Author Archive
[by Ken Hunt, London] This month a raft laden with new provisions landed. It would have been rude not to, as they say, that is, not to have included some. In no particular order, ladies and gentlemen, here’s the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, Flora Purim, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, Laurie Anderson, Alastair Hulett and Dave Swarbrick, Jenna and Bethany Reid, Bill Kirchen, Wargaren, Annette Pinto and Diva Reka. It’s not entirely new stuff because, as ever, it reflects other work going on during the month.
Jailer Jailer – Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band
Peter Rowan has a body of great songs behind him and a cadre of collaborators that really takes some beating
31. 8. 2010 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] The Scots Gaelic song tradition had a relatively hard time of it during the twentieth century what with a diminishing mother-tongue population, a massive decline in Gaelic literacy and the steady encroachment of Scots and English. Seonag NicCoinnich, that is, Joan MacKenzie in the English, was one of four daughters born into a community where Gaelic was the first language – in Point on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles on 2 September 1929.
The spoken and sung language was strong and it was here that she developed her taste and love for Gaelic song. She and her sisters studied in Stornoway where she made her public singing debut as a schoolgirl. She went off to Glasgow to study to become a primary school teacher
30. 8. 2010 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] In January 1963 Bob Dylan was in Europe, flitting between London and Rome, bankrolled by an appearance as a folksinger in the BBC television drama, Madhouse on Castle Street. In London he fell into the company of, amongst others, the British folksingers Martin Carthy, Bob Davenport and Rory McEwen – like Eric von Schmidt, another exceptional painter, notably in McEwen’s case of botanical subjects – and was reunited with some compatriots, the songwriter and novelist Richard Fariña, Ethan Signer of the Charles Valley River Boys, and the musician and illustrator Eric von Schmidt.
23. 8. 2010 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] More boffo music from the rain-soaked rock, as ever reflecting work streams and passions. Lisa Knapp, John B. Spencer, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer, Ökrös with Ági Szalóki, Element of Crime, Toots and the Maytals, Miles Davis, Pentangle, Asha Bhosle and R.D. Burman, and the Kronos Quartet with Alim & Fargana Qasimov are the month’s turn-ons.
Blacksmith – Lisa Knapp
Lisa Knapp is a singer whose passion and gift are astonishing. The Blacksmith is a traditional song that seems to have been with me my entire journey into traditional English music. It has a wondrous melody and it tells a story to wonder at and weep over. Its lyrics capture the bewilderment of love found and love lost better than nearly any other song in the folk or popular canon.
Kn
16. 8. 2010 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] “When I met him,” says Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band of Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, “he was working at the School of Oriental and African Studies, I think. He was teaching there. How I came across him was that [Elektra record producer] Joe Boyd introduced us to odd songs and things and Robin [Williamson] suggested we might have a sitar player on Mad Hatter’s Song. He actually played on Mad Hatter’s Song credited as ‘Soma’ because he asked not to have his name used, I don’t really know why. He probably had some contractual thing going. It says sitar by Soma but it’s actually him.”
N.A. Jairazbhoy’s nom de sitar – Soma – on the Incredibles’ 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion (1967) derives from a Hindu holy drink and a Hindu lunar deity
10. 8. 2010 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Swing 51’s Giant Donut Discs® column gathered musical snapshots from all manner of people. These were Julian Dawson’s GDDs as published in Swing 51 issue 13/14 with annotations and updates. This is one in our series of Donuts from the vaults. For information about Julian’s musical activities, visit his official website at the bottom of his Donuts. (And how frequently does a writer get to write that?) In April 2010 the German-language edition of his biography of the pianist Nicky Hopkins appeared.
17. 7. 2010 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] The Benares-style tabla artist Chandrakant Shantaram Kamat was one of the mainstays of radio and recital in Pune. Between 1956 and 1991 he was an All India Radio (Pune) staff musician and he also did 50 years’ service at the Sawai Gandharva festival. Over the course of his career, he accompanied successive generations of top-notch principal vocalist, instrumentalist and dancers
17. 7. 2010 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] This time around on the desert island’s solar powered phonogram we have Trembling Bells, Buddhadev Das Gupta, Andy Cutting, Maggie Holland, Polkaholix, Jackson Browne, Shirley & Dolly Collins, Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson and The Bells of St. Margaret’s, Westminster (under Tower Captain George Doughty). Plus for a limited period on the internet, July 2010’s special offer, a bonus donut from David Lindley and Wally Ingram.
I Listed All Your Velvet Lessons – Trembling Bells
Trembling Bells are the most refreshing and impactful band of a folk hue that I can recall since Last Forever and Bellowhead. Listening to them can be like having a flicker book of boldly worn musical influences and resonances riffling in front of your ears
17. 7. 2010 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] This time around on the desert island phonogram we have Amira Medunjanin and Merima Ključo, Dave Swarbrick, Bea Palya, Elizabeth Cotten, Leonard Cohen, Marlene Dietrich, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt & Matt Malley, Kraftwerk, Jerry Garcia, Leonard Cohen, and Illa Arun, Sapna Awasthi & Kunal Ganjawalla.
Kradem Ti Se – Amira Medunjanin and Merima Ključo
On 27 May 2010 Amira Medunjanin and Merima Ključo – respectively voice and piano accordion – played St. Etherburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace on Bishopsgate in London. The night’s repertoire consisted of the 14 tracks that make up their album and after playing the album they had to revisit one for their encore. T
21. 6. 2010 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Lucy Loes, the well-known Ostend dialect folksinger and the so-called ‘Queen of the Fisherman’s Song’ (‘de Koningin van het Visserslied’) died on 17 June 2010 in Bredene in the Belgian province of West Flanders at the age of 82. She was born on 24 January 1928 in Ostend (Oostende) on the Belgian coast where she grew up imbibing the local songs sung in the local dialect. The region had yet to become the hub of the tourism or a major Channel ferry port with fishing as a major local industry
21. 6. 2010 |
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