Murray Bramwell with Ian Scobie and Annette Tripodi. 20 Feb 2024
As WOMADelaide 2024 draws closer, Murray Bramwell talks to Director, Ian Scobie, about bringing in the new and keeping the familiar.
“Things are going pretty well. Touch wood” As always Ian Scobie is taking early soundings in late January. He has been involved with WOMADelaide for all of its 32 years. Right back to 1992 when APA was formed and Festival director, Rob Brookman negotiated with WOMAD UK’s Thomas Brooman to bring World Music artists to a weekend festival in Botanic Park as part of the 1992 Adelaide Festival.
From what now seems a modest (but brilliant) beginning, WOMADelaide, with its wonky portmanteau name, has become an annual music juggernaut. The last four years have been a testing time. As for all events, public and private, COVID has loomed large, caused havoc to our lives, and made planning ahead almost impossible.
My conversations with Scobie and Associate Director Annette Tripodi over that time have focused as much on whether the festival would go ahead at all, let alone what the program might be.
“I look back at 2023”, Scobie reflects. “We were staring oblivion in the face in terms of COVID. People saying big events are dead. People will be worried about crowds (more worried about queues as it turned out!) The commentary, particularly in the Eastern states was that everything was going to be different. All kinds of predictions.”
“WOMAD 2023 was the first major event in the country to have a full-scale international program since COVID. We were fortunate in our timing in 2020, we got through by a whisker before, two weeks later, the whole world shut down – or borders anyway. In 2021 we had a different something. It was a series of concerts in King Rodney Park which provided a popular Australian program - and a safe space.”
“By 2023 I thought we needed to throw the kitchen sink at the program. It had to be unmissable. We brought back Gratte Ciel with Place des Anges [the aerial spectacle of inflatables and feathers]. People loved that. It was recognisable. We also needed to reach out beyond our usual loyal audience, because some people might not come because of the pandemic. As it happened, everybody came. There were more people than we bargained for.”
So going into 2024 Scobie and his team were dealing with small, but emphatic, choruses of disapproval about the 2023 experience. Complaints about toilet queues and the drop-in entourages of popular performers. Florence & The Machine attracted huge crowds on the Saturday night and for many the experience was overwhelming. WOMAD is a highly ritualised event. It has a familiar topography and although the music is continually changing the vibe has stayed the same. That is why it is a festival with 30 year-plus longevity. It is dynastic. Those who came first as children return as adults and parents. It has always had a contingent of the over-60s- and well over that, as well.
“There were people who wanted the small boutique event they’d come to love,” Scobie observes. “And then their spot wasn’t available because there were too many people – that kind of sense of privilege, I suppose, that some audiences can develop. It is both a plus and a negative. “
“The ethos of WOMADelaide is that of the Adelaide Festival itself. You ensure the best possible circumstances for the audience and the artists to connect. And that’s not in a barren field or in a hot car park. It is about finding a space that is lovely for the artists as well as the audience. One that has an impact on both. As you enter the park, you are saying- ‘Ah’… You feel the change.”
“After a now 33-year history of that connection with Botanic Park, going into 2024 we didn’t want a sense of repeating. It wasn’t about not having artists like Florence, or taking it back to its roots, or whatever. But it’s about having an eclectic program that extends from the variously known, to the unknown, to as far around the planet as you can find - and inviting the audience to come and discover them. That goes right back to 1992 when people knew some names – like Crowded House – but also many artists [Sheila Chandra, Youssou N Dour and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan] people would never have come across otherwise. That sense of musical and cultural discovery is intrinsic to it. “
“And so far, sales are really positive. We are not at the madness of a year ago - when we were nearly sold out by January! But we are looking at a good capacity and response to the program has also been very positive.”
One change people can expect is the layout of the park. “We have reconfigured the layout quite a lot. It’s been on the cards for a while for a number of reasons. It came to a head last year because of capacity issues. But what’s happened is that, over time, the trees have grown and there is less space; not for the people, but for the stalls and infrastructure. We want people to come and have a park experience not an ‘industrial’ experience. So how do we find more green space for people?”
