[by Ken Hunt, London] The year started brilliantly, thanks to the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Emily Portman. Then nothing much seemed to happen for the longest while – well, a month or so – and then the sluice gates opened and a wonderful year’s musical experiences began pouring out. It did, however, prove a disappointing year for quality new recordings of Indian music
13. 12. 2010 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] Winter draws on in London but on the fictitious tropical island the sun is shining. Helping to banish gloom this month is a rather fine selection of music. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this month’s haul of traveller’s tales embraces Methera, Amy Rigby, Ida Kelarova, the Hallé Orchestra under Mark Elder, Dave Bartholomew, Bonnie Raitt & Was (Not Was), the Oysterband, Alim and Fargana Qasimov, The Byrds and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Rafael Kubelík.
Bijav – Ida Kelarova
Romská balada (‘Roma Ballad’) is a collaboration between vocalists Ida Kelarova and Desiderius Dužda and the pianist Tomáš Kačo with the new line-up of the Škampa Quartet – Helena Jiříkovská and Daniela Součková on violins, Radim Sedmidubský on viola and Lukáš Polák on cello. One of
5. 12. 2010 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] “Ten years ago on a cold dark night/Someone was killed ‘neath the town hall lights./There were few at the scene, but they all did agree/that the man who ran looked a lot like me.”
When those renegades from Canadian justice, The Band made their début album Music From Big Pink in 1968, they included a timeless-sounding song called Long Black Veil that they had learned from Leftie Frizzell, on whose 1959 version Marijohn Wilkin played piano. It had an eerie, old-time, murder ballad guilt to it and many people thought it was traditional. Marijohn Wilkin, the woman who set Danny Dill’s lyrics to music, to produce Long Black Veil died, aged 86, on 28 October 2006.
22. 11. 2010 | read more...
[by Aparna Banerji, Jalandhar City] For this month’s super ten I start with Shubha Mudgal followed by Gayatri Iyer, Sahaj Ma, Jagjit Singh and Lata Mangeshkar, Surinder Kaur, Kailash Kher, Richa Sharma and Sukhwinder, Bhupinder and Chitra, the Wadali Brothers and Suraiya and Shyam.
Mathura Nagarpati – Shubha Mudgal
I first listened to this song during one of those rare train journeys which I made with my grandmother. This is also the only song that she ever bore listening to on my earphones (which she usually hated) without complaining once. The allusion to her revered Lord Krishna might be part of the reason. I hadn’t understood much of the song then, but she liked it and explained it to me during the course of the journey
15. 11. 2010 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] Winter draws on in London but on the island the sun is shining. Helping to banish gloom is a rather fine selection of music this month. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this month we have Norma Waterson, Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Tükrös Zenekar, O’Hooley & Tidow, Ronu Majumdar and Kishan Maharaj, the Butterfield Blues Band, Santana, Wizz Jones, Bukka White and Melissa Etheridge. It begins with a song of mortality and the acceptance of mortality and ends with one bitter and not accepting. In between all human life is there.
Black Muddy River – Norma Waterson
Norma Waterson tackles this song with great dignity and flair. The accompanists include Richard Thompson on electric guitar, Danny Thompson on string bass and Roger Swallow on drums.
10. 11. 2010 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] The Sufi path is a path of mystic revelation within Islam that refracts its light through a prism of Islam, enabling it to be viewed, by those who are so-minded, as counter-Islamic or as casting a benign light into belief systems as varied as Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam and the syncretic faith of the Bauls of Bengal. Capturing that diversity that that conjures in one film is impossible and, wisely, Sufi Soul – The Mystic Music of Islam goes for the heart rather than worrying (about) the extremities. I first saw this documentary at the MOFFOM film festival in Prague in 2005, which its director – and Songlines editor – Simon Broughton also attended for a post-screening director-audience discussion
25. 10. 2010 | read more...
Part 1: Some Influences and Inspiration
[by Ken Hunt, London] 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Alan Garner’s novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and HarperCollins has duly published a 50th anniversary edition. Hence the excuse to re-publish part of the first part of this interview. Any changes are so that the text conforms to our style guide and to contextualise and clarify matters. There has been no attempt to impose updates on this interview.
Finding an article on the English author Alan Garner in a magazine like this, the contents of which revolve around music, may appear a little unusual at first sight but Garner’s is a talent which fully justifies the inclusion of an article on him in any magazine with an interest in folk music and folklore
18. 10. 2010 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] “The painting is from a 1984 album I did for Line Records in Germany called “Lose It Tonight”. A song I performed – the first and only time I ever lip-synched a TV show – on Germany’s #1 Pop music program of the 80’s called “MusicLaden”. It was great I met Pat Boone and showed him the way out.” – George Frayne’s lateral thoughts emanating from the Lose It Tonight cover.
Long before he grew pianistic wings with Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, George Frayne had what looked like a promising life ahead of him as a painter including, like Alton Kelley, a sideline in car art, sculptor and, heavens forbloodyfend (tmesis rears not only its ugly head but shows off its potty mouth), even a Teaching Fellow in Fine Art at the University of Michigan (1966-68)
14. 10. 2010 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] As summer slides into mellow fruitfulness, what better batch of lifesavers on a desert island could one wish for than these? Let’s start with Dusty Springfield and her wicked way with telling a delicious tale about forbidden love. You’ll have to look for taboo subjects amongst the choices by Ahmad Sham Sufi Qawwali Group, Little Feat, Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick, Ralph McTell, Los Lobos, Joe Ely, Jerry Garcia, Bonnie Dobson and Dave Swarbrick. You might well find one or two sins hidden here.
Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield (1939-1999) had established herself as one of the quintessential voices of British popular music by the time her Dusty In Memphis (1969), on which this track appeared, came out
7. 10. 2010 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] People’s appreciation of American folk music did not commence with the folk scare of the 1960s and the likes of the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, Odetta, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Bob Dylan. A generation before them another folk revival, that similarly had no truck with segregation along racial lines, had been under way. Its crop of performers included progressives such as Josh White, Woody Guthrie, Huddie ‘Leadbelly’ Ledbetter and Pete Seeger. Like the next generation, the earlier one wrote new songs in various folk idioms, frequently darts with left-leaning barbs, dosed with class consciousness and social awareness
13. 9. 2010 | read more...