WORLDBeat
Though the heavens opened for this year's Rainforest World Music Festival, its reputation is growing for good reason
JOHN CLEWLEY
World Beat made its annual pilgrimage to the Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak, Malaysia, this past weekend, for a little musical rumble in the jungle. In the past few years, the event has miraculously escaped rain; not so this year, as Borneo's heavens opened on two of the evenings, rendering much of the site a mud-pit. It didn't stop anyone from having a good time though and it made rain dancers of us all.
The festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, has grown from a few hundred people each evening to more than 8,000 a night over the past decade. It's hard to see how it could expand anymore on its present location, the beautiful Sarawak Cultural Village, located at the foot of jungle-clad Mount Santubong, just outside Kuching, the state capital.
The festival this year attracted 400 journalists, which gives an indication of the event's growing reputation. On Saturday night, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi made a surprise visit as well.
This year the organisers added a bazaar of crafts from all over Asia, converting several longhouses into workshops and stalls. At some of the other longhouses there were fine art displays of local and regional watercolour painters.
During the day, the festival kept to its tradition of running innovative workshops; there were 27 different ones to choose from this year and most were packed, with percussion sessions with names like "The African Drum That Conquered the World" and "Framed Lizards" always attracting a bumper crowd. Fun for kids and families.
A torrential downpour delayed my arrival on the first night, Friday, so the Malaysian band Akasha was the first band I saw and they were one of the best local bands I've seen - the interplay between sitar player Kumar Karthigesu and Jamie Wilson's blues guitar was excellent. I was disappointed by the Portuguese band Fadomorse and Ross Daly from Greece but the wacky trio from the UK, the New Rope String Band, brought comic relief on the small "tree" stage adjacent to the main stage.
The Rope boys performed on two nights, ending with the accordion player Tim Dalling stripping to the waist, donning a pair of swimming goggles and a clothes-peg over his nose and attempting to dive off a chair into a small fish tank of water. He ended up being lowered head-first into the tank while playing the accordion. Great fun.
The huge Filipino music collective, Pinikpikan, then closed the evening with a raucous set that sent the crowd happily home.
Saturday and Sunday were more upbeat than the opening night. Saturday kicked off with sets from local Sarawak bands, Kani'd and Tuku Kame. Kani-d, which has just released a debut CD, is a group of young Kelabit musicians who play both traditional and rock-oriented music (the band also includes the first female sape performer; playing the sape, or Borneo boat lute was taboo for women until recently).
Two styles that are always popular at the festival - Celtic and West African - then whipped up the crowd to a frenzy in the form of Beltaine from Poland and Yakande from Gambia/Guinea. I particularly enjoyed Yakhouba Sissokho's kora (21-stringed African harp) playing and Kandet Doubate's powerful voice. In between these sets, taiko master Motofuji Hiroshi pounded the skins on the tree stage.
Charismatic Sheldon Blackman and his band, The Love Circle, then treated the audience to a righteous funky brew of jamoo (an off-shoot of soca from Trinidad and Tobago), which topped off the evening nicely.
The final night began with the cutest band to perform - a children's band, Orchestra Anak Jati Bisaya from the Bisaya community in northern Sarawak. These beautifully-costumed children played some 20 gongs and assorted percussion instruments, led by a terrific dumbak wooden drum player.
The Rope boys returned to great applause, this time attempting to teach us all how to read music and Oikyotaan, from India, unleashed a torrent of sound, that, apart from some soaring vocals, left me cold.
Now for some time I've been asking the organisers to get some Congolese musicians. Long-time World Beat readers will know of my weakness for one of the planet's most potent dance musics. This year my wish was granted.
The finale act of a great festival was London-based Kasai Masai, which is led by percussionist, singer and dancer "Voodoo King" Nickens Nkoso, whose resume includes performing with stars like Papa Wemba, Kanda Bongo Man and Koffi Olomide.
As soon as the band hit the first groove, I knew this would be a great set. Nickens warned everyone: "You wanna dance? Hmm. I'm gonna unlock your hips - they've been locked for too long." The crowd roared in approval. It's just as well he said hips because most of us were stuck in the mud; idiot dancing on the spot was about all I could manage.
As the band is a small five-piece, Nicken combined the roles of percussionist, dancer, singer and animateur (a kind of MC who gets everyone going) found in the bigger Congolese bands with great skill. He challenged other band members to dance against him, topping all-comers, except perhaps the saxophone player, who tumbled like an acrobat across the stage. And driving the music was that riverine guitar, pumping bass and pounding beat sound that is so distinctively Congolese.
This was the best final act I've seen at the festival since Cuban musicians swept everyone off their feet a few years ago. And it was the perfect intro for the finale with all the musicians joining together on stage for a final farewell jam. And then off we went home into the hot and humid Borneo night, happy and exhausted, with music still ringing in our ears.
Next year's festival will be held from July 10-12.
Many thanks to Malaysian Airlines, the Sarawak Tourism Board and Gustino Basuan.
This column can be contacted at:
jclewley@loxinfo.co.th
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