Text by Banning Eyre
Photos by Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow

WOMEX 2006 uncorked its annual music extravaganza in Seville, Spain, October 25-29, and as ever, the world’s greatest global music exposition delivered a fantastic array of artists, and an opportunity for promoting, educating, and collaborating par excellence.  WOMEX has grown to include some 2500 delegates, and as such, can be overwhelming.  As great as the musical performances often are, for many, the best thing about the gathering is the chance to meet colleagues from all over the world, to catch up with the doings of old friends, and generally take the pulse of the growing, changing, amorphous entity we call “world music.”  Truly, no single gathering brings together so many visionaries, leaders, and workers in the global music domain.  From the moment the Spanish brass band Banda de la Maria marched through the Fibes lobby and took over the podium in the Al Andalus theatre, a tone of energized eclecticism was set.  What followed was a lot of promoting, a lot of music, and a lot of partying and fun.

Seville, once a cultural and political hub of Al Andalus (medieval, Moorish ), is a poignant setting for WOMEX.  Seville is a place where divergent cultures have long met and found common ground.  However, it must be said, that the actual venue in Seville, a domed conference center called Fibes, continues to pose technical challenges for the exposition.  When WOMEX was held here in 2004, the performance halls there were being used for a flamenco conference, so the WOMEX showcases had to be held at an outdoor venue in the city center, which proved problematic in terms of both logistics and sound.  This year, everything happened on site, however two of the three showcase stages were side-by-side in a large hall that delegates referred to as “the airplane hanger.”  To put it mildly, echo was an issue, and grumbling about the sound in there crept into many conversations.  Starting at the top with WOMEX General Director Christoph Borkowski Akbar, WOMEX organizers delivered ardent promises that things will be improved next year, when the gathering will once again be held in Seville.  For everyone’s sake, we hope so.  Happily, the sound problems had little effect on the Afropop team and listeners.  As it turns out, our live recordings, based on sound directly from the board, sound considerably better than what attendees actually heard in that cavernous hall! 

One other hitch this year was “no show” artists, including El Gran Silencio, Free Hole Negro, and most sadly for us, the Kasai Allstars of .  The Congolese musicians did not receive their Spanish visas in time to travel, and other cancellations and travel glitches prevented artists from arriving.  Given the enormous complexity of WOMEX, with over forty acts traveling from all over the world and showcasing on four stages, in carefully choreographed succession, it is amazing that there haven’t been more of these problems in the past.  Particularly with visas.  As we in America certainly know, music and entertainment are not priorities for those responsible for processing visas these days.  I heard at least one WOMEX veteran calling for the gathering to become more political in order to pressure governments to relax visa requirements for artists.  But that’s another story.  In the end, of course, the show must go on, and it most certainly did.  What follows is essentially a photo essay of WOMEX showcases, filled out with some commentary and links to websites where you can find out more about these artists. 

For Sean Barlow and I, the standouts this year were Afel Bocoum of Mali, X Alfonso of Cuba, El Tanbura of Egypt, Akli D of Algeria, the veteran roots bandleader of Mauritius Menwar, a talented young guitarist/singer/songwriter from Cape Verde and Portugal named Tcheka, Columbia’s alternative folk-rockers Aterciopelados, Spain’s Son de la Frontera, and flamenco singer Guadiana, and—a surprise—an eclectic band from Trinidad and Tobago, Mungal Patasar and Panjar, who combine steel pans and Caribbean pop beats with Mungal’s own Indian sitar.  Hamilton de Holanda plays a modest instrument, the mandolin, with ferocious technique and stylistic range that he has emerged as one of the most celebrated figures in today’s Brazilian jazz.  (Just to show that WOMEX works, I heard one American booking agent say he would “definitely” work with Holanda after seeing his showcase in the Al Andalus Theatre.)  Boom Pan from had to contend with the more echoey hall, but were nevertheless a kick, combining tuba, drums, and electric guitars in a Balkan, Jewish, Mediterranean mix up with bold splashes of surf guitar. 

