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Songlines Music Awards 2013
Winners’ Concert
Angélique Kidjo
Lo’Jo
Dub Colossus Dub Band
and Mokoomba
Fri 13 Dec 7.30pm

Songlines Music Awards 2013
Winners’ Concert
Featuring Angélique Kidjo,
Lo’Jo, Dub Colossus Dub
Band and Mokoomba
Presenter Simon Broughton
Songlines magazine Editor-in-Chief
Angélique Kidjo
Angélique Kidjo vocals
Thierry Vaton piano, keyboard
and musical director
The Mike King Collective vocals
Lo’Jo
Denis Péan voice, keys, harmonium, melodica
Yamina Nid El Mourid voice, percussion
Nadia Nid El Mourid voice, percussion
Richard Bourreau violin
Baptiste Brondy drums, percussion
Nicolas Meslien bass
Dub Colossus Dub Band
Nick Page guitar
Paul Chivers percussion/samples
Nick Van Gelder drums
Toby Mills percussion /dub FX
Derek Chai bass
Ben Somers sax
Neil Waters trumpet
Bob Dowell trombone
Julie Higgins vocals
Mykaell Riley vocals
Mokoomba
Mathias Muzaza lead vocal
Ndaba Coster Moyo drums, vocals
Miti Mugande percussions, vocals
Trustworth Samende guitar, vocals
Donald Moyo keyboards, vocals
Abundance Mutori bass, vocals
There will be one interval in this concert
Mokoomba will perform a post show set
on the ClubStage
Six hundred albums. A shortlist of sixteen.
Four winners, each present and accounted
for. Welcome, then, to the winners’ concert
of the fifth annual Songlines Music
Awards – a celebration of the best music
from around the world brought to you
by Songlines, the UK-based world music
magazine staffed by those that know.
Lo’Jo – Best Group
The French collective Lo’Jo have been together
for nearly three decades, making music that
embraces everything from the sung poetry
of their lead singer Denis Péan to chanson,
rock and reggae; African, Arabic and
Gypsy music and all points in between.
‘I pictured it as a banquet you could invite
people to,’ says Péan, who co-founded the
band with his violinist/kora playing friend
Richard Bourreau, with whom he shared a
love of John Coltrane, Leo Ferre and British
punk. With a Fellini-esque cabaret vibe
nurtured by a world tour with a local streettheatre
collective, the band based themselves
in a former farmhouse in Angers, and have
been cooking up a storm ever since.
Currently a six-piece, Lo’Jo have kept their
ingredients fresh thanks to a peripatetic
touring schedule and a restless curiosity that
has seen them add instruments including the
Chinese spike fiddle and the Malian ngoni
lute to their line-up. There have been many
excellent recordings over the years but it’s
Cinema del Mundo – their current, lucky 13th
album – that’s had people double-taking.
Featuring such special guests as Robert Wyatt
and Ibrahim Ag Alhabib from Tinariwen, along
with the hard-hitting harmonies of Algerian/
Moroccan sisters Nadia and Yamina Nid El
Mourid, it’s a work in which in Péan’s words,
‘sounds were harvested in their moment
of grace.’ Just as they will be tonight.
Mokoomba – Newcomer
This year everyone is talking about Mokoomba,
a funky six-piece made up of friends from
Victoria Falls in the north of Zimbabwe, all of
who come from the country’s tiny Tonga minority
– which has its own distinct musical styles.
After bursting onto the scene in 2012 with
Rising Tide, a debut album that blends
local rhythms with global influences like
funk and rap, Mokoomba proved their

