A year ago, the festival Jazz Britannia was such a success that the Barbican along with BBC Four are bringing to us this year, a 3 day festival which celebrates the evolution of British folk music from the end of the Second World War right up to its modern day revival. From the 2nd to 4th February ‘06, the Barbican holds a series of live events encompassing three themed concerts, free music, films and talks. Tying in with the event is BBC Four’s very special three-part documentary series of the same title that engages with the disparate and sometimes argumentative elements of the contemporary folk scene.

To kick off on Thursday 2nd February, Which Side Are You On? is a night that features two of the biggest names in folk music of the British Isles and will be hosted by the force that is, Billy Bragg. The monumental Scottish firebrand singer-songwriter Dick Gaughan, will take to the Barbican Hall stage alongside Martin Carthy, a mainstay of the English folk scene.

Daughters of Albion on Friday 3rd February brings together some of England’s finest female folk artists and singer-songwriters in a themed concert to sing songs of experience. The set list places ancient folk ballads alongside West Country trip hop and 21st Century R’n’B. All performances will be accompanied by an ensemble featuring ex-Pogue and master multi-instrumentalist David Coulter, guitarist Neil MacColl and Van Morrison’s drummer Liam Bradley, all arranged by MD Kate St John. Artists include June Tabor, Sheila Chandra and Norma Waterson.

The final night, Into The Mystic celebrates the current resurgence of interest in the psychedelic, mystical, neo-folk of the late 1960s and early 1070s. It explores how this renewed interest has been reflected on a new generation of artists today. It will feature artists from pioneer bands such as Pentangle, The Incredible String Band, Donovan and Vashti Bunyan.

Meanwhile, the BBC 4 series will be divided into three one hour episodes which chronicles how the music was coerced into a revolutionary soundtrack by the Left in the 50s, how the hippie generation bent it into progressive folk-rock in the 60s and 70s only for punks like The Pogues and Billy Bragg to bring things back to basics in the 80s and 90s. The story of folk will be told by a stellar cast of musicians, live performances and archive footage and the debates that arise in its argumentative world will be discussed.

www.barbican.org.uk/music

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The Live8 concert in July this year, in London’s Hyde Park was set up to raise awareness about the Black continent issues, but before the first guitar riffs, the gig highlighted one single home truth: Africans should do it for themselves! The lack of performers from Africa in the initial line-up raised eyebrows on every side of the argument.

Cue Ligali, an east London organisation whose role is to monitor the media, act as complaint body, be active in the educational field and raise awareness on the issues that plague black communities up and down the country: gun crime, rebellion against authority, stop and search…On the same day, a day of African remembrance was staged at the Hackney Town Hall and the day-long event put together by Ligali is a “positive day to remember the struggle against slavery, our ancestors and their sacrifice in what is widely considered as an holocaust,”‘ according to Emma Pierre-Joseph, spokesperson for the organisation. She also told CEN Magazine that it is “a forward-looking day to provide a platform of reflection for the whole community and its future.”

The centrepiece of the event is the screening of a newly released DVD on the African slavery trade, the shameful human trade officially abolished in 1772 in the UK and its empire. Liverpool was the unofficial capital of the slave trade with more than 10 millions souls from the continent‘s west coast (Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal) transiting there, on their way to build the new continent, America. Other towns throughout Europe, shared that infamous tag Bordeaux, Nantes, Bristol in France, Lisbon in Portugal, Barcelona in Spain and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Winner already of the best documentary prize at the Pan-African film festival and Bridgetown film festival and with testimonies ranging among others, from Dr M. Karenga, Amira Baraka, Desmond Tutu, Dr Helena Woodward, Shaykh Muhammad Shareef and Trevor Marshall. The film, is a compelling compilation of testimonies, voices and opinions gathered around five continents and more than 20 countries on the subject. “‘We went to universities as well as into the neighbourhoods to talk to the common folk,” says Asante Jr, the talented scriptwriter and poet, who was a first year media graduate at the time when he started working on the project.

HIV/AIDS, crime, drugs, low expectation, and underdevelopment plague most people of African origin throughout the world. 500 years later, after slavery, colonialism, the cold war and subsequent neo-colonialism, daughters and sons of the continent are still suffering and cannot enjoy basic freedom or wealth. Told from the continent vantage-point, the film scrutinises the holocaust and subsequent uprooting of Africans from their homeland and culture. In the words of producer-director, Owen ‘Alik’ Shahadah, “500 Years Later chronicles the struggle of a people who have fought and continue to fight for the most essential human right: Freedom.”

