WOMAD

Gala Performance with Billy Cobham and more...

18:15 27th July on the Siam Tent

The weekend's performers come together...

One of the cornerstones of the WOMAD/Real World empire has been to encourage free-flowing exchange of ideas through musical collaboration. And if the participants know nothing about each other before this exchange began, so much the better. Look at those Real World Recording Weeks in the '90s where performers geographically continents apart often brilliantly discovered they shared a sizeable plot of common ground. (Incidentally, these recordings are now seeing the light of day under the Big Blue Ball banner) So, while artists from all four corners of the globe are inhabiting the same patch of Wiltshire parkland, it makes perfect sense to stick a few of them onstage together to see what happens. Hence this gala performance involving plenty of this weekend's guests. Drumming colossus Billy Cobham is the ringmaster, marshalling the likes of Justin Adams, Bassekou Kouyate and David D'Or to musical heights. The loose spirit of the show suggests that the full list of runners and riders will be rather fluid until right before the off, so expect the unexpected.

Biog by Nige Tassell

Bill Cobham Biography

It was in Panama that this most fluid of drummers was first bewitched by the sound of percussion. Born in the Central American country of Panama, his earliest memories include playing timbales and being surrounded by steel drum and conga-playing cousins. Growing up in New York, jazz rapidly became an obsession and, at 25, Billy joined Miles Davis' group early in a career that's known many peaks. Horace Silver, Stan Getz, Tito Puente, Dexter Gordon and our own Peter Gabriel are among those who've collaborated with him. The choice of his recent co-conspirators has seen him return to his Latin American roots - an ongoing project with Cuban young blades Asere.

Justin Adams Biography

“Justin Adams”

Justin Adams has been at the cutting edge of world music alchemy since the 1990's with Jah Wobble, Robert Plant (Adams co-wrote The Mighty Rearranger), Natacha Atlas, The Festival of the Desert, Tinariwen (producing their first and third albums), LO'JO. Taking influences from African, Arabic and Irish traditions as well as rock and roll and the Blues, his distinctive, driving guitar style is the missing link between Bo Diddley and Munir Bashir. With Tell No Lies, Adams delves deeper into the African origins of black American music, following the roots of New Orleans and Mississippi soul right back to the Songhai, Fulani and Toureg peoples of West Africa.

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba Biography

Mali's triumphant album-of-the-year heroes

Despite having spent many years as a sideman to some of West Africa's greatest musicians from Ali Farka Toure to Youssou N'Dour, even Bassekou Kouyate could not have anticipated the sensational success of his debut recording under his own name. Released in spring 2007 and recorded with his band Ngoni Ba, Kouyate's Segu Blue received a raft of five-star reviews and triumphed at this year's BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music, picking up two awards including the coveted Album Of The Year accolade. Born on the banks of the River Niger, he began his career playing with kora maestro Toumani Diabate in the 1980s and his belated emergence as a star in his own right marks the recognition of the ngoni as one of the key instruments in African music. Although considerably less well-known than the kora, the ngoni has been central to griot storytelling since the 13th century - although it must be doubtful whether anyone has ever been played with quite such funky virtuosity.

Biog by Nigel Williamson

David D'Or Biography

Eclectic singer mining ancient roots

The holy songs and ancient chants of Israeli singing star David D'Or represent only one aspect of an extraordinary performing career that began in a military band and has proceeded via pop stardom and a spell as an operatic counter-tenor. Having turning down a tempting offer from the New York Met, D'Or decided instead to go in search of his roots. And coming from a family of Libyan Jewish cantors expelled from Spanish Andalusia during the Inquisition, his root-searching led him to uncover a unique trove of music that can be traced back to the prayers and chants sung by the Levites in Jerusalem's Holy Temple centuries ago. Backed by a young, virtuoso band drawn from North Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East, he's crafted the material into a show of striking emotion and energy. Listen out in particular for the shofar, a traditional ram's horn blown on Jewish holy days "to open the sky ". And the pop star bit? Well it's not often that WOMAD hosts a Eurovision entrant: David represented Israel in the 2004 contest...

www.daviddor.com

Biog by Nigel Williamson

Bill Cobham Products At Our Store

• Big Blue Ball

Justin Adams Products At Our Store

• Soul Science
• Big Blue Ball
• Tell No Lies
• In Trance

Find out more about Justin Adams at Real World Records