worth with energetic live shows everywhere
from Russia to Morocco to Europe.
Frontman Mathias Muzaza sings in a voice
both keening and edgy, and with guitarist/
singer Trustworth Samende writes most of
the band’s songs. Message-driven lyrics
variously ask for guidance from ancestors,
encourage young people to heed the advice of
elders, and examine the conflicting emotions
surrounding moving from the country to the city.
Mokoomba’s overseas success has raised
their profile in Zimbabwe, a country where
music piracy is rampant, internet access
is limited – as is free speech – and music
promoters are unwilling to take risks.
‘Our goal is to open the world to the
cultural and musical diversity that exists in
Zimbabwe by sharing and promoting the
music and story of the Tonga people,’ says
bassist Abundance Mutori. ‘We want to show
the world a different face of Zimbabwe:
positive, optimistic, full of joy and promise.’
Angélique Kidjo – Best Artist
Angélique Kidjo is one of the greatest forces
in African music. A singer, composer and
activist born in Cotonou, Benin, the diminutive
artist sings in a voice as playful and jazzy as
it is powerful and commanding. Spirit Rising,
her first-ever live album, captures her onstage
ebullience: covers of classics such as ‘Move On
Up’ and ‘Gimme Shelter’ – the most rousing,
Afro-stomping version ever – demand repeated
listening. Signature tunes including ‘Afrika’ and
‘Agolo’ come reinvigorated by her band of
crack musicians, and by those stellar vocals.
The young Kidjo found inspiration in the
example set by South African icon Miriam
Makeba, the late ‘Mama Africa’ – whose
mantle she has assumed with trademark
humility. ‘Miriam Makeba was the Africa role
model I needed,’ says Kidjo, whose career
took off in 1991 with Logozo, her first album for
Island Records. Since then she’s won a Grammy,
become a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF
and co-founded the Batonga Foundation for
girls’ education in Africa. She continues to
express her passionate beliefs through songs
that mix traditional African styles with western
elements. Tonight she presents classics from her
repertoire in an intimate setup, accompanied
by pianist Thierry Vaton and a small choir.
Dub Colossus Dub Band –
Cross Cultural Collaboration
In the years since their stunning 2008 debut,
A Town Called Addis, Dub Colossus have
established themselves as a force to be
reckoned with. Intensive touring has refined
their unique fusion of Ethiopian pop, jazz
and traditional styles with heady dub bass
and reggae beats; their sophomore album
Addis Through the Looking Glass got them
a Songlines Music Awards nomination last
year. Now here they are, triumphant.
Current album Dub Me Tender Vol + 2 sees
main man Nick Page – aka the bass-wielding
Dubulah – giving his dub and reggae
leanings free rein, reimagining the group’s
finest moments with help from singer Mykaell
Riley (Steel Pulse/Reggae Philharmonic). It’s
a recording that reinforces Dub Colossus’
original aim: to combine the golden years
of Ethiopian beats with the roots reggae
styles of such ‘70s Jamaican legends as
the Abyssinians and Mighty Diamonds. To
take reggae back to its Rastafari roots.
So hold onto your arm rests as this mighty
collective – here in the flip side of the Ethiopian/
UK/Jamaican Dub Colossus concept, Dub
Colossus Dub Band, featuring an all UK lineup –
bring a real-time dub experience to London.
Programme notes © Jane Cornwell
Produced by the Barbican in
association with Songlines
Voting in the Songlines Music Awards 2014
is now open and all voters will automatically be
entered into a prize draw to win one of three
pairs of tickets to WOMAD Charlton Park 2014.
For more details visit songlinesmusicawards.com
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Barbican-Music

Thu 27 Feb
Egberto Gismonti
+ Ralph Towner
The Brazillian piano and guitar
virtuoso brings his exuberant
rhythms and heart-stopping
melodies to London
‘A tour de force’
★★★★ Guardian
Thu 20 Mar, Union Chapel
Bassekou Kouyate
& Ngoni ba
Mali’s ngoni virtuoso presents his
latest album, Jama ko
★★★★★ Songlines
barbican.org.uk
£10 OFFER
Three-issue trial subscription to Songlines
PLUS the Songlines Music Awards 2013 CD
Only available tonight from the Songlines stands
on level -1 (opposite Door 2) and the ground floor level
w w w.facebook.com/songlines
@SonglinesMag
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