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Womadelaide 2012 – Day 4

 

The final day of WOMADelaide 2012 was held on Monday 12 March outdoors in Adelaide's beautiful Botanic Park. With beautiful weather, much more fabulous music, it was a very special end to the day.

The sounds or Narasirato greeted me from Stage 1 on my arrival. The Narasirato Are'are Pan-pipers comprise a singer, a group of dancers, and a range of pan pipers, plus a drummer. They come from the Soloman Islands and their music goes back 75 generations. The pan pipes include a couple of banks of those very large pipes, played not by blowing across the ends, but by slapping the ends with paddles, giving a percussive effect. This was a very high energy performance, wit the tempos kept fast and the dancers not letting up for a second under the influence of the strongly rhythmic music. They looked as good as they sounded, dressed in tradition costumes, made from tree bark, and wearing shell beads and body paint. They were a stirring start to the day.

In need of something a little quieter after all of that energy being expended, I moved to Stage 3 for the Tori ensemble, four musicians from Korea. The group is led by Heo Yoon-Jeong, a geomungo master (six string zither, similar in construction to the Chinese qin, or the Japanese koto). With her are Min Young-Chi, who plays the transverse flute and the hourglass shaped drum, and Lee Suk-joo, on piri, the bamboo oboe. They also have classical Korean jeongga singer, Kang Kwon-soon. Together, they blend traditional and modern music with considerable improvisation, occasionally showing the influences of their collaboration with American free jazz players, clarinettist/saxophonist, Ned Rothenberg, percussionist, Satoshi Takeishi, and cellist, Erik Friedlander. This was definitely something very different.

I am, of course, familiar with the instruments and traditional styles of music of Korea through my studies, reinforced most years by renewed exposure through the wonderful OzAsia Festival, and there was a certain feeling of familiarity, but juxtaposed against many amazing surprises. The flights of collective improvisation were a triumph.

Formerly the royal drummers, accompanying the dancing of the kings, the Master Drummers of Barundi were next on Stage 1 playing drums carved from d'umuvugangoma trees, with cowhide skins, that are considered to be sacred. Colourfully dressed, they enter with their drums on their heads, then place them down and launch into their powerful performance. Not only do they play a driving percussive force, but it is full of cross rhythmic complexity and accompanied by gyrating and dancing behind their drums. They also come forward to dance solo, in paris or threes, in a competitive fashion, spinning and leaping high into the air. They appear to be competing for the drum at the front , the inkiranya. How they kept all this dancing leaping and complicated, high powered drumming going for an hour in considerable heat, beats me, but there was no let up, and there were quite a few people standing in full sun in front of the stage dancing along, although not quite so energetically. The drummers proved a popular group, with people crowding the stage to be close to them.

At this point I started to wonder whether I might have been running around too much trying to review every act in the venue, as several were coming around again. Not to worry; a second helping of Sharon Shannon was easy to take while I found something to eat, before heading over to hear Grace Barbé, with a lively set of music from the Seychelles. A tiny place in the Indian Ocean, it's music blends divers influences from Africa, Europe and Asia. Mixing the traditional sound with modern music, Barbé presents music that she describes as Afro-Kreol. She sings in Kreol, English and French, adding to the wide variety of sounds in her music. Naturally, people were dancing to the captivating rhythms but, not satisfied with that, she taught them to dance her way, and what a sight as the whole audience got involved all turning, waving and smiling together.

Johnny Clegg, from South Africa, took over Stage 1 next for another great set. Born in England and raised in Zimbabwe he fused traditional African and Western pop sounds, placing English vocals over tribal rhythms, and has been dubbed Le Zulu Blanc (the white Zulu). The blend even extends to his use of a concertina. The rhythms, however, were hypnotic and, with the sun fading and dusk descending, the cooler air really brought out the dancers for this set. There was almost as much to watch on the lawn as there was on the stage. Another crowd pleaser.

A complete change of pace and Tenzin Choegyal and the Monks of Tibet, who had shortly before dismantled the mandala they have been creating over the weekend, embraced their audience. The monks come from the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in South India, relocated from Tibet when they were exiled. Choegyal was raised as a Tibetan refugee in Dharamsala. His music always conveys a feeling of spirituality, as those who have seen him and the monks at the OzAsia Festival will know from experience. This too was a moving time as he first played and sang some secular songs. He then introduced the monks who began with sacred music and chants using a large telescoping trumpet (zangs dung), a shawm (rgya gling), which is a double reed instrument, like an oboe, but with a brass bell at the end instead of all timber, and a pair of cymbals. Their chanting includes the remarkable sound of Tibetan throat singing. We also had the rare chance to see a cham, a dance where the monk is masked and elaborately dressed and which is considered as an offering to the gods, as well as a form of meditation. They are supposed to be beneficial to all who see them, a parting gift from the monks to their audience, few of whom would have known, but were included anyway. There could not have been a better way to end my year at WOMADelaide.

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor, Glam Adelaide

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