Owen used to produce a stylish work of art and set up a website www.500yearslater.com to foster and further the debate, knowing that the film has already garnered interest from education bodies throughout the world, willing to use it as a teaching method.

That might be exactly what African communities in the UK need, as reveals Asher D, the rapper and member of the So Solid Crew collective in his subsequent Channel 4 documentary aired in November 2004, surfing on the same subject, but neighbouring issue of the ‘N word’ (nigger/ nigga).

“It’s definitely an issue that people of my generation don’t know enough about black history and that’s a point I raise throughout the programme.” He finishes with “when it comes to the teaching of black history, there is none” and for the first time, our rulers seem to agree with him, as Liverpool’s Riverside Labour MP Louise Ellman called for the Blair-Brown government to introduce teaching slave trade history in British schools and asked for a national day of remembrance. 117 MPs across the chamber joined her and settled for the debate to take place in the commons, during Black History month in October this year. However, on the question of responsibility, which could trigger lawsuits and potential reparations, the government washed its hands of the problem, stating that it “cannot take responsibility for what happened over 170 years ago” even if it recognizes that “the slave trade is one of the worst examples of man’s inhumanity to man” and added that it wasn’t an unlawful act at the time the British government condoned it. 500 Years Later the film’s sequel will be released in 2006, focusing on AIDS/HIV, the colonisation of the African continent, neo-colonisation, the ill-effects of globalisation with a chapter on Bretton-Woods institutions like the World Bank and the IMF.

The film has an obvious quality, for its combination of thoughtful photography signed by the director Owen, retrospective voices and using a multi-media platform to get its point across, which could see him becoming a benchmark in filmmaking history. Although filed with facts, it relies on a gripping narrative infused by the flavour and a soundtrack for poetical freedom and liberation. Showing the chains that tied their ancestors and contemporaries, it also offers a serious path outside of the plantations.

Scriptwriter, Asante Jr is a poet master with an interesting ability to transfer its art from the written/spoken word to the screen and his influence transpires throughout 500 years later. “To have people be so receptive and come up to us crying and embrace us after seeing the film is just amazing,” reveals Asante Jr. “We worked on the project for two and half years, and you just don’t know if people are going to like it; you are just going on passion and what you think is right.”

Right he surely was.

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If I told you of an artist whose albums have outsold Elvis, The Beatles and all of the Jackson clan added together, I wonder how you might respond?

Well, the artist in question is A. R. Rahman, dubbed “the Mozart of Madras”, whose tunes have mesmerised music lovers the world over. Having first made his name with numerous hit Bollywood soundtracks, he has since composed the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Bombay Dreams. His next musical offering, the stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy, will open in Toronto later this year and, at a cool £10 million, it is the most expensive musical ever.

The good news for London though, is that, in July ’05, A.R. is embarking on his first live UK tour. Expect magical musical soundscapes, stunning visuals and, for the first time in concert history, experience it all in 3D. The publicity release explains it like this: “…the audience will receive 3D glasses to transport them into a magical galaxy, where they will be able to ‘virtually’ reach out to their favourite stars…” Apart from A.R., the concert will feature the very best classically trained, Bollywood playback singers, all of whom are popular artists in their own right. These include Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan and Sadhna Sargam, to name but a few.

However, life has not always been so kind and, A.R.’s own meteoric rise to fame is itself the stuff of “Bombay Dreams”. Born in Chennai, India, A.R.’s earliest memories are of long periods spent sitting by his father’s hospital bedside – something he assumed that all children did. Following his father’s untimely death, A.R., aged just nine, felt the mantle of responsibility for his family pass onto his young shoulders. Aged eleven, he left home to become a touring musician, working with many eminent names, including the table maestro, Zakir Hussein. In time, the young Rahman earned a scholarship at Oxford University’s Trinity College, where he studied Western Classical Music. On returning to India he set up his studio, Panchathan Record Inn (now one of India’s most technologically advanced recording studios, housing one of the biggest and most comprehensive sonic libraries).

His big break, however, came in the form of maverick film director, Mani Ratnam, who offered A.R., then 26, the role of Music Director on his 1992 film Roja. The gamble was worth it, as the Roja soundtrack revolutionised the sound of Indian film music and went on to win every music award imaginable, including Best Music Director for A.R. Rahman, at the National Film Awards.
Since Roja, A.R. has provided the scores for most of Bollywood’s biggest blockbusters, including the Oscar-nominated Lagaan. His skills are in demand the world over and in 2003 he provided the score for the Chinese martial arts film Warriors of Heaven and Earth.

