Here’s a bit of good news for lovers of quality live music. If you are anywhere in Southeast Asia at the end of March it’ll be well worth making a detour and heading over to Penang in Malaysia.

The Penang World Music Festival returns after a hiatus of three years. It will be held from 30^th March to 1^st April 2012 at the Quarry Garden within the beautiful Botanic Gardens, not far from the heart Georgetown.

When it comes to life music, Malaysia is way ahead of its neighbours, and the return of the Penang World Music Festival is a another welcome addition to the annual events calendar that includes Borneo Jazz in May, the fabulous Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching, Sarawak during July, and the Penang Island Jazz Festival in late November/December.

Huun Huur Tu performing at the Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak a few years ago.

The 3^rd Penang World Music Festival will feature renowned musicians from Malaysia as well as a great line-up of international artists. They’ll be 18 bands in all, performing and conducting workshops, including Maite Hontele from Colombia, Beoga from Ireland, the Tori Ensemble from South Korea, Phong Nguyen Ensemble from Vietnam, Loyko from Russia, and the band I am really looking forward to seeing most of all, Altan Urag from Mongolia. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing several Mongolian and Tuvan bands and am always enthralled by them. I actually discovered the sound years ago through my love of the music of Frank Zappa after seeing a film of him at home having a ‘musicial soiree’ with members of Huun Huur Tu, a band I was lucky enough to interview and see perform a few years back at Rainforest World Music Festival.

You can find out more about the line-up at the 3^rd Penang World Music Festival website. The event is organized by the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism & Culture and the official sponsoring hotel for the event is Hard Rock Hotel.

I really enjoy the challenge of photographing live music and am looking forward to capturing images of the performers. And of course there’ll also be the chance to explore the delightful UNESCO World Heritage town of Georgetown and other attractions in Penang. For flights to Penang from Bangkok and other regional destinations, check-out the no-frills, no service, and plenty of bad attitude, Air Asia or for a little extra enjoy the service and quality of Malaysia Airlines.

Another highlight of the Rainforest World Music Festival this year was the Iranian singer Mamak Khadem. A former member of the cross-cultural fusion ensemble, Axiom of Choice, Mamak is now based in the USA. She continues to draw on her roots in Persian classical music and infuse it with Western musical traditions. The result is an ethereal, haunting sound of  vocals, percussion and Ole Mathisen’s beautiful sax and clarinet playing.

While at the festival I managed to pick up her latest CD, “A Window to Color”, an album she says is inspired by the poetry and paintings of Iranian artist, Sohrab Sepehri. In fact the poems are used throughout the album. It’s a worthwhile purchase.

It may be a vibrant and colourful event but to my eye several of the acts at this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak called for a black and white treatment. One of those was the brilliant Blue Canyon Boys from the USA.

The quartet of talented musicians cooks up an infectious brew of Colorado Bluegrass with driving rhythms and vocal harmonies.

The band features Kentucky native Gary Dark on mandolin and tenor vocals, Jason Hicks on guitar and vocals, Drew Garrett slapping away on bass and contributing baritone vocals with the band, and the hirsute Jeff Scroggins providing lightening licks and picking on banjo.

The band performed on the second stage midway through Friday night but with the energy and crowd pleasing set could have easily worked as the headline act. Certainly the evening’s closer, Frigg from Finland were a big disappointment and upstaged by tremendous Blue Canyon Boys.

You can see more of the Blue Canyon Boys in the Music Gallery.

As I said in my last post, my main reason for going to the Rainforest World Music Festival this year was to meet up with Paddy Keenan. I’ve known Paddy for several years now. We first met up when I was photographing him at a festival and we hit it off immediately. He’s one of the nicest guys you could wish to meet and extraordinarily gifted musician.

A while back we sat down and he told me in depth about his fascinating life and I am planning a feature article on him in the near future. Paddy is without doubt one of the greatest traditional Irish musician alive today. Born into a travelling family, both his father and grandfather were uilleann pipers. Paddy took up the instrument which he describes as ‘one of the hardest in the world to play’, when he was ten and went on to perform with other members of his musical family as The Pavees (pavee is the Irish word for traditional travellers).

Paddy tells me that during the 60s very few people were playing the uilleann pipes and instrument almost died out. The revival of interest can be attributed to Paddy himself. In the 70s, he was a founding member of the Bothy Band who went on to be one of the greatest and most influential Irish bands of all time. The pipes were central to the band’s sound.

Paddy currently lives in the USA but often returns to Ireland to perform, as well as making appearances at festivals around the world.  At the Rainforest World Music Festival, he played in daytime workshops and on stage as The Paddy Keenan Trio with Chris Murphy on bodhrán and James Riley on guitar.

It was a pleasure to hang out with these guys but the kind of experience that made me wish I had picked up an instrument years ago and not a camera.

I look forward to catching up with them again in the near future.

If you are not familiar with Paddy’s music it’s time you were. Check out his solo work, and that of the Bothy Band. If you are in Bristol, New Hampshire, USA, swing by Chris Murphy’s fantastic bar, Kathleen’s Cottage for Irish hospitality, beer, and of course superb live music.

I have just returned from the annual Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak, the 14^th year is has been held and the 6^th one I have attended. As usual there was a good vibe at the festival and an eclectic line-up of musicians from around the globe. Truth to be told I wasn’t going to go this year but am gald I did. There were some  stellar acts including Lisa Haley and the Zydekats from the USA, the Blue Canyon Boys also from the USA, Mamak Khadem from Iran, and the fantastic Warsaw Village Band from Poland. So what persuaded me to get on a plane and travel to Sarawak? Well that would be Paddy Keenan. More on him in the next instalment. Meanwhile, here’s a handful of images of the Zydekats.

One of the highlights of Saturday was Lisa Haley and the Zydekats. The tight band played a rousing blend of Zydeco and Cajun rhythms that whipped the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

Accordion diva and vocalist, Gigi ‘Gee’ Rabe was an energetic performer, singing and jamming with Lisa on the hot and humid evening. Guitarist Chuck Alvarez also added tasty licks to the steamy sound of the Louisiana swamp.