Another highlight of the Rainforest World Music Festival this year was the Iranian singer Mamak Khadem. A former member of the cross-cultural fusion ensemble, Axiom of Choice, Mamak is now based in the USA. She continues to draw on her roots in Persian classical music and infuse it with Western musical traditions. The result is an ethereal, haunting sound of  vocals, percussion and Ole Mathisen’s beautiful sax and clarinet playing.

While at the festival I managed to pick up her latest CD, “A Window to Color”, an album she says is inspired by the poetry and paintings of Iranian artist, Sohrab Sepehri. In fact the poems are used throughout the album. It’s a worthwhile purchase.

It may be a vibrant and colourful event but to my eye several of the acts at this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak called for a black and white treatment. One of those was the brilliant Blue Canyon Boys from the USA.

The quartet of talented musicians cooks up an infectious brew of Colorado Bluegrass with driving rhythms and vocal harmonies.

The band features Kentucky native Gary Dark on mandolin and tenor vocals, Jason Hicks on guitar and vocals, Drew Garrett slapping away on bass and contributing baritone vocals with the band, and the hirsute Jeff Scroggins providing lightening licks and picking on banjo.

The band performed on the second stage midway through Friday night but with the energy and crowd pleasing set could have easily worked as the headline act. Certainly the evening’s closer, Frigg from Finland were a big disappointment and upstaged by tremendous Blue Canyon Boys.

You can see more of the Blue Canyon Boys in the Music Gallery.

As I said in my last post, my main reason for going to the Rainforest World Music Festival this year was to meet up with Paddy Keenan. I’ve known Paddy for several years now. We first met up when I was photographing him at a festival and we hit it off immediately. He’s one of the nicest guys you could wish to meet and extraordinarily gifted musician.

A while back we sat down and he told me in depth about his fascinating life and I am planning a feature article on him in the near future. Paddy is without doubt one of the greatest traditional Irish musician alive today. Born into a travelling family, both his father and grandfather were uilleann pipers. Paddy took up the instrument which he describes as ‘one of the hardest in the world to play’, when he was ten and went on to perform with other members of his musical family as The Pavees (pavee is the Irish word for traditional travellers).

Paddy tells me that during the 60s very few people were playing the uilleann pipes and instrument almost died out. The revival of interest can be attributed to Paddy himself. In the 70s, he was a founding member of the Bothy Band who went on to be one of the greatest and most influential Irish bands of all time. The pipes were central to the band’s sound.

Paddy currently lives in the USA but often returns to Ireland to perform, as well as making appearances at festivals around the world.  At the Rainforest World Music Festival, he played in daytime workshops and on stage as The Paddy Keenan Trio with Chris Murphy on bodhrán and James Riley on guitar.

It was a pleasure to hang out with these guys but the kind of experience that made me wish I had picked up an instrument years ago and not a camera.

I look forward to catching up with them again in the near future.

If you are not familiar with Paddy’s music it’s time you were. Check out his solo work, and that of the Bothy Band. If you are in Bristol, New Hampshire, USA, swing by Chris Murphy’s fantastic bar, Kathleen’s Cottage for Irish hospitality, beer, and of course superb live music.

I have just returned from the annual Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak, the 14^th year is has been held and the 6^th one I have attended. As usual there was a good vibe at the festival and an eclectic line-up of musicians from around the globe. Truth to be told I wasn’t going to go this year but am gald I did. There were some  stellar acts including Lisa Haley and the Zydekats from the USA, the Blue Canyon Boys also from the USA, Mamak Khadem from Iran, and the fantastic Warsaw Village Band from Poland. So what persuaded me to get on a plane and travel to Sarawak? Well that would be Paddy Keenan. More on him in the next instalment. Meanwhile, here’s a handful of images of the Zydekats.

One of the highlights of Saturday was Lisa Haley and the Zydekats. The tight band played a rousing blend of Zydeco and Cajun rhythms that whipped the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

Accordion diva and vocalist, Gigi ‘Gee’ Rabe was an energetic performer, singing and jamming with Lisa on the hot and humid evening. Guitarist Chuck Alvarez also added tasty licks to the steamy sound of the Louisiana swamp.

Just a quick reminder that the annual Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak is coming up from July 8 – 10. If you are in the region, this stellar festival is really worth going to.

This year’s line-up is as great as ever, and if the rain holds off it will be another fantastic event. I’m particularly looking forward to it because my old mate Paddy Keenan is playing this year. It’s been a few years since we met – I think the last time was at a festival in Had Yai, south Thailand. Irish music fans with know him as one of the members of The Bothy Band from back in the mid-70s. At the Rainforest he is billed to play as the Paddy Keenan Trio and music lovers can expect a great performance. Check out Paddy’s website  

The Rainforest World Music Festival put Sarawak on the map. From humble beginnings in 1997, when a crowd of 300 dedicated music fans gathered in an idyllic spot at the edge of the jungle, the festival has developed into a truly world class event. It is a showcase for local indigenous music and talented musicians from across the globe who are out of the mainstream; a category that is now loosely termed as ‘world music’.

So, how does this little festival, tucked away in Sarawak compare with others around the world? Greg, a technician from Scotland who has worked as part of the crew at the Rainforest World Music Festival for years spoke to me and it was clear he had few doubts as to the very special nature of the event.

‘It’s the best festival in the world, and I go to a lot of festivals,’ says Greg. ‘It’s not a technical thing because in reality it is a very challenging festival to work on. The equipment certainly isn’t what we are used. However, the setting, the atmosphere, the diversity of music…. I can assure you the bands are all elated at the experience of playing here. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. This is as good as it gets.’

Word has certainly spread about Asia’s greatest music festival and people now fly in from around the region to hear a stunning variety of music. This July, the gem of a festival once again promises a fantastic line-up of stunning musical talent from around the globe. Twenty groups representing 12 countries from all continents will play alongside local groups from Sarawak and West Malaysia. Over 20,000 World Music fans are expected to pass through the gates over a three day period to hear music from a diverse line-up that includes Lisa Hayley and the Zydecats from the USA, Mamak Khadem from Iran, Leweton Women’s Water Music from Vanuatu, Kenge Kenge from Kenya and many more.

 You can see the full line-up at the website here.

 Visit Sarawak Tourism’s site for more details about the country here. 

On Sunday night at the Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak, the Musafir Gypsies of Rajasthan gave a spirited performance punctuated by tight tabla beats and intense flashes of colour from Asha, a beautiful and totally captivating gypsy dancer.  

 Musafir means traveller in Farsi, and the group’s compositions feature Rajasthani rural folk music, along with dance and acrobatics.

The musicians are from the arid Thar Desert area in north-west Rajasthan and are members of the Langa, Manghaniyar, and Sapera groups. Langa traditionally perform for cattle breeders at births, weddings, funerals, and religious holidays. Manghaniyar dances and acrobatics are performed by women or men dressed as women.

The Musafir Gypsies of Rajasthan have become extremely popular at world music festival in the West. Unfortunately the table players were sitting down too far back on the stage to photograph. But even if they were further forward I suspect my camera’s attention would have still been firmly on the enchanting Asha.

A highlight of this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival was the appearance on Saturday night of Leila Negrau. I can’t for the life of me understand why this powerful performer was not given the headline spot that night.

A singer and percussionist, Leila comes from the Reunion Islands, 750 kilometres east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. She has been a performer since the age of 11.

Within her conservative society Leila has always courted controversy and is somewhat an iconoclast, breaking the traditional perception of the woman’s role. She first stirred things up when she became the first woman to play the drum, an instrument that was only played by men.

Irrepressible, outspoken and sensual, Liela’s on-stage presence is extraordinary and she delivers a great show.  

Mount Santubong cuts an impressive sight. Rising in all its chiselled glory from the northern-most tip of Sarawak’s Santubong Peninsular it casts a primeval shadow across the land.  While the lower reaches of the mountain slip seamlessly into the clear saline waters from where it once emerged, the upper bulk, 810 metres of limestone outcrops, intrudes upon an azure sky. As darkness falls the heady nighttime air vibrates to the sounds of…an Iranian muscian blowing into a set of bagpipes made from a goat!

Welcome to the rich diversity of the Rainforest World Music Festival – undoubtedly South East Asia’s premier annual musical event. Now in its 13th year this gem of a festival, which once attracted only a few hundred World Music fans, this year saw several thousand people pass through the gates over the three day period.

Although music lovers traveled from all over the region, the majority came down from Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Backpackers who had accidentally stumbled upon the festival were clearly delighted at the prospect of three days sitting on their arse listening to music.

The setting for the event is nothing short of spectacular. The tree-covered Mount Santubong forms the backdrop to the main stage and the traditional wooden buildings of the Sarawak Cultural Village which hosts the festival serve as venues for afternoon music workshops. These workshops, where musicians from different bands come together for a themed display of virtuoso skills, form an integral part of the relaxed weekend.