Solutions were sought with various permutations – moving stalls and the Kidzone. Some plans were different but no better. Scobie and the team have opted for a market strip along Plane Tree Drive – part of the rationale being to improve crowd circulation. The Zoo Stage will be moved to allow more people and elevated for better sightlines. There will be significantly more toilets– and wardens to direct traffic to vacant facilities to ensure efficiency of flow, so to speak.
Also, because the amazing crowd for Florence pushed way back into the trees, clearer walkways (lit for visibility) will mean easier and better-defined access through the throng at busy times.
As for the program, Scobie is particularly pleased with the strolling park street theatre entertainment which he describes as one of the most extensive lists so far. French company Cie L’Immediate will explore levitation, South Korean company Mul Jil will present Elephants Laugh, a study in immersion, and, each day, Handspring Puppet Company, in collaboration with our local company, Slingsby, will parade their giant creations for all to enjoy.
Gratte Ciel will return with their aerial choreography in Rozeo and another highlight will be Streb Extreme Action. Founded by Elizabeth Streb in 1985, the ensemble brings a mix of gymnastics, dance, and extreme sport. They are also presenting Time Machine later, in the final week of the Adelaide Festival.
Another Scobie pick is Omar Rajeh/ Maqamat with Beytna (meaning “home”) featuring four choreographers and four musicians from Lebanon, Japan, Palestine, and Togo celebrating hospitality and food and shared life experiences.
Always significant in the WOMAD program are First Nations musicians. Scobie mentions Wildfire Manwurrk from Arnhem Land, singing 80s rock riffs with lyrics sung in ancient languages from before invasion. Rob Thomas, Dean Brady and new talent, Noongar artist, Bumpy will all perform. From the region come Maori performer A.Girl, and T’Honi, (also from Aotearoa), Tio from Vanuatu and Ju Ben from Fiji.
Women feature prominently in WOMADadelaide yet again. Portguese fado singer, Marta Pereira da Costa will perform twice, Irish musician Sharon Shannon will bring her Big Band, Tunisian Emel Mathlouthi returns, and UK singer-songwriter, Corrine Bailey Rae. Brooklyn based and Pakistani born, Arooj Aftab will be keenly anticipated, as will much admired Australian musician, Jen Cloher.
I asked Associate Director, Annette Tripodi for her tips this year. These include Som Rompe Pera, a group of former street musicians from Mexico, the Mauskovic Dance Band from the Netherlands, whom she describes as an “irresistibly dancey, slinky sound “, and from Zambia, WITCH, making their Australian debut . Also getting special mention is the intriguing Moonlight Benjamin from Haiti/France, Tripodi describes her as having “a raw brooding presence, a genuine vodou princess who says she sings to heal people.”
There are many musicians that promise to captivate us. UK Jazz drummer, Yussef Dayes has a brilliant, versatile band. Dayes’ marvellous 2023 solo release, Black Classical Music, with its echoes of Mwandishi Herbie Hancock and early Weather Report, is surely destined to become a new jazz classic.
From the recent past come Jose Gonzalez, the prolific Nitin Sawhney, and the enveloping trip-hop soul of Morcheeba
As always, the late Friday night spot (the traditional Nusrat Hour) will feature rich meditative performances – this time from sarod player, Pt Te Jendra Narayan and a violinist with a famous surname, Ambi Subranamiam.
For Ian Scobie, it is pleasing to be hosting some of the eminent musicians in the WOMAD family. Baaba Maal from Senegal will be majestic on Sunday night. Pioneer of the sixties Tropicalia movement in Brazil, seller of millions of records, and former Minister of Culture, Gilbert Gil’s Saturday night performance will also be essential attending. And, after repeated delays over more than four years, Ziggy Marley, scion of the legendary Bob, will headline on Monday night.
To conclude, Scobie wants to mention the Planet Talks speakers program produced by Rob Law. It features, among others, former President of Kiribate, Anote Tong, ex-senator and fearless eco-warrior, Bob Brown and whale scientist, Dr Vanessa Pirotta. Of the environmental talks, Scobie emphasises the need for persistence and hope – “The continuing journey to find carbon neutral answers, rather than ‘the sky’s falling in!’”
“How do you empower people?”, he asks, “constant crisis is not helpful.”
