Botanic Park with shouts of, "How ya doin' y'all?" and, "Yo Adelaide!"
It felt crude, harsh, brash and unsophisticated after the dance premiere that I had just witnessed, and I just wanted it to go away.
