Some extraordinary bands have emerged from the turmoil and tumult that is Third World Africa, such as Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, who were born…
The Staff Of Life
Category: Articles
Fes Festival of World Sacred Music 2011. Part II. More Musical Encounters
One of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music’s great strengths, apart from the larger, spectacular concerts in the Bab Makina and the Bab Boujloud,…
Lord of the Trance
Rango’s debut album, Bride Of Zar, took everyone by surprise when it was released last year, introducing trance-inducing music from Sudanese mystic healing ceremonies and…
Fes Festival of World Sacred Music 2011. Part I: The World’s Spiritual Glories in the Medina
“What is important, and indeed urgent, is to unlock our systems of thinking, our mental habits and automatic responses, to allow us to become more…
The New Nusrat
The premature passing of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in 1997 robbed the world of a truly outstanding vocalist, a veritable musical deity whose qawwali singing…
The Calypso Queen
McArtha Linda Sandy-Lewis might never be immortalized in the global annals of female activism, but the feisty woman claiming that formal and somewhat long-winded moniker…
The Afro Celt Sound System Is Back Better Than Ever After A Three-Year Hiatus
If there’s such a beast as the quintessential WOMAD act it must assuredly be the Afro Celt Sound System. That’s no idle claim dreamed up…
Post Rainforest World Music Festival, Encounter with the Orangutans
The last day of the post-Rain Forest World Music Festival program took us to the Semmongoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center to visit the orangutans. The…
Cometh The Hour…Oud Maestro Joseph Tawadros Waxes Lyrical About His World-Jazz Album
A glaring anomaly concerning the annual ARIA Awards — the Australian equivalent of the Grammy Awards — is that Joseph Tawadros, one of the country’s…
Post Rainforest World Music Festival: On to Kuching
After covering the 2011 Rainforest World Music Festival, members of the music and travel media were offered the possibility of extending their stay in Sarawak…