Ian Scobie then returns to talking about the power of music, its pleasures, and its reminder of the variety of the world. “We can’t live in perpetual crisis and outrage. We have to find a way through. Art and music and discussion help people to reassess the world and their place in it. “
As he would say- “touch wood.”
Located at Tainmuntilla/Botanic Park, WOMADelaide 2024 will run from March 8 -11.
Murray Bramwell
When: 8 to 11 Mar
Where: Tainmuntilla/Botanic Park
Bookings: womadelaide.com.au
She's known simply as Vonni.
Vonni Brit Watkins is Adelaide’s most vivacious transgender identity.
Indeed, she is the effortless essence of glamour.
She’s long been a popular pub and club DJ and tireless supporter of kindly and charitable causes.
It was Trevor Ashley, one of Australia’s great legends of drag showbiz who had the brainwave that Vonni could stretch those beautiful wings and take on some legitimate theatre.
He was casting the glittering Gold Coast Casino production of the musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert and he envisaged Vonni in the pivotal role of Bernadette, the wise transgender spirit of that now classic story. In the 1994 hit movie, the part was very memorably played by the great British actor, Terence Stamp.
Almost two decades later, Vonni flew through the stage audition and was whisked away to the Gold Coast for a two-month run in the wild Australian transgender musical.
It was a daunting and huge learning curve for the Adelaide performer, the first transgender artiste to play Bernadette.
Vonni cut her showbiz teeth strutting under the spotlights of the legendary Le Girls club in Sydney, starting out as a stripper in the 70s and then being tucked under the wings of Carlotta, Australia’s leading lady of drag burlesque. The two performers formed a strong bond back then and continue to be the closest of friends. Carlotta also was in the Queensland Priscilla cast and, in Adelaide, Vonni recently performed alongside Carlotta singing at The Regal. Just now, she has returned from Carlotta’s 80th birthday celebrations in Queensland to resume her place in the newly formed cast of another production of Priscilla, the Musical.
Vonni is starring with the G&S Society of SA in a brand-new staging of the rollicking musical version of Priscilla.
And she will be re-embodying wonderful Bernadette.
It is the meatiest and most serious role in the show. Not that it does not involve singing and dancing, neither of which Vonni claims as her strengths. Vonni’s strength lies in personality and beauty, along with a disciplined professional approach and a fabulous stage presence.
The story of Priscilla revolves around recently bereaved transsexual Bernadette travelling with two drag queens to a remote desert location to put on a classic drag show, lip-synch and all.
They travel through the outback from Sydney to Alice Springs on Priscilla, a lavender bus which is another star of the show. They stop here and there meeting all sorts of Aussies and having assorted adventures and turning on assorted routines in the most astonishing and spectacular costumes.
Vonni is finding working with G&S quite a contrast to the big-budget bling of the Gold Coast Casino.
But, despite its constraints as unfunded local theatre, G&S has a strong reputation for good work which is one of the things which attracted Vonni to working with it, as well as a recommendation from Kinky Boots star Mark Stefanoff.
“So, I Googled it and had a look,” reveals Vonni. And, she now notes, it is a company equipped with some stunning costume creators. Look out for the cupcake number, she tips.
There is new choreography for this show. Vonni praises choreographer Sarah Williams.
“Rehearsals are videoed, and I watch the work at home later to make sure I can get it right,” she says.
“Also, surprisingly, the lavender bus itself is much bigger than the one we had on the Gold Coast.
“Up there it was more like a combi and there is a line about where do you sleep and we’d laugh because there was clearly no room. This bus in Adelaide is an almost full-sized bus with cut out sides and top.”
The camaraderie of the G&S players has made a big impression on Vonni.
She says it is a part of the experience she loves most.
“And the way everyone pitches in and does things.”
“And there are some fabulous singers in the cast. I’m not a great singer but I can hold a tune."
And what tunes there are: I’ve Never Been to Me, Mama Mia, I Will Survive, and Finally.
This show, which is all Australian but has been presented all over the world, has played quite a significant role in its positive portrayals of LGBTQI+ characters and also in depicting the phenomenon of homophobia as experienced in outback towns by the travelling drag queens.
Its themes remain as relevant today as when the show was conceived by Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott as a road trip jukebox musical.