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The album is regarded as one of the most anticipated recordings of recent times, which Nicola recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. The recording was conducted by 29 year old Daniel Harding, who was recently appointed Principal Guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

It has been a momentous year for the 17 year old violinist, since her triumph in the BBC Young Musician competition, debuting with some of the world’s most respected orchestras, playing for HM the Queen at the opening of the Scottish Parliament and then signing a six album deal with Universal Music.

The album features a selection of Concerti and violin repertoire, including the sophisticated Szymanowski Concerto No 1, which Nicola brought to the public’s attention last year. The recording will also feature a new Sir John Tavener work, entitled ‘Fragment for the Virgin’ that was especially written for Nicola. The album also features a special backing track of the Mèditation from Thais by Massenet which will give Nicola’s listeners the opportunity to play accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Nicola is playing at the Barbican
30 July at 7.30pm
Box office 0845 120 7500

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How ironic then that, as we gorge on a culinary assortment of creative drama, music and art for AFRICA 05 this year, we are reminded that the Gleneagles G8 political summit in July in Scotland is set to highlight pressing topics of man-made proportions such as poverty and trade justice issues, especially on the African continent.

In the back of our minds we are all wondering what our politicians will do to bring about improvement in these stricken areas.

For the moment celebrity power seems to have the edge and is welcomed as events such as the LIVE 8 concerts and the extraordinary one day mini festival FLIGHT 5065, just taken place on the London Eye, bring about the awareness of unnecessary hardships through the expression of diverse influential art forms.

Created by Cafédirect, a fair-trade organisation set up by charities to directly benefit coffee, tea and cocoa farmers and their communities, Flight 5065 hoped, on our summer’s solstice, to raise the profile of fair trade issues and bring them towards the mainstream as part of the Make Poverty History campaign. It was also designed to celebrate Africa in the fortnight immediately before the crucial G8 summit.

This is the first time ever that the London Eye has been used for a live arts festival and was sold out well in advance of it’s opening. 2000 ticket holders swarmed into the 32 capsules on the revolving monolithic wheel over a three half hour cycle period, to be entertained by over 135 artists performing specially commissioned pieces of drama, music and comedy whilst soaring over the London skyline.

Theatre highlights included contributions from the National and Royal Court Theatres; the latter producing up to 27 one-minute plays, from leading dramatists such as Roy Williams, Joe Penhall, Simon Stephens, Anthony Neilson and Tanika Gupta.

The world of music was represented by Blur’s Damon Albarn who’ll be curating new African music with his Honest Jon label, as well as Beth Orton, Turin Brakes and hip-hop artist, Jonzi D; while Arthur Smith and new political comics Andy Zaltsman and John Oliver added their own inimitable style of humour.

British celebrities Colin Macfarlane, Junior Simpson, Jo Brand, Jonzi D and established companies The National and Royal Court Theatres including a host of African talent with artists representing Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone took off on Flight 5065 to a rapturous response. Segun Lee-French, a Manchester based writer and performance poet, once given the challenge, wrote a 25-minute satirical critique based on colonial reversal. What if Africa had colonised England? A witty and thought-provoking offering of alternative perception and dimension was the result.

Called Ayo and Ade’s Big London Safari, it charts the moment when Ayo, the new Governor of London comes from Nigeria and is escorted on one of the ‘safest’ safari rides in the capital of Blankland by an influential business official, Ade.

Hoping to edify and impress his governor for the purpose of securing lucrative business deals, Ade takes Ayo, who as a child had always dreamt of seeing Blankland, aboard the London Eye to show him the extent of his new governance.

Naïve in his ideals, Ayo hopes to empower the ‘natives’ of this land with a bit more self-sufficiency, until an encounter in the capsule with a Blanklander renegade, Fred, a ‘disobedient breed’ of savage, refuses to be treated as a ‘colourful’ subservient when Ayo attempts to take his picture for the album. This sparks a conflict of interest between Ayo and Ade after Ade unexpectedly recognises Fred as his fugitive and fraudulent ex-office clerk and wants immediate recompense. The affect of this volatile exchange makes Ayo see that his reforms will not be ideally realised if he is to maintain any sense of supremacy over this particular colony.

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