AFROPOP GOES TO WOMEX 2001 IN ROTTERDAM
By Sean Barlow

What happens when you put nearly two thousand world music festival presenters, artist agents, record label reps, print journalists, authors, radio and web and film producers from six continents plus hundreds of artists together in the same city for four days? Lots of music, lots of shop talk, lots of partying, and not much sleep! That's WOMEX, the annual gathering for world music professionals held in Europe. This year's edition was in Rotterdam, Holland, one of the biggest port cities in the world where over half of the residents were born outside of the country.

The Afropop crew at WOMEX 2001 was headed by Banning Eyre and myself. The Danish-based human rights organization, FreeMuse, flew Banning there to present his report on music and censorship in Zimbabwe. (See link to report from Features section on homepage). I manned the Afropop booth, did a presentation on "New Music from Madagascar" and was dragooned into facilitating the North American networking session aptly called "Crossing the Ocean to Meet Your Neighbors". This was a special session devoted to the effects of September 11th on the world music community and what we can do now to improve the situation. More on that later.

A highpoint for many WOMEXers was the performance by the legendary Orchestre Baobab from Dakar Senegal. Their mix of African guitar, Latin percussion, and a rotating crew of four vocalists singing in Wolof, Spanish, French and other languages was sweet. They also mix generations--some veterans from back in the 1970s and 80s and some young recruits. Most of the Baobab veterans have come out of retirement to create new material for a new album (due out in 2002 on World Circuit) and to rehearse their standards for international performance. Several WOMEXers commented they expected a more hard-hitting band sound, but Baobab is still ramping up from retirement and overall, they were warmly received.

World Circuit has re-issued Baobab's "Pirates' Choice" this year in Europe with six previously unreleased tracks. This re-issue shot to the top of the world music charts. Look for that release in the U.S. in 2002 on World Circuit/Nonesuch.

Another first was seeing Issa Bagayogo from Bamako Mali perform live. Issa's groundbreaking electro roots recording work with Bamako based engineer/programmer Yves Wernert had teamed Issa's deep bass voice and kamele n'goni playing with modern dance club sounds. But would it work live? It did! Issa brought an ensemble featuring Moussa Kone on guitar and they were joined by Daniel Thomas from Paris on "programmation." They rocked the house. Watch for a new Issa Bagayogo release in 2002 on Six Degrees.

WOMEX has a tradition of "off-WOMEX" showcases. We saw Rotterdam based Omar Ka and Fula band at a local club packed mostly with locals. Omar is a young, charismatic performer who is inspired by the melodies and rhythms of the nomadic, cattle-tending Fula people who roam the Sahel in West Africa. He combines that with Dakar mbalax and touches of ragga and reggae. A groovin' band. A WOMEX feature was guest appearance with the Fula Band by kora player Prince Diabate from Guinea who's been based in L.A. for several years.

Other highlights that especially impressed me and the WOMEX crowd: Zuco 103, an international ensemble out of Holland; Los de Abajo from Mexico City; Algerian singer-songwriter Saoud Massi; Greek singer and clarinet player Petro-Loukas Chalkias; Abdullah Chhadeh & Nara with special guest Natacha Atlas.

As mentioned previously, an informal North American alliance--over 100 strong--met to discuss the effects of September 11th and to brainstorm things we can do. Quite sobering really, as club bookers told of diminished crowds (a common experience in the live music business this fall), tour organizers wondered out loud if artists from Muslim countries would be accepted or shunned by festival presenters, record label reps talked of more conservative and restricted access to space in retail chains; and heads of non-profit organizations such as myself spoke of critical fall fundraising sidelined by the more immediate disaster relief efforts.

A working group held two follow-up meetings at WOMEX and lots of great ideas emerged for ways to work better together and to rally the people who love world music. What YOU can do is go out and support live music, buy CDs by your favorite new and veteran artists, support the local non-profit concert presenting and media organizations (including your public radio station) that bring you the music. This is a critical time to put your valuable time and money to work supporting the artists and institutions you care about. (Click on "Support Afropop" on the homepage of www.afropop.org to see how you can support afropop.org). Thank you!

The final session of WOMEX was dedicated to the memory of master vocalist Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. We remembered vividly his ecstatic singing in service to his God. Nusrat's qawwali style comes out of the sufi tradition of Islam where one's devotion to God is celebrated with song and dance. And during this WOMEX under the shadow of September 11th terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan, it's powerful to be reminded that, contrary to what some fundamentalists would have us believe, there are many faces of Islam and much beautiful art that has come and continues to come from Islamic countries.