The G&S production will be directed by Gordon Coombes and also stars Billi St John and Benjamiin Johnson along with Vanessa Lee Shirley, Bec Pynir, Lance Jones, Trish Hendrix, Nadine Wood, Damien Ralphs, Chany Park Hoffman, Charissa McCluskey-Garcia, and Danielle Greaves.
Jillian Gulliver is musical director and those wonderful costume mistresses are Ann Humphries and Helen Snoswell.
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert will play at The Arts Theatre from September 21-30.
Samela Harris
When: 21 to 30 Sep
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Murray Bramwell talks with Director Ian Scobie and Associate Director Annette Tripodi about the rapidly approaching WOMADelaide 2023
Annette Tripodi is not really pondering the idea that WOMADelaide is entering its fourth decade. She is just pleased the current one has landed in the net. “It’s worth saying that the last three years have been so peculiar in that we never knew what the next festival would hold…”
COVID-19 has cast a long shadow over all of the performing arts and WOMAD has been no different. Back in 2020 the very beginnings of the pandemic were evident in March. Some Adelaide Festival artists arrived testing positive. Others hurriedly left the Fringe for home in the Northern Hemisphere, cancelling shows in the final weekend. WOMAD completed its full program just before borders closed and quarantine became mandatory.
For 2021 Ian Scobie and his crew came up with an inspired solution organising their four nights of outdoor concerts at King Rodney Park. With the socially distanced seating and masking requirements it set about being as safe as possible in an unsafe time. The shows were brilliant – Midnight Oil at their majestic best with their Makarrata Project, flanked by Sarah Blasko, the late Archie Roach, The Teskey Brothers , Tash Sultana and others. The sound was impeccable, and it was a rare experience to hear live music in a year when so much was cancelled and abandoned.
2022 saw a return to something closer to the festival of old. It was a substantially local line-up with many brilliant musicians – Ab Original , Cat Empire , Emma Donovan, Bush Gothic and Joseph Tawadros and the Melbourne Ska Orchestra to name a few . Paul Kelly presented a glorious set on the final night and other highlights, for me, included Springtime and Asteroid Ekosystem. It was a musical success and it turned out not to be a spreader event. And now for 2023.
“It’s kind of exciting and also terrifying” Tripodi observes “to be returning to our international line-up and also with our partner WOMAD New Zealand back on board. They’ve been absent since 2020. So we’ve almost forgotten how to do something on this scale and the way this has turned out, it’s a particularly high profile amazing one.
“I also think it was easier for it to come together than before the 2020 event because there were conversations we were having with artists for some years. There was a rolling list. Some we were asking before 2022- if we were able to bring internationals are you available and interested? But there was so much uncertainty about borders opening that we couldn’t make decisions three months in advance- it was terrible for planning.
“We had artists like the Garifuna Collective from Belize, with whom we’d been speaking for years, delayed by the rolling pandemic. For San Salvador (from Southern France) the delay was both pandemic and personal – two couples had just had children and weren’t travelling at all. ADG7 the South Korean pop/folk sensations were also on the list. That’s just to name three. All classic WOMAD artists who’d never been to Australia. They are sensational live and each is unique. It’s such a buzz . They are not actually here yet – but it’s looking exciting.
“I’m sure all the artists in the 2023 line-up will have a million stories about things that went wrong, things that were made challenging for them in the last couple of years.”
The pandemic has certainly had its impact on logistics. Tripodi notes:
“Just in an operational sense it is harder to get the travel routes and flights you want. A small example is that Emirates, they were an airline we used a lot – you could fly a group from Paris to Dubai to Adelaide. It was simple, affordable and great for the artists . There are now no direct flights.”
I also asked Ian Scobie about concerns getting artists and their luggage (their valuable, often rare instruments) safely, and all at the same time, to Adelaide. While sparing a thought for the pressures on airlines in the new order, he described some precautionary strategies they have used:
“Even before passengers there is freight. We did get all (the feathered angels aerial theatrics company, Gratte Ciel’s) Place des Anges equipment into warehouses a couple of months ago to avoid any disasters of stuff not arriving. And we have arranged an extra rest day for artists, even for local interstate artists, because domestic schedules have been less reliable.”
