SXSW 2008

The South By Southwest music, film and media festival has been on the music calendar of many Southern and Midwestern music fans for two decades, but the March convocation has grown in recent years to near overwhelming international proportions where 15,000 music industry and fans catch nearly 2000 bands over the course of four days. Global Rhythm tossed its hat in the ring this year by hosting a night of music at Austin’s Copa Bar And Grill. While the line-up shifted a bit in the last minute, the night was a resounding success both musically and attendance-wise, giving the GR-staffers a real shot of enthusiasm to bring with them as they made their way home the next day.

The night at the Copa began with a wonderful set by Senegalese kora player Boubacar Diabate and his band. Featuring Diabate as well as guitar, upright bass and drums, the quartet played a quietly hypnotic set that mesmerized the crowd. Since the first band didn’t show, Diabate played a full 90-minute set that was punctuated with thrilling kora and acoustic guitar runs, and a bit of jazzy interplay in the rhythm section, which was able to follow the leader through every twist and turn.

Cranking up the amps and the energy, Lobi Traore and Joep Pelt followed with a set that was a rocking combination of Northern Mali desert blues and African highlife pop. From the first note it was apparent that the band was there to play music for people to dance and party to. With Pelt and Traore trading lead guitar lines and vocal turns, the electric four-piece plowed through the set as if it was holed up in a rowdy Bamako bar.

Late Night In Seville

I heard a lot of great music at this year’s WOMEX in Seville, Spain. But a night that has stuck with me was when a few colleagues and I met up after the WOMEX music was over to check out some flamenco music at a small bar on the other side of the river. Strolling in around 2:30 in the morning the bar was packed. That in itself isn’t unusual in Spain on a Saturday night. Neither was the fact that there was a gent in the corner was singing as those on the couch next to him were people clapping out the flamenco rhythm. He sang passionately and he was obviously experience performer yet all while a small group hung on his every line, the rest of the bar was content to listen as they drank, talked and smoked.

After a few songs he stopped to talk those sitting with him, then in another corner of the bar some 20-somethings (I would later find out was a wedding party) broke into song and two girls got up and danced in the tiny space between their own set of couches. The singing wasn’t as skilled and the dancing so precise as professionals would be, but the group broke out into laughter and applause after its song. A few minutes later the old pro did another song, then after a bit the kids would do another. This went on for a while with the kids going strong until near the end of the night.

The music was great, but what was so cool about the night was to watch the music being played in a local bar with no stage. And watching the amateurs, un-intimidated by the pro decide to do their own songs. In the U.S. there seems to such a barrier between performer and audience, particularly in the worlds of rock, jazz and blues. The talented musicians in these genres have made it their life to study and play music and have dazzling chops, great songs or whatever. But I found it so heartening to see that traditional Spanish was still part of the fabric of life for that bridal party. Rather than sticking coins in the jukebox and singing along to Hall and Oats or Madonna, they were singing flamenco songs that they all knew. Americans can find this sort celebration of local music in select pockets in Bluegrass Country, down in Louisiana and on the Celtic music scene, as a whole, traditional music is not a part of our general tradition growing up here in the States. TH