Music / Previews
World Music picks of the month: May 2015
Hey – how’s your appetite? World music fans would do well to keep an eye on the Eat Drink Bristol Fashion tipi complex in Queen Square (Friday 1 to Sunday 10) as there’s a heap of global treats on offer alongside the exotic cuisine. Highlights include Nubiyan Twist’s Ethiopian reggae fusion (Saturday 2), electroklezmer pyrotechnics from Tantz (Sunday 3), solid Afrobeat from No Go Stop (Thursday 7) and the inimitable (and too rarely seen nowadays) Balkan antics of Sheelanagig but there’s much, much more.
Further mid-European party grooves can be found when Aussie-Yankee collaboration Underscore Orkestra come to Canteen (Thursday 21) and No 1 Harbourside hosts Manushka’s dubbed up Balkan ska (Friday 8) but for proper reggae grooves this month your best bet is either the O2 Academy (Thursday 14) when old time lovers rockers Marcia Griffiths and Bob Andy headline a showcase gig or The Tunnels (Saturday 23) when the mighty Misty In Roots deliver classic conscious roots reggae.
African music fans disappointed by the cancellation (again) of the Heliocentrics visit should be more than consoled by a double-bill at Colston Hall (Saturday 30) of Syrian dance music star Omar Suleiman and the great Malian desert blues band Tinawiren, appearing as part of the Hall’s excitingly eclectic Lau Land weekender. In a month that also sees Fela’s son Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 bring their authentically rooted Afrobeat to The Lantern (Friday 8) as well as a Canteen appearance by the ambitious Afro-jazz of Vula Viel (Wednesday 6) there’s no real grounds for complaint, plus it’s great to hear that Seun’s brother Femi Kuti is coming to the Lantern on July 15 with his Positive Force band (and there’s a deal on tickets if you go to both gigs). Cameroonian percussionist and bandleader Alphonse ‘Helele’ Touna launches his new Afro-Latin percussion ensemble Rhythmo at the Southbank Centre on Thursday 14 at benefit gig for education projects in West Africa.
And, finally, on Sunday 17 St George’s will be offering the Kala Chethena Kathakali Company from Kerala, India, with their staging of the 500-year old story Hima Sundari – a splendidly colourful combination of dance, drama and music from the Indian tradition with an introductory workshop beforehand.
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