Giant Donut Discs
[by Ken Hunt, London] A long strange time with much written, little posted, too much heartache, death and separation. In other words: the usual. The backfill will appear. Work influences are, no apologies, rampant in these choices. It begins with Neil Young solo. It includes Mary Ann Carolan, Five Hand Reel, Paul Brady, Sakar Khan, Sam Lee & Friends, June Tabor, Barkatullah Khan, It’s A Beautiful Day and Wilson & Swarbrick.
This is a revised version which includes the full version of the Wilson & Swarbrick comments, dropped in on 4 October 2014.
Needle of Death – Neil Young
Neil Young previewed this track at a sold-out concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall (RFH) called ‘A Celebration of Bert Jansch’ in December 2013
31. 5. 2014 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] This month’s selection is the product of one of most intense periods in career terms for several years . There was so much that could have reflected this month’s listening but for many reasons this is what, let’s say, is going to emerge. John Reilly, Robb Johnson, Leyla McCalla, The Home Service, Sam Lee, William Kimber, David Crosby & Graham Nash, John Coltrane and the Chumbas are, let’s call them, the chosen ones…
The Well Below The Valley – John Reilly
The Well Below The Valley tells a tale of deception, incest and infanticide. This particular performance – and a most remarkable one it is at that – was collected from the Irish Traveller John Reilly by the Irish folklorist Tom Munnelly. It originally appeared The Bