March 11, 2004.
Text and photographs by Banning Eyre

The third annual BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music ceremony went down in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 9 with razzle-dazzle, fanfare, and high spirits. There were also a number of exciting, if tantalizingly brief, performances by some of the winners. Edinburgh turns out to be one partying town. Unlike in London, pubs here do not have to close at 11:00 PM, so at the edge of the North Sea, in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, these folks really know how to let it rip after hours. Add to the Edinburgh mix some 25,000 Spanish students who have congregated in this city in recent years, and things really start to get lively as Europe's nordic and Mediterranean spirits come together in glorious synergy. That spirit greeted those from all over the world who gathered for this year's ceremony.

One native, Toby "El Lion" Shippey of the local band Salsa Celtica reports that his band really doesn't have to travel given the local vibe in Edinburgh. "We could play seven nights a week here until 4:00 AM," he said, "and wake up in our own beds. Who needs to tour?" All this helps to explain why the sell-out house at Usher Hall in downtown Edinburgh went absolutely wild for all the music in the awards ceremony, from gentle Uzbekistan folk, to high-minded Iraqi classical pop, to full-out Senegalese rap. And the winners were:

Africa - Daara J (Senegal)
The Americas - Ibrahim Ferrer (Cuba)
Asia/Pacific - Sevara Nazarkhan (Uzbekistan)
Europe - Ojos De Brujo (Spain)
Middle East - Kazem Al Sahir (Iraq)
Boundary Crossing - Think Of One (Belgium)
Newcomers - Warsaw Village Band (Poland)
Critics' Award - Rokia Traore (Mali)
Audience Award - Kazem Al Sahir (Iraq)

Think of One started out as a brass-driven, folk-punk band in Belgium and seemed rather stunned to have reached such a height so soon. Playing in the remodeled wagon of their vintage, East German van parked in the street outside Usher Hall, the group welcomed the public as they arrived on a clear, chilly evening. Once the hall was full, the ceremony moved at a brisk pace. Two host presenters--including Jamaican born Benhamin Zaphaniah in dreadlocks and a kilt--introduced the nominees in each category, and each nominee was seen and heard briefly in a video clip. Guest presenters were called upon to actually hand out the award statuettes, which consisted of an intriguing globe-within-a-heart figure designed by a student at the Edinburgh College of Arts especially for this year's ceremony.

All of the winners, except for Warsaw Village Band and Ibrahim Ferrer, who was stricken with flu and ordered by his doctor not to travel, played a roughly 15-minute set. Rokia Traore of Mali kicked things off with a low-key but beautiful set highlighting her two ngoni players intertwined lines, and on the last song, deep, cycling riffs from played on the balafon of Kenedougou, and of course, her clear, sweet voice. With Ferrer's absence, the audience saw a beautiful four-minute film--Buena Vista Social Club redux--about Ferrer in Cuba in place of a performance. It featured a terrific clip of Ferrer singing on Cuban television in the 1950s. Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos Gonzalez received the award in Ferrer's place.

Of all the actual performances, the musical highlight may well have been a spontaneous collaboration between Daara J--Senegal's most successful hip hop act--and Rokia Traore. Rokia sang on two tracks from the album that led to Daara J's award, Boomerang, and they got together the day before the ceremony to polish up something new for the Edinburgh crowd. While Daara J's three singer/rappers cavorted about the large, beautifully lit stage, chanting and harmonizing all the while, Traore stood mostly still, threading a strong vocal line through their sound mix. The male-female, yin-yang, ancient-modern thing was definitely happening, and the crowd loved it.

The most enthusiastic crowd response may have gone to Iraq's Kazem Al Sahir. Al Sahir performed two pieces, the first backed by a small, London-based Arab music trio headed by an exceptionally talented kanun player from Syria, Abdullah Chhadeh. His second selection, "Baghdad," is a slow-building, passionate love song to a city Al Sahir has not seen in 8 years, and it's a huge hit throughout the Middle East. This performance built oaround an understated remix of the song by Transglobal Underground, and incorporated Chhadeh and his ensemble. Long before the song's shattering crescendo, Arab attendees in the audience were shouting and, if they could manage it, throwing flowers and notes to the stage. By the end, the whole crowd erupted both at the exceptional power of Al Sahir's voice and perhaps also at the stunning contrast between his gentle presence and the brutal images that have emanated from his country in recent years.

Uzbekistan's Sevara Nazarkhan played a haunting set with her three musicians before receiving her award. Some readers may recall that I was able to attend this event only because I won the critics' raffle. Well, the BBC put me to work presenting Sevara with her award. As little as I know about Uzbek music, I had a most enjoyable visit with this charming young singer earlier in the day and managed to sound more or less credible. Sevara even gave me a lesson on her 2-string dotar, and encouraged me to consider Tashkent as the location of a future musical expedition… Afropop does Central Asia? We'll see.

The night ended with an incendiary, 30-minute set from Ojos de Brujo (Eyes of the Wizzard), a progressive, genre-bending, flamenco-based group from Spain. There was enough octane in that set to fire the gathered of Edinburgh into a long night of raising beer mugs, and based on what went on at the BBC after party, that's probably exactly what many of them did.

For this American observer, the BBC's annual gala celebration of world music is impressive. While our own Grammy Awards shoehorn most of the world into a mere two awards that don't even get announced during the televised ceremonies, and few outside the world music community even notice, this spectacular event will be broadcast on various radio programs and shown in its entirety on national television. It truly does serve the purpose of introducing mass audiences to the surprising pleasures of world music. One may quibble with the process or the choices, but it's hard to argue with that result. Hats off to the BBC for its commitment to promoting international music! Here are a few photos of the goings on this year in Edinburgh…





























































































































Contributed by: Banning Eyre