Author Archive
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances are not fixed. They are in a state of flux cum backfill as news comes in, as details get corrected, information emerges and weblinks appear.
3 November – Kingston, Jamaica-born sound system pioneer Duke Vin (properly Vincent George Forbes) died aged 84. Chris Salewicz’s obituary ‘Duke Vin: ‘Soundman’ who brought sound systems to Britain’ from The Independent of 21 November 2012 is here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/duke-vin-soundman-who-brought-sound-systems-to-britain-8336228.html The same day Doogie Paul, bassist with James Yorkston from 2001, died. Yorkston’s tribute ‘RIP Doogie Paul’ is at: http://www.dominorecordco
15. 12. 2012 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] When you get past a certain age (or succession of them) – usually they are pretty arbitrary but they come with a zero – you will be spoiled for musical nostalgia ideas. The one has a lot to do with thinking about rhymes, rhythms, mythologies and conversations. The music is from Lal Waterson, Peter Bellamy, Commander Cody & The LPA, Scarlett O’, Folk & Rackare. The Pogues, Muzsikás, Jiří Kleňha, Tom Waits and The Watersons. Last updated 28 September 2013.
Christmas Is Now Drawing Near At Hand – Lal Waterson
The Watersons were one of the greatest groups to emerge from the English Folk Revival. Their singing had an uncanny surefootedness about it. This is solo performance by the youngest of the three siblings. “So proud and lofty do some people go,” she sings.
T
15. 12. 2012 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] The glories of work-related listening and escaping from the same know no bounds. This month’s special deliveries come from Abdulkarim Raas & Kuljit Bhamra, Joan Armatrading, The Fraser Sisters, Katy Carr, Sam Lee, Bert Jansch, Roy Bailey, Sandy Denny, The Owl Service and Miya Masaoka & Joan Jeanrenaud.
Hobey Hobey Heleyoy – Abdulkarim Raas & Kuljit Bhamra
As befits its main participants’ mixture of Somali, Punjabi and Indian expat East African elements, Hobey Hobey Heleyoy (‘Come Sing And Dance’), the opening track of one of the albums released in 2012 that has given me the most food for thought, delivers an assortment of Punjabi and Somali elements
30. 11. 2012 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Imagine an ideal world in which no two concerts by a principal song-delivering vocalist were ever the same. That would mean repertoire, in fact an extraordinary breadth of song repertoire and, naturally, the interaction between composed and spontaneous composition – not just jamming or busking it.
And all that within a series of strictly demarcated rules of engagement. Delivering that would mean shooting the grammatical rapids of melody, rhythmicality and linguistics, too. (Grammatical in a music sense
19. 11. 2012 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Miya Masaoka, The Chieftains, Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Friends, Harpo Marx, Gee En Tong, Barb Jungr, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Josef Režný, Serafina Steer and Kala Ramnath are the musicians who conjure and provide the fun this month, as ever much of it work-related or work avoidance-related.
Come Sunday – Miya Masaoka
Her website biography begins: “Miya Masaoka, musician, composer, performance artist, has created works for koto, laser interfaces, laptop and video and written scores for ensembles, chamber orchestras and mixed choirs. In her performance pieces she has investigated the sound and movement of insects, as well as the physiological responses of plants, the human brain, and her own body.
30. 10. 2012 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Séamus Ennis, Yasmin Levy, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Peter Bellamy, David Crosby & Graham Nash, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Everly Brothers, Marty Robbins, the Grateful Dead and Leonard Cohen populate the isle this month.
Reels: The Mountain Lark/The Sligo Maid’s Lament/The Flax In Bloom – Séamus Ennis
Along with Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains (born 1938) and Willy Clancy (1918-1973), Séamus Ennis (1919-1982) was the musician most instrumental in turning me on to uilleann pipes – Ireland’s elbow pipes or píobaí uilleann so named since an elbow pumps the bellows. They started me on a voyage of discovery that continues to the present day that has involved looking backwards to Leo Rowsome (1903-1970) and forwards to Liam O’Flynn (born 1945).
I
30. 9. 2012 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Nightingales serenade and sing us back home. In between come Hedy West, Joni Mitchell, Marianne Faithfull, Chavela Vargas, Radhika Mohan Maitra and Mike Seeger. This is, to some extent, a confluence of memories, dreams, reflections and applied coincidence inspired by Marianne Faithfull and her 2007 book (with David Dalton) entitled memories, dreams & reflections.
Londonderry Air – Beatrice Harrison
This is a famous and historical recording. The cellist Beatrice Harrison discovered that when she played in her garden in Oxted in Surrey her local nightingale would sing along. The nightingale was a wild bird. It wasn’t caged like a canary and recorded as it sang – as had previously been the case with recordings of wild bird song
24. 8. 2012 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Woodrow Wilson ‘Woody’ Guthrie (1912-1967) was born the day before my father. He was born on 14 July 1912 and Leslie Hunt wasn’t, so to speak. Both of them were hugely influential figures in my musical, creative and political development. Here’s a celebration of Guthrie’s work, with a little help Cisco Houston, Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Madeleine Peyroux, Billy Bragg and Utah Phillips.
How much? How long? – Woody Guthrie
Rather than fling ourselves into the Woody Guthrie song collection, let’s get familiar with his speaking voice and his anecdotage. This wire recording from 1949 was made in front of an audience at the Jewish Community Center in Newark, New Jersey. You get a feel for his accent, his spoken voice, his voice’s cadences and how he sounded. An
14. 7. 2012 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Another month with varying degrees of noise and loads of work-related choices. This month summons Jackson Browne, Mehdi Hassan, Jefferson Airplane, James ‘Iron Head’ Baker, The Radiators from Space, Neil Young, Sam Lee, Rokia Traoré, Country Joe & The Fish and back to Jackson Browne to do their bit to keep a freelance music writer sane.
Running On Empty – Jackson Browne
You know what it’s like when you seek solace in music? This month this one hit home mainly on account of those miles rushing by under the wheels and exhaustion – and most important of all because Jackson Browne and his magnificent seven lift the spirits.
11. 7. 2012 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Aged 50, Joe Strummer died of a suspected heart attack at home in Broomfield in Somerset on 22 December 2003. In the warm glow and cold slab reality of his death, he seemed to have changed people’s perceptions of ‘reality’ more than most ever do. He was never the Bob Dylan figure that some claimed him to be after his death, though. Mind you, he did get to guest on Dylan’s Down In The Groove (1988).
The son of Ronald Mellor, a British civil servant in the Foreign Office who went where the diplomacy of the day posted him, he was born John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey on 21 August 1952. Strummer, as he later ‘became’, had a wider understanding of other cultures than most Brits of his, or indeed previous, generations
2. 7. 2012 |
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