Giant Donut Discs ® – July 2011
4. 7. 2011 | Rubriky: Articles,Giant Donut Discs
[by Ken Hunt, London] The Calder Quartet, Cyril Tawney, Nørn, Sharan Rani, Hedy West, Trembling Bells, Arlo Guthrie with the Thüringer Symphonikern Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, Tine Kindermann and the Home Service. And lots to do with work.
Allegro Moderato from the String Quartet in F – The Calder Quartet
I love music that carries me across bridges. I respect that sort of music like I would respect a figurative guru who imparted something and transported me somewhere else, somewhere beyond, maybe out of my safe place into unknown territory. For me, the string quartet provided and provides the key to western classical music.
Here the Calder Quartet reveals Ravel’s string quartet’s textures and colours intensely. This opening movement lays out the table. Its concision of ideas really gets to me, similar to the way an alap – opening movement – gets to me in a raga. Benjamin Jacobson and Andrew Bulbrook (violins), Jonathan Moershel (viola) and Eric Byers (cello) are the Calder Quartet. From The Calder Quartet (No name, no number, 2007)
More information at www.calderquartet.com
The Oggie Man – Cyril Tawney
Oggie, sometimes rendered oggy, is a word that occurs in Cornwall and Devon. It is a dialect word for pasty – typically a meat and vegetable wrap – from the south-west of England. The joy of Cyril Tawney’s song is that it uses everyday ingredients to tell a story about encroachment long before Tescoification or McDonaldsisation. If for no other reason, listen to this song if your community is resisting the arrival of Tesco in Budapest or whichever hamburger chain wants an outlet in your town.
Cyril wasn’t being far-sighted or clairvoyant in this song. He was singing a lament. In his album notes to his Argo album, A Mayflower Garland, Cyril wrote, “To generations of Devonport sailors the Oggie Man, a lone vendor of Cornish Pasties who had his humble pitch outside the Albert Gate, was a minor institution. It would have been reasonable to assume that as long as there was a Royal Navy there would be an Oggie Man.”
This is a great song. It was originally released in 1969. While I was writing his entry for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography I had the old Argo LP propped up beside me and would look at Cyril in his prime. His entry is one of the late 2010 batch of new entries. What I really, really liked about Cyril the man was that he was more yea-sayer than nay-sayer. From A Mayflower Garland (Talking Elephant TECD176, 2011)
A coda
Writing obituaries is usually a hell-or-heaven-for-leather thing. In the heat of writing Cyril Tawney’s for the Independent of 27 May 2005 I added a mondegreen of my very own when writing about Sammy’s Bar and turned “my real love” into Marina. Spookily, Marina was the name of his nurse while he was dying. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/cyril-tawney-526297.html
Lahille – Nørn
The Norns were the dísir – a race of supernatural female entities – that wove the twine or thread of fate. They ran the thread of fate and time through their fingers and thumbs. Nørn is unaccompanied vocal trio from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. I cannot understand a word of what Anne-Sylvie Casagrande, Edmée Fleury and Gisèle Rime are singing. And nor will you. That is the very point. They sing in a made-up language of their own devising. It is the sound of the words that conveys their ‘meaning’.
Sometimes there are found sounds on this album’s tracks. Maybe the sound of dripping water, for example. Such textures are incidental to the matter at hand. The triumph lies in their singing. If they sounded this good in 2004, how must they sound now? Updates will follow. From Fridj (no name, no number, 2004)
More information at www.norn.ch
Bageshri – Sharan Rani
June was one of those months. One of those months that buzzes, excites and ignites what’s around. Driving through London traffic on the way to pick up Arundhati Roy, I played Sound of Sarod to relax my mind. The first three tracks happened to take up the entire journey as if timed to coincide perfectly with my arrival at the destination. Leaving this, the fourth track, a rendition of Bageshri from 1969, after dropping her back that evening.
Sharan Rani belonged to the Maihar Gharana and was one of that school of playing’s most eloquent sarodists – a statement made in full knowledge of its other sarodists and her place in the lineage. Sarod had historically been associated with male musicians and she earned her name Sarod Rani (Queen of the Sarod). Apparently she also authored a book that I have never seen called The Divine Sarod: An ancient Indian musical instrument (antiquity, origin and development from circa 200 B.C.).
