World Music picks of the month: July 2015

Kobo Town playing in a Trinidad garden

Time for world music fans to drag out all that tie-dyed gear as July ushers in the annual treats of the Bristol Harbour Festival (17-19) and WOMAD (24-26). For the former there’s always some quality global stuff in Queen Square and this year’s line-up includes cool calypso from Kobo Town (17), Swami’s hard-edged Indian Electro Jughi dance grooves (18) and Zanzibar’s Mim Suleiman and her charismatic Afro-soul (19). Topping things off very nicely reggae legend Dawn Penn (of No, No, No fame, pictures at top of page) will be closing the weekend on Sunday.

  Atomic Bomb! The music of William Onyeabor  

A week later and some 40 minutes away in Charlton Park WOMAD’s 2015 programme is the usual chocolate box of delights, including established greats like Senegal’s soulful Cheik Lo, disgracefully saucy Colombian grandmother Toto la Momposina and South Africa’s legendary Mahotella Queens. There’s hipster stuff, too – like supercool rapper Ghostpoet, radical Nigerian funkster William Onyeabor and Cornish deconstructionist Luke Vibert – and then there’s all kinds of discoveries (check Violons Barbares, for instance). As usual there are single day tickets coming available as the weekend approaches.

Tantz liven up classic Hava Nagila

They didn’t overlook the Balkans at WOMAD, naturally – there’s Shantel & his Bucovina Club Orkestar and our very own Sheelanagig, among others – but even they can’t compete with Gypsy-Fest (Sunday 19), the Fleece’s ‘12 hour gypsy-punk-Balkan-folk-ska-klezmer-shanty-carnival’ with an exhausting/exhaustive 13 bands including Leeds-based party starters Tantz and ‘turbo folk steppers’ Ushti Baba.

Bunny Wailer, performing live in 1986

But for those who prefer to take their world music pleasures one at a time July has two undoubted highlights on offer, the first being the mighty reggae combination of Beres Hammond and Bunny Wailer at The Academy (Sunday 12). Both are soulful singers, with Beres Hammond’s credentials as a Lovers Rock vocalist almost as unshakeable as Bunny Wailer’s undeniable place in reggae history.

We may not be able to see his late and legendary father any more but Fela’s eldest son Femi Kuti has done much to keep the flame of Afrobeat burning bright in the 21st century with his band The Positive Force (The Lantern, Wednesday 15). After a career that wandered into rock-influenced territory his latest CD No Place For My Dream is a defiant return to the music’s roots both in style and lyrical content with appropriately strident political observation adding edge to the heart-lifting beats.

The Lantern will also pay host to another second-generation success story when The McCrary Sisters appear (Tuesday 28). The four Nashville-raised daughters of Fairfield Four gospel legend Rev Samuel McCrary became a group in 2011 and have gone on to work with Bob Dylan, Dr John, Patty Griffin and others.

And finally, there’s more Southern-fried action from the Louisiana/Texas border courtesy of Zydeco merchants Billy Lee & The Swamp Critters passing through The Tunnels (Thursday 9) and delivering a firestorm of R’n’B flavoured Cajun music.