We unfortunately missed the American afrobeat-jazz band Nomo and also Sargeant Garcia of , although we heard raves about both of these sets, particularly Garcia’s.  We also missed Juan Carlos Cáceres of and .  Cáceres is intrigued by the African roots of tango, a subject near to the heart of Afropop Worldwide, and although we could not make the showcase, we did collect a copy of Cáceres intriguing and beautiful CD, Murga Argentina (Manana).  We also had to be satisfied with a CD for the Trinidad calypso revue, Calypso @ Dirty Jim’s.  As it happened, Calypso Rose and a few other veteran calypso singers were on the scene, although their backing band was scuttled by transportation delays and did not arrive in time for the showcase.  Ow!  

Toto la Momposina of Columbia received the WOMEX Award this year, in recognition of her lifetime of work researching, performing, recording and promoting the rich folkloric music of her country.  Toto did not perform a showcase, though she received her award with a song, and held an interesting press conference in which she discussed her dramatic career.

A little more on some of the most spectacular showcases we did see.  Mali’s Afel Bocoum inherits some of the mantle of the late Ali Farka Toure, fellow son of Niafounke.  Ali himself had an indirect presence when World Circuit screened three short films about recent albums by him and Toumani Diabate.  Ali’s longtime producer Nick Gold of World Circuit was on hand to take questions.  As Afel told us in an interview, he is not entirely comfortable with the role of Ali’s heir apparent—it’s “a big responsibility.”  But considering that Afel and at least three of his musicians—guitarist Mahmoud Kelly, calabash master Hamma Sankare, and Hassey Sare on the 1-string njarka fiddle—are all veterans of Ali’s group, the perception is inevitable.  Performing material from the forthcoming CD Niger (Contre Jour), Afel and his group Alkibar played the music of Mali’s northern desert with virtuosity, poise, and joyful abandon.  Their set concluded the Friday night program, and for this desert-loving music buff, it was hard to imagine that anything to come would top it.

Earlier that night on the same stage, Egypt’s El Tanbura delivered a very different take on desert music.  El Tanbura specializes in the folklore of the Suez Canal region, which was transformed by the construction of the canal in the mid-19^th century, and was the scene of war and unrest between 1956 and 1973.  This group formed in 1980 under the leadership of Zakaria Ismael, who comes from the Suez region, and has a deep love of its traditions.  There is a revivalist element to El Tanbura as they focus on traditional music, instruments and genres that have gone into decline, if not disappeared.  At the core of this group’s melodious, trancey sound are two remarkable lyres, the simsimiyya (the folk lyre of Port Said), and the tanbura (often used in zar possession rituals).  The simple act of having these two instruments play together seems aesthetically natural, but it is culturally radical and groundbreaking.  It stands as a symbol of this group’s mission to uplift and reinvent the music culture of the Suez Canal region.

Tcheka, originally from the arid Cape Verdean island of Santiago , fronted a small, tight ensemble and proved a mesmerizing guitarist and singer, with an impressive range from lulling, cooing gentleness to full out rhythmic fury.  The promise of his sterling showcase is happily fulfilled by his album Nu Monda (Lusafrica).  Another treat was the chance to hear the music of a young Cuban maverick, X Alfonso.  Alfonso’s parents led the veteran roots band Sintesis, which fused Afro-Cuban religion with rock ‘n roll.  X Alfonso follows suit with a lively, contemporary, unclassifiable sound that’s been dubbed “hip-son.”  Sounds about right to us.  Son de la Frontera artfully linked the musical powerhouse of Cuba to WOMEX’s Spanish setting with a take on flamenco that features the Cuban tres, the island’s signature plucked string instrument.  Son de la Frontera also have a terrific, self-titled album available in the U.S. on World Village.

At WOMEX, one always collects an impressive haul of CDs.  They are a combination of new releases that have yet to come out in North America (including new work from Basekou Kouyate, Vieux “Farka” Toure, Tinariwen, and Tartit—all from Mali—Ivory Coast’s Dobet Gnaoré, Akli D of Algeria, Andy Palacio of Belize, Cesaria Evora from Cape Verde, and lots more.  There are also unusual things that may never turn up in American record stores, such as the extraordinary compilations of Northeast Brazilian music brought each year by Paulo Andre Pires, and funded by the government of Pernambuco.  This year’s compilation included 9 CDs of everything from foro to urban and folkloric music, all organized by genre.  A treasure!  The CD haul is so rich that this year, Afropop Worldwide is producing 2 WOMEX programs, one entirely devoted to these unusual CDs. 

First published: www.afropop.org