Again, it’s that word: concision. Sharan Rani is on sarod and Alla Rakha is on tabla. What sets this Bageshri apart? Well, her playing is so economical, nuanced and flavoursome. This is 22 minutes or so of deep space. And I love it to pieces. Now it’s reinforced with an overlay of memories to do with Arundhati Roy and a car journey spent talking to a large extent about Hindustani râg and musicians. I stumbled upon this reissued CD album by fluke in a record shop in Chandigarh in Punjab. It is the stuff to swoon to and over. A jewel of a performance and a jewel of an album. From Soul of Sarod (Saregama CDNF 150853, 2008)
The image is of her 1966 French long-player release Sharan Rani – Musique Classique Indienne (Vogue CLVLX 119).
Little Sadie – Hedy West
Hedy West (1938-2005) was a transformative force. I first discovered her music at Collet’s on New Oxford Street in London in the 1960s. I bought a white label Topic test pressing of Ballads. I think it was that one. It had no jacket, no track information, no nothing but musically it was an eye-opener. This is a later voice and banjo interpretation of the traditional American murder ballad. It is a story, told solo, propelled by her driving banjo. It is everything that traditional song should be and have. From Hedy West and Bill Clifton’s reissued Getting Folk Out of The Country (Bear Family BCD 16754 AN, 2010)
Ken Hunt’s obituary of Hedy West is at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hedy-west-501214.html
All My Favourite Mistakes – Trembling Bells
It’s big, bold and brassy – with a grungy production – but if you don’t get the point that’s OK too. Maybe you didn’t get the point of The Notorious Byrd Brothers or the Byrds’ Lady Friend either. This is a song that they worked up through goodness knows how many gigs. “Love came a hit me like a sucker punch.” From The Constant Pageant (Honest Jon’s HURCDD155, 2011)
This Land Is Your Land – Arlo Guthrie with the Thüringer Symphonikern Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
This is Arlo Guthrie singing his father, Woody Guthrie’s song with a bunch of orchestral players and a conductor. It was a fabulously uplifting live experience. There is a zing and a zen about his performances. Plus he carries off droll in masterly fashion, as to the manner born. My brother-in-law heard this song and got enlightened. Apparently somebody called Bruce Springsteen plopped his head in the same apple-dunking barrel and pulled out this song as well. This comes from an entire album of Arlo Guthrie material on the festival’s souvenir release. He laces stories and songs together so well. So very well. Well, like a natural… From TFF Rudolstadt 2010 (heideck HD 20106, 2010)
Can’t Help Falling In Love – Arlo Guthrie with the Thüringer Symphonikern Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
Introduction. Tønder Festival. Elvis Presley. Pete Seeger. The spirit.
“Wise men say…” “Would it be a sin…?”
This is why we go to music festivals, gigs and live performances – just in order to catch the moment and moments of specialness. Woody Guthrie’s boy dun put in his thumb and pulled out a plum again. Another one from TFF Rudolstadt 2010 (heideck HD 20106, 2010)
Sterben Ist Eine Schwere Buss – Tine Kindermann
Tine Kindermann is steeped in Märchenkeit. (I think I may have made up that word: like fairy-storyness. It’s a fairy story world sometimes rendered a bit more otherworldly by her singing saw accompaniments and Marc Ribot’s guitar. True to the darker and grimmer aspects of Märchen, its title translates as ‘Dying is a hard kiss’. She is a tradition-bearer like Dagmar Krause and Patti Smith. There! I’ve said it. And live, she is better still. From Schamlos schön – ‘Shamelessly beautiful’ (in your actual Deutsch) – (Oriente RIEN CD 67, 2008)
Snow Falls – Home Service
This album is set of songs unearthed from the Cambridge Folk Festival in 1986. This is a song by John Tams that rips me apart. It began as a reflection triggered by thoughts about his grandmother. Snow Falls feels like my early manhood, my middle age and my old age rolled into one. It is life in death and death in life. One of the most important songs in my life. “Cruel winter cuts through like the reaper…” is how it starts. The band plays a blinder. From Live 1986 (Fledg’ling FLED3085, 2011)
The image of Arlo Guthrie and Tine Kindermann from TFF Rudolstadt 2010 are respectively © Santosh Sidhu/Swing 51 Archives and Ken Hunt/Swing 51 Archives. The copyright of all other images lies with the respective photographers, companies and image-makers.