WOMAD Singapore revels in good music

Tan Hee Hui, Contributor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The yearly World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival ran successfully in Singapore recently.

Held at the Fort Canning Park, the three-day festival drew about 3,000 people on the first night; 4,000 on the second night and 2,000 on the third night.

It was impossible to catch all the main showcases and workshops held simultaneously at any one time, so one had to be selective.

Drawing large crowds were the main showcases, held at the Fort Green Stage, the main performance area, where some of the audience sat on the spacious lawn while others stood, ready to kick up their heels.

Most of the festival's 18 headliners gave top-notched performances, aptly supported by the sophisticated stage lighting that dazzled the crowd.

Despite almost being blinded at times, one was drawn to the acts' eagerness to entertain and captivate the audience, comprising a good mix of locals, expats and tourists.

Against the performances and music from the stage, many audience members also had their own little fun on the spacious grounds, boozing and simply dancing with joyous abandonment.

And they had every reason to do so.

On the first night, France's eight-member Les Yeux Noirs celebrated their country's cultural potpourri with nostalgic Gypsy music, with influences from Romania, Hungary, Russia and Armenia and liberally including Yiddish folklore from the Ashkenazi Jews.

However, the musicians' unpolished timing with each other indicated that their showcase was obviously largely improvisational.

The group's leads, brothers Eric and Olivier Slabiak, both classically trained in violin at the Brussels Conservatory, sang in Russian, Yiddish and Romanian, but their vocal range was limiting, at times straining during their renditions of tunes inspired by Central European gypsy and klezmer sounds and images.

The backup musicians comprised Francois Perchat on cello, Pascal Rondeau (acoustic guitar and vocals), Franck Anastasio (electric bass, double bass and vocals), Marian Miu (cymbalum), Constantin Bitica (accordion) and Aidje Tafial (drums).

Particularly enjoyable was the Slabiak brothers' melancholic rendition of a sad Russian-Gypsy love song that evoked a sense of wonderment.

Overall, the group showcased their trademark musical style of starting off slowly with a few melancholic notes on the violin and accordion, before progressively stepping up the tempo then unwinding, as evident in their repertoire's arrangements and compositions.

All this remained true to their Central European roots.

Israel's Idan Raichel Project's raw and moving music was accentuated by modern grooves and drum loops. Idan's repertoire of the old and new, urban and rural grooves, was passionately backed up by three female chorus singers performing in Hebrew with ethnic verses. Their ambient music and vocalizations succeeded in evoking an imaginary far away, exotic landscape full of splendor and mystery.

The same was true for the traditional instruments and ancient musical textures evident in Idan's repertoire.

The UK-based Dhol Foundation stole the show with their highly energetic performance.

They kept the audience in a party spirit throughout their performance by drumming the dhol instrument to produce soaring beats and rhythms.

Led by the charismatic Johnny Kalsi, the six-member group performed with aplomb their bhangra music with heavy Bollywood influences, musically and showmanship-wise.

Needless to say, many audience members rushed toward the stage to dance.

Moreover, the group's good-looking lads had much fun impressing the audience with cool, nifty Bollywood dance moves, at one time posing like Bollywood stars.

While their music had strong drum `n bass and hip hop rhythms, the melody was ethnically bhangra and Hindi.

They also impressively sampled, with much bhangra-flavor, the musical Riverdance's After the Rain.

Closing the night were Future World Funk, whose eclectic music was unfortunately incoherent.

Their deejay set was choppy in parts, drastically shifting from one musical genre to another, including Caribbean-styled vibes, ethnic scales, house and pop, among others.

Their bootleg tracks were also dated, such as that of a Groove Armada-Bollywood mixed track.

The overall erratic mix compromised the deejays' funk quality. It was indeed difficult to dance to their music.

On the second night, Mali's seven-member Tinariwen sang mid- tempo songs expressing the pain, nostalgia, hopes and fears of their generation.

Performing in traditional outfits meant for the desert, they pulled the audience's heartstrings by adapting the traditional Touareg music's melodies and feel to the modern guitar.

This represented a massive revolution in Touareg music and culture to their country's former French colonialist.

One also couldn't help but smirk at their tongue-in-cheek Arabic-version of Snoop Dog's Drop It While It's Hot.

Cuba's seven-member Asere's interestingly rendered their brand of Cuban "son" music that originated in the Oriente province of Cuba's eastern part and that combines two musical cultures, Spanish and African, influences into a musical style known as Afro-Cuban.

The good-looking young lads titillated the crowd by moving sensually to their infectious music.

The group's punchy instrumentation complemented their seductive vocals, which lulled many female audience members into a dreamy state.

Withstanding this were the group's sexy grooves and love ballads, one of which was particularly sensual.

The UK's Apache Indian & The Reggae Revolution were beguiling in their rousing performance of traditional Asian sounds influenced by pop, reggae and hip hop.

While they stole the audience's hearts by bantering with them, their impressive showmanship encouraged many audience members to kick up their heels relentlessly.

The group's impressive playlist included classic numbers, some attempted tongue-in-cheekily, like Olivia Newton John's Summer Nights (from the musical movie Grease), the 1960s reggae standard The Israelites and Bob Marley's classic One Love.

On the last night, Les Yeux Noirs' performed again, but with more polish. Rendering a different repertoire this time, the musicians' timing and showmanship jelled well.

Malaysia's Sheila Majid proved that her 20 years experience in show business had culminated in her refined and fluid showcase on this night.

Dressed in a slinky cocktail dress, her performance was sensual and seductive. Most riveting, however, were her well- controlled vocals and well-developed vocal techniques that have matured with the passing of time.

She even danced a little and her lithe movements won some of the crowd's approval.

Performing mostly her less well-known songs, her repertoire only included several of her highly popular hits.

Still, some audience members, including the media, sang along to most of her tunes, arranged to cater to a more mature audience. Elements of acid jazz, among others, made for high listening pleasure.

The apt pairing of Asere and Bill Cobham closed the festival with aplomb.

They performed catchy music largely influenced by Afro-jazz and bossa nova, to a highly appreciative crowd who sweated it out while cheering for the acts.

It was surely a well-deserved ending to the festival that offered diverse music from around the world and an enjoyable time for all.