“There’s always a concern for any artist,” Tripodi observes, “that their beloved instruments don’t arrive. So we look at ‘what ifs?’ - if a band’s specific specialist instruments don’t turn up, not guitars so much, but can we lay hands on a harmonium quickly ? So there are a lot of logistical challenges behind the scenes. But it’s fair to say that it takes longer, and costs more, to get somebody here than it used to.”
Another new complexity has been created by greater customs and immigration controls. Artists from some countries and airports now have to meet stringent biometric requirements. Passport holders from France – and Tripodi estimates there are fifty to sixty of them - now have to do fingerprinting in Paris before travelling, which is a new hurdle. There are also implications for artists from Cuba and Pakistan.
When we talk about the program Annette Tripodi lights up.
“We are absolutely rapt at the range of acts, the spread of countries and the ages and diverse appeal of the festival. Having Bon Iver on Friday night and Florence + the Machine on Saturday night is just out of this world. I never imagined we could pull that off in the same festival. We have spoken to Bon Iver for years and weren’t able to make it happen. It got deferred and deferred and then they contacted us and it was all on. And with Florence also it finally happened. They are outstanding live artists that suit our vibe but they will also bring in a whole new audience.
“There are great headliners among many others. It’s wonderful to have (WOMADelaide 1992 original ) Youssou N’Dour on Monday night and (the powerhouse Colombian band) Ondatropica on Sunday. “
So what are some of the gems in the program ? Tripodi starts with guitarist Justin Adams and violinist and vocalist Mauro Durante who will perform from their recent recording Still Moving. Adams has a remarkable CV which includes Tinariwen and Robert Plant. Durante has collaborated with CGS and Ludovico Einaudi.
The Korean band ADG7 Tripodi describes as “kooky high energy musicians who are not only danceable but bring folkloric shamanistic traditions and instruments.” Kocoroco, led by trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey, also gets a mention. “It is great to see this evolution of Black jazz coming out of London, influenced by Afrobeat and other styles.”
Visiting WOMAD UK last year, Tripodi and Scobie caught up again with Rizwan Muazzam Qawwals. They are the nephews of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who first presented qawwali, this spellbinding Sufi devotional music, late at night at the very first WOMADelaide. It established a tradition at WOMAD. Many of us thought of it as “The Nusrat Hour.“ Often located at Stage Two or the Zoo Stage, it featured Indian and Pakistani virtuosi performing extended ragas and vocalisations, and became a feature of the many festivals which followed.
“We went to their first show in the UK “Tripodi recalls, “and they were amazing. But then their second show at 11pm on the final night was just transcendental.” They will perform in late night programming in Adelaide also.
The First Nations section of the program is also strong again this year. The NSS (Northern Sound System) Academy which nurtures and develops new talent, she describes as “going from stren
gth to strength.” This year inclusions are Aotearoa performer, Taiaha Ngawiki, aka Taiaha ‘The Weapon’ (who is now living in Aldinga) bringing a mix of hip-hop and Soul and R’n’B artists such as Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Nina Simone.
The other NSS selection is Dem Mob featuring, Elisha Umuhuri and Jontae Lawrie, from the APY Lands, who are the first young rappers to perform and record in the Pitjantjatjara language. Tripodi says they have evolved into a great band – “great rappers who are on the cusp of something even more.” They perform on Saturday; Taiaha has one show only on Monday.
Other First Nations musicians who feature this year include Ripple Effect, an all-women group from Maningrida in Arnhem Land. The frontline vocalists harmonise in five Indigenous languages as well as English. Also appearing on Saturday is Richard J Franklin, a Gunditjmara elder from south-west Victoria. A multi-talented artist and activist, Franklin is a musician, filmmaker, novelist, academic, playwright and songwriter who will bring much to the WOMAD program.
The Ailan Songs Project led by Jessie Lloyd, will perform, interpreting songs from the Torres Strait Islands, and Kee’ahn, whose single Better Things, struck an uplifting chord during the pandemic lockdown. She is a multiple award winner including the 2020 Archie Roach Award.
