New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Wawu - a Yalanji word encompassing the concepts of spirit, heart, love and connections between people, land, past, present and future - tells the story of four generations of women from one family: Deline, her daughter Jadamali (JAH - DAH - MAH - LEE), her Mother and her Mother's mother - Ngadijina (NGA - DEE - JI - NAH).
Sung in Yalanji language as well as English, the songs extend a gentle call to people struggling in life; an acknowledgement of their pain, and a tender reassurance that can only come from women who have risen, triumphant, from the darkest of times.
While the songs speak of the older women's journeys through the trauma of separation from their families and of her own experience with abusive relationships, the mood of the album is compassionate and redemptive. In both subject and style, the album's acoustic soul/hip-hop/jazz fusions draw parallels with Lauryn Hill's groundbreaking The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Deline's extraordinary jazz-infused vocals are enriched by all-acoustic instruments brilliantly played by Airileke Ingram (drums), Robbie
Finch (double bass), Stephen
Maxwell (piano), Paul Coyle (trumpet) and Phil Bywater (clarinet/saxophone) as the core band.
Special guests include ARIA award-winning jazz pianist/composer Andrea Keller, with whom Deline co-wrote the exquisite Sonrise. Ignorance Is Bliss, written by Tiddas (Lou Bennett, Amy Saunders and Sally Dastey), is given a contemporary re-working and features the reunited Tiddas on harmony vocals. Deline's 12-year-old daughter, Jade'Amali Leuga, lends her assured spoken-word vocals to In The Night. Sister songstresses from the Mission Songs Project,
Jessie Lloyd, Jess Hitchcock and Emma Donovan, harmonise throughout.
In Ngadijina, a spoken-word piece, Deline recites her Nanna's memories of being witness to her family taken by the police in the era of the first stolen generation. (quoted verbatim from her Nanna's interview for the Bringing Them Home report), while the ethereal Tree (co-written by Deline and Bart Willoughby, based on a poem and lyrics by
Kevin Gilbert), is a hymn to creation and nature.
Wawu is the realisation of Deline's creative vision, nurtured over the last 20 years. Her concerts capture the imaginations, hearts and ears of audiences—her album and show is heralded as a spiritual experience as much as a musical journey.
Deline Briscoe is a unique artist who has been fine tuning her songwriting and performance skills, touring the world as a principal artist with one of Australia's leading Performing Arts Companies "Black Arm Band". Yalanji Songwman Deline Briscoe launched her stunning solo debut album, Wawu at her two musical home towns, Melbourne Recital Centre and Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF).
Since then Deline has featured at Australia largest music export market Bigsound (2019) and has featured on
National playlist all over the Australian
Radio Networks. Deline Briscoe usually tours with a unique combination of musicians with master pacific percussionist, Airileke (Yothu Yindi), and Jamaican jazz pianist, Stephen
Maxwell (Jimmy Cliff). The Trio brings powerful tasteful set with percussive bite, blues grit and jazz Infused vocals.
"Wawu - A Yalanji word encompassing spirit heart and love - is a triumph!" -Songlines UK
"yes yes yes! I love these vocals so much - just want to sing along and all day, it's got that choral vibe mixed with jazz and Beyonce's dig in, biting percussive delivery." -Nkechi Anele,
Roots N All, Triple J.
TRACKS AND TIMES:
01 Wawu : 1:29
02 Heartbeat : 3:53
03 Human
Experience : 4:57
04 Sonrise : 4:57
05 Joe : 5:16
06 Ignorance Is Bliss : 4:20
07
Trust Us : 2:48
08 Tree : 3:42
09 Ngadijina : 1:07 (NGA - DEE - JI - NAH)
10 Sweet Frangipani : 5:04 (FRAN-JI-PAN-EE)
11 All Things Broken : 5:17
12 In The Night : 2:46
13 Need Your Love : 4:35
PLAYERS & INSTRUMENTS:
Deline Briscoe - Vocals
Airileke Ingram -
Drums (IRIE - LEH - KEH)
Robbie
Finch -
Double Bass
Stephen
Maxwell - Piano
Paul Coyle - trumpet
Phil Bywater - Clarinet/Saxophone
