Jazz-reggae in Womad line-up

The line-up for next month's Womad festival in Taranaki just got a whole lot stronger with the addition of popular Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin, one of the stars of the '99 Womad festival in Aotea Square.

Playing music at the intersection of jazz and reggae, Ranglin has been a pioneer since the mid 1950s when he was one of the prime movers behind Jamaican ska, a choppy rhythmic sound which predated reggae.

Ranglin recorded Bob Marley, produced and played on Millie Small's ska hit My Boy Lollipop in '64, then moved to London, where he had a nine-month residency in Ronnie Scott's famous jazz club. Although he became known as a jazz player, by the late 70s he was back on the road with reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff.

In the past decade Ranglin, often in the company of Jamaican-born jazz pianist Monty Alexander, has played jazz-reggae - sometimes using Bob Marley tunes as the stepping-off point - and worked with Senegalese and Nigerian musicians.

A modest man with an impressive musical biography, Ranglin and his band will bring the warm excitement of jazz-reggae to the bandstand.

A group which, like Ranglin, has created its own musical style out of an amalgam of others is Los de Abajo.

Formed in the musical melting pot of Mexico City, this fiery eight-piece is grounded in traditional Mexican and South American styles, but its members grew up with a love of ska, punk rock, reggae and rap.

They also have a leftist political agenda and are supporters of the Zapatista movement in Mexico's Chiapas province.

Lyrically they rail against corrupt politicians, the abuse of human rights and dignity of working people. All in Spanish, of course.

They are like the Clash, with an injection of Tex-Mex rock and traditional musics, and within the space of a song can shift effortlessly from punk to rap and traditional Mexican son music.

They impressed former Talking Head David Byrne, who has signed them to a five-album record deal on his Luaka Bop label. Their current album is Cybertropic Chilango Power. The word "Cybertropic" is their invention to describe their mix of electronic and tropical sounds; "Chilango" is the derogatory slang term for an inhabitant of Mexico City and is associated with laziness and deceitfulness, but they have reclaimed it as a word of pride.

Los de Abajo - meaning "those from below" - bring a lot to a stage in terms of music, history and politics. And they offer plenty of reasons to pogo.

* Womad Festival at Brooklands Park and TSB Bowl, New Plymouth, March 14-16.