The leading First Nations dance company, Bangarra will perform on Friday night. Tripodi is especially excited: “It’s wild to think how far that company has gone since they last appeared at WOMAD. We’ve waited a long time to get the timing right for them and now it has happened again.”
“And on a personal level I’m really glad that Soul II Soul are featuring in the festival. They and Inner City were my two favourite bands when I was living in Sydney in the ‘80s! They were another pandemic delayed act and will bring a full band and support musicians – it will be great to have them on the main stage.”
Since the very first festival there has been a strong representation of women artists and this year is no exception. It is said that women hold up half the sky, and they will prominently hold up the day and night skies at WOMADelaide in 2023. It is a list as diverse as it is impressive. Sampa the Great from Zambia (and Australia) will perform one show – but that’s one more than in 2021, when she was scheduled for the concert series in King Rodney Park but was marooned in Zambia by pandemic border restrictions.
US country music singer-songwriter, Angel Olsen will feature her latest album Big Time, Madeleine Peyroux, with only one show on Monday, will draw on her wide repertoire, including her own works and those by Serge Gainsbourg, Leonard Cohen, even Charlie Chaplin. Queen of the banjo Abigail Washburn returns to Adelaide with her partner Bela Fleck, a banjo player of legendary standing. Their performances will be both charming and virtuosic.
Aurora will bring her Norwegian electro-pop and Yungchen Lhamo from Tibet returns. Since she last performed her Buddhist chants at the 1992 WOMADelaide, she has collaborated with Paul McCartney, Philip Glass and Sinead O’Connor. From Aotearoa NZ, acclaimed singer Ria Hall will perform on both Sunday and Monday with a set showcasing her vocal range, singing in English and Te Reo Maori.
And for the dance
crowd, the DJ list is impressive and women rule – Jaguar, Sister Nancy meets Legal Shot and Jyoty will all appear. Not forgetting Nightmares on Wax, GUTS ,and the drum virtuoso, Alexander Flood who, as a young child, first performed in a music parade at WOMADelaide.
Annette Tripodi has her favourites. “Florence is a powerhouse. Real World Records also told us about Bab L’ Bluz, they are a Moroccan Psychedelic rock outfit. Ian and I met them in the UK and they shared some South Australian wine with us! They are really young and fresh. Another great band is Kefaya with their powerful lead singer, Elaha Soroor . And where else do you see a woman from Afghanistan, leading what is essentially a rock band? She’s a pocket rocket. “
Constantinople, a Canadian project which featured at a previous festival with a program of West African themes, this year returns with In the Footsteps of the Rumi, focusing on the works of the 13th century mystic poet. The ensemble features yet another woman vocalist - Belgian /Tunisian singer Ghalia Benali. Tripodi’s list of favourites continues – Taraf de Calui, the newest incarnation of the Romany legends, Taraf de Haidouks, Ukrainian group Balaklava Blues (who will also be providing music for the Festival theatre work -Dogs of Europe) and, from Argentine, dedicated to the legendary master of tango, comes Quinteto Astor Piazzolla.
Reminding me of the mix that is WOMAD, Tripodi predicts a big following for The Proclaimers, supplying their singalong favourites and new material from their album drolly entitled, Dentures Out. And for those needing more Greetings from the New Brunette there’s Billy Bragg. The Lachy Doley Group’s Hammond organ rock set and Saharan guitar wizard Mdou Moctar and his band will be a likely crowd favourite also.
Armed with such a strong program this year, Ian Scobie is quietly confident. “It is bigger than we have ever done,” he notes with some amazement, “There are more than 700 artists – about a hundred more than previously. It’s big. We are coming back to the fore with an international program. We wanted to come back with a bang and provide a lift in the festival experience – especially to interstate people returning after a break.
We didn’t want people to be disappointed.