This year’s diverse line-up included the spectacular Ensemble Shanbehzadeh directed by Saeid Shanbehzadeh who I had the great pleasure to talk with at the festival. Unable to reside his home country of Iran, Saied and his son, who also plays in the trio, lives in Paris awaiting a better political climate so he can return home.

Other notable acts this year included the marvelous Bisserov Sisters from Bulgaria who performed traditional folk songs and dances from their rich musical tradition. 

The three sisters are dedicated to keeping their musical traditional alive and have spent the last 30 years performing songs taught to them by their mothers and elders.

Reelroad’b from Russia also gave a strong performance of obscure folk songs from northern Russia and Siberia.

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For me, the strongest performance came from the outstanding and totally alluring Leila Negaru, and also the captivating  Musafir Gypsies of Rajasthan both of which can be seen in a forthcoming post. The legendary Farafina from Burkina Faso also stirred up the crowd with African dance and drum beats.

This was my fifth visit to the festival and I fully intend to return next year. A couple of years ago I remember asking  a technician from Scotland who worked as part of the crew at the festival about the very special nature of the event and he said, ‘It’s the best festival in the world, and I go to a lot of festivals. It’s not a technical thing because in reality it is a very challenging festival to work on. The equipment certainly isn’t what we are used. However, the setting, the atmosphere, the diversity of music…. I can assure you the bands are all elated at the experience of playing here. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. This is as good as it gets.’

These days, I’m not sure I would totally agree with the above comment. It is undeniably a superb festival with a unique ambience but over the last few years, since the change of its musical director, has lost some of its magic. The line-ups are certainly more of a mixed bag that they used to be and crowd numbers are declining. Families are also being replaced by an increasingly large contingent of local teenagers who have little genuine interest the music and see it merely as an opportunity to get out and get drunk. As one musician put it to me, ‘you could put any band on stage and they would receive the same response.’ What the festival needs is a major world music artist headlining on each of the three nights but I understand it the budget is currently unavailable.  

With thanks to Sarawak Tourism.

Visit the Rainforest World Music website here.

I’ve just returned from the superb Miri International Jazz Festival in Sarawak. The event is held in the beachfront garden of a hotel and attracts a crowd of around 3,000 jazz lovers.

This year’s festival featured the legendary harmonica player James Cotton who fronted a very tight blues band.

Now in his 70s, Mr. Cotton is looking a little fragile and is barely audible when he speaks…but when he plays the harmonica it’s pure magic. 

Other highlights included Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder. Michael was the original drummer with Santana and, at the tender age of 19, the youngest musician to play at Woodstock. The band’s sound, a cool fusion of rock and jazz, featured the great trumpeter, John Fricke.

Saturday night saw Ricardo Herz from Brazil take to the stage.

The wild haired violinist whipped the crowd up into a frenzy with his exuberant playing that touched on samba, jazz and classical.

I really enjoy the challenge of photographing live gigs. It can be a bit hit and miss with constantly changing lighting and there are lots of images to delete after the show but the handful of satisfying shots make it worth. Of course, it’s always great to be in the photographers pit and to be able to chat with the musicians too.

Last year, at the annual Hua Hin Jazz Festival the organizers invited me to interview the Brit-funk outfit, Shakatak. They were a great bunch of guys and very kindly allowed me to spend the entire gig on stage to photograph them.

Bass player, George Anderson, recently sent me a copy of his debut solo album, Positivity.  

The back cover features an image I took at the festival. He has also used my B&W images on his  newly revamped website.You can order George’s superb album through Amazon.

Just so you can see what a great job the graphic designers have done, here’s the original image.

Other muscians I have photgraphed and had feature articles published about include reggae star, Jimmy Cliff, the superb Touareg band, Tinariwen, jazz guitarists, Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour, guitarist, Steve Lukather, and jazz drummer, Billy Cobham. Next weekend the musical theme continues. I’m flying off to Sarawak to cover the tremendous Miri International Jazz Festival. Highlights of this year’s two-day event include the legendary James Cotton Blues Band, and Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder.

I’ll also be taking a two-day trip up to Limbang and Lawas in northern Sarawak at the invitation of Sarawak Tourism.

Tell your friends you are going to Sarawak for a holiday and the most likely response will be, “where’s that?” In case you don’t know, Sarawak is Malaysia’s largest state on the land mass once commonly known as Borneo, and now divided into Brunei, Indonesia and Sarawak. It offers a diverse range of experiences for adventurous travellers. I look forward to bringing back some great images of the jazz festival and of northern Sarawak’s more remote areas.