For all the headliners at Bluesfest at Byron Bay, it's the surprises, the acts you've never heard of, that make it a world-class music festival.
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Among the unknowns taking stage at Bluesfest in 2020 is Joachim Cooder. The 41-year-old percussionist and keyboardist has been playing in father Ry Cooder's band since he was a teenager. He was introduced to the drums as a child by legendary drummer Jim Keltner.
That spectacular position in life has seen him play with everyone from Johnny Cash to the Buena Vista Social Club, claiming a Grammy along the way.
Although he released a collaborative album in 2012, Love On A Real Train, which included his wife, performer Juliette Commagere, it's only in the last couple of years he's truly found his voice. In 2017 he released an album of original music, Fuchsia Macchu Picchu. And next year he will publish an album that reinterprets the music of old-time American country music legend Uncle Dave Macon.
Ry Cooder, considered by many as one of the greatest living slide guitar players, dabbled with the banjo as a young man (he played in a trio with Bill Monroe and Doc Watson, with Monroe supposedly telling him "son, you're just not ready"). But Ry Cooder never stopped playing it.
"When I grew up, I would listen to him playing old time banjo music," Joachim says. "Now, he plays it to my daughter [Paloma]."
It doesn't seem unusual in a family full of music that Joachim would drift toward an instrument that offers a new interpretation of the banjo, learning to play the mbira. Invented in Africa, it has a wooden board with attached staggered metal tines. He now plays an Array mbira, created in California in the 1960s, with a distinct harp-like sound.
It was the invention of an electric solid body Array mbira that changed Joachim's approach to his own music.
"I've had the acoustic version for 20 years," he says. "I played on records, film scores, around the house. It's wonderful. A soothing thing to do.
Then Joachim learned that Array was making an electric version. "I'm able to take it, plug it into an old guitar amp," he says. "It enabled me to turn it into a show. You can't mic the acoustic one - there's too much feedback. So when I plug it in, I get a huge sound. It's very effective in a PA system. It put me on path to singing songs."
In a life exposed to so much music, Joachim's discovery of Uncle Dave Macon's treasured songs opened his mind.
"I located these very American songs, in a different place. They are sort of obscure, abstract. I fell in love with Uncle Dave songs. They are really pretty. I slow them down. I changed the words a little - he sings of biscuits, and food. That doesn't resonate. I took bits of my daughter's life, little moments that stuck with me. Snapshots of our lives."
The result: new life into old music. His album of Uncle Dave Macon songs is due in 2020.
Top jazz and new world musos Sam Gendel and Amir Yaghmai with play with Joachim at Bluesfest.