“I also wanted to re-connect with the 30th anniversary feeling. It wasn’t until 1993 that WOMADelaide became a standalone from the Festival. So we were keen to have a Wow factor and getting acts like Florence and Bon Iver contributed to that. It will bring in younger fans and those who have not been previously, as opposed to rusted-on fans who never miss. That’s always our intent with our programming. And you see it in the sales. The advanced sales are off the charts.” (At the time of writing all 3 and 4 day tickets have sold out, as have Saturday single passes)
Scobie also has his favourites. Place des Anges, Rizwan Muazzam Qawwals, Richard J Frankland, Meute, and Indian musicians, Pandit Ronu Majumdar and Dr Jayanthi Kumaresh, who were recommended as part of the long-standing Spirit of India programming project which is now supervised by WOMAD legend, the violinist, Subramaniam. Kronos Quartet, long time Adelaide Festival favourites, celebrate fifty years of performing with two performances at WOMAD. And, having Youssou N’Dour back, after being there at the very beginning”, Scobie smiles, “is also great.”
Pausing, Scobie turns to another part of the festival program.
“The debate over the Voice is equal parts enraging and encouraging and WOMAD has a place in that discussion. We will have a session in The Planet Talks and we will be supporting the Yes campaign, like we have with previous social issues – right back to health campaigns and AIDS messaging in the early ‘90s. It is important to have the right level of advocacy – not harping, but as part of a socially conscious cultural event.”
“The festival is like a child, it has a life of its own”, Scobie observes in conclusion. “It grows up and it’s off on its path. So many people have a view of the festival - and it is what is for them. They always go to this stage first or that food stall. It’s kind of a people’s tradition and it does remind me, as a small child growing up in Mildura, going to the Mildura Show- a country show. This wonderland that was set upon the Mildura Oval.”
“I had this sense of the social fabric and I think WOMADelaide has that resonance. A sense of continuity in the world, a sense of connectedness. So much else is going in all directions- the constant handsets and screens, people cut off in their separate realities. So the collective sense of WOMAD is special. “
WOMADelaide runs from March 10 to 13 at Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla, Adelaide.
Murray Bramwell
When: 10 to 13 Mar
Where: Botanic Park
Bookings: womadelaide.com.au
It was 28 years ago that we lay beneath the starlight in Botanic Park carried into a reverie as an ethereal voice rang through the gentle night.
It was a landmark WOMADelaide moment which people have called “indescribably beautiful”.
Now, this veritable lifetime later, it will need no efforts of description. It is to happen again. Live.
Yungchen Lhamo is coming back.
She is the acclaimed Tibetan singer of spiritual melodies, the bringer of peace and love, of beauty and calm.
Yungchen was, in fact, the special WOMAD choice of the music festival’s founder, Peter Gabriel and thus became the first ever Tibetan singer to perform at a WOMAD.
It set her on a life of touring, performing, and recording - from Carnegie Hall to the Lilith Festival. Living in Australia for a few years in the late 1990s was a further springboard for her career, she says, and brought her to WOMADelaide in 1995 and to recording Tibetan Prayer, which was to win an ARIA Award for Best World Music.
“So WOMADelaide has great memories for me,” she says.
She now resides in upstate New York and has been focusing on touring the USA while she works with the homeless and mentally ill with her One Drop of Kindness Foundation. After the release of her sixth album, Awakening, she has returned to the road - and WOMADelaide. Here she also will perform some of her forthcoming Real World Records album, One Drop of Kindness, and she will sing solo acapella and also with her band.
Critics have described her singing as “unearthly”, and “exquisite”. "Her voice has the power to stop time and makes everything else in the world fall away. Her voice transports you,” declared one reviewer.
Yungchen is innately modest.
“I am thankful to be able in some small way to increase awareness of Tibetan culture and the Buddhist teachings on awakening among many people around the world,” she says.
On the Sunday between her Saturday and Monday performances, she will be sharing with the people some culinary secrets In WOMADelaide's Taste the World session. “I will be cooking Tibetan vegetable momos along with tsampa and butter tea,” she confides.
Like most performers, Yungchen’s musical momentum took a blow from the Covid pandemic.
“Also my weekly visits to the homeless shelter,” she says. “I viewed the time as a two-year retreat at home, albeit learning to do Zoom meetings and one or two online concerts.
“I started making Tibetan jewellery while saying my prayers and put them up for sale on the One Drop of Kindness Foundation’s website, with profits from sales donated to Hunger Free America.”
Pondering the pandemic she reflects that in one way it brought a positive change.
"So many people came to understand that everyone and everything in this world is interdependent. In no time at all, one small outbreak of the virus in China spread to every country in the world and affected millions of people.”
