WOMAD

Kali

From France, Trinidad & Tobago

Born in Martinique, a French-speaking island in the Caribbean, Kali is a banjo-picking singer-songwriter who was a member of 6th Continent, one of the top groups in the Caribbean, before pursuing his solo career. The music draws from reggae, dance hall and calypso, as well as the traditional styles of the Antilles, but has a Frenchness about it that is hard to pin down. Maybe it's the rich, confident voice right up front in the mix. Maybe it's the rock 'n' roll grooves that bebop along beneath the clearly loving it backing vocalists. It's all smiles and professionally contained laughter - the good humour is so infectious that it should come with a health warning! Listening to the latest album, 'Debranché', you realise that some people live in a wooden house on a white sand beach and are woken by the sun glinting through the palm fronds. They get up, smile, and turn on the radio. Whilst the coffee is brewing, Kali sonically ruffles their hair for them and tweaks that smile up a couple of notches more. I wonder if they could handle a visitor ... If not, is that a rain cloud on the horizon? And isn't that the landlord coming down the beach? Kali has a bluesy side as well, you know ...