Just spent the weekend in Nijmegen for the Music Meeting - a pretty terrific world music festival. A sunny weekend in a large park surrounded by trees, dotted with huge performance tents, food stalls, and lots and lots and lots of incredible music meant that a good time was had by all, and I’m back at work exhausted but my ears are still ringing with all that distilled joy.
I’m not just tantalizing you by the description - you can get a taste of this music if you click on to the the RNW world music programme called Hear the World - and if you think the host of the show sounds familiar, you’d be right - its me wearing my presenter’s hat.
I took the girlies aged 9 and 7 and both of them were enchanted by the Cuban drummers, the South African acapella group Mahotella Queens (I called them the rocking grandmas - average age 68, but they can shake their booty better than most), Turkish whirling dervish, Klesmer clarinet virtuoso and the king of the show, Hugh Masekela, South African trumpeter, singer, band leader, activist who showed such charm and charisma on stage that 2000 people would have followed him out of that tent and into the wilderness if he’d crooked a finger.
It occurred to me how lucky we are to live in such a world when we can have this kind of opportunity to see music from parts of the world we may never get to - to see a Tibetan singer performing with a Congolese drummer and people like Roberto Fonseca who can pound a Steinway to within an inch of its life and still produce a sound so tender that tendrils of sound travel from the ears directly to the heartstrings.
I think my kids will remember this day - we all need to do things like this with our children - show them aspects of this wonderful round world that just makes you glad to be alive.