Among her creative pleasure in recent years has been in writing a musical called You are Beautiful, I am Beautiful which she produced with a cast of people from her homeless shelter residents. It was even reviewed in Newsweek.
Her days are quietly busy, starting at 5am with prayers and meditation. Thereafter, writing, recording, liaising with musicians, agents, promoters, lawyers, and the media.
She does not do voice exercises but keeps to a good diet with lots of water toward maintaining a healthy body.
“Whereas many artists do vocal warm up exercises before they perform, I say prayers for everyone present: my fellow musicians, the stage crew, and audience. I and ask the higher beings to come and bless us all with their presence.”
Interestingly, she uses a mala, a kind of Tibetan rosary with 108 beads.
“Sometimes people mistake this for worry beads and tell me not to be nervous,” she says.
“I always just say ’thankyou’ because if I tried to explain what I was actually doing, they might think I was mad."
The happiness in her world is simply, she says, in waking up each and every morning and feeling joyful in having such a precious human life.
“And to reconfirm my motivation to do whatever I can during the day to bring health and happiness to all sentient beings."
Samela Harris
When: 10 to 13 Mar
Where: Botanic Park
Bookings: womadelaide.com.au
There he is, in home territory, Mumbai, sharply depicted against a pristine Zoom greenscreen.
But it does not take long for this Indian musician to transcend the cold efficiency of technology and convey a sense of ethereal beauty. And this is before he has even revealed, let alone played, his remarkable instrument.
Pandit Robu Majumdar has nothing less than a presence of magical good spirit.
He says that he is a happy man and happiness is a gift he is empowered to give, along with his music.
His instrument is a three and a half foot-long bamboo flute, called a shank bansuri, self-made by adding to the traditional flute to deliver lower and lovelier octaves than convention heretofore has enabled.
He calls it “conch”, inspired by the eerie beauty of the tones of the male conch shell.
He unwraps it from its protective sleeve and shows the join where he extended the traditional flute, laughing that a lot of flute bamboo had to die before he got it the way he wanted it to be.
This is his original instrument. He has more, of course, but this is his beloved prototype.
He raises it to his lips and plays, soft and low, a gentle timeless raga as never heard before.
The tensions of the day ease as one listens, immediately imaging how utterly dreamy and beautiful it will be to hear this music in the lyrical landscape of Botanic Park.
Pandit Robu Majumdar has played several WOMADs including the first one produced in 1997 by WOMAD founder Peter Gabriel in Reading, UK. He has not yet played Australia's and brims with joyful expectations.
One is not surprised when he reveals that George Harrison loved his serene fusion music - and doubtless this sweet man, too. Pandit stayed 15 days with Harrison at his Henley on Thames home back in the day, even helping George with his gardening.
Most significantly, Pandit was the disciple of the great Ravi Shankar, the greatest musician now or ever, he declares - “the Mozart of Indian music".
But it was his own father back in Varanasi where he was born who set the ball rolling. His father was not a performer. He was a doctor of homeopathic medicine and music was his hobby. When the boy Pandit dared to play with his father’s flutes, as if they were toys and broke some, his father, he says, did not beat him in anger. Instead, his father said that since he had broken five or six flutes, his punishment was for Pandit to practice the flute for five to six hours a day.
Pandit says he was an honest child and he actually did practice for all the hours, albeit that his schoolwork suffered. He’s still no good at maths.
But, he swoons, “It was the most beautiful punishment in the world.”
“It was such a beautiful punishment that I became a flute wallah.” And he laughs.
So now he, himself, is the great guru. Others have copied his conch concept and it makes him feel happy. He holds its copyright and he is content because the beautiful spirituality of his music will go on even when he is no longer here.
At 60, he says he still feels childlike and his innate joyfulness is the thing he gets to spread when he shares his music.
At WOMADelaide, he will have Dr Jayanthi Kumaresh joining him, performing all shows together. And he is looking forward to giving workshops.
WOMADelaide runs from the 10th to the 13th of March at Bontanic Park, in Adelaide.
Samela Harris
When: 10 to 13 Mar
Where: Botanic Park
Bookings: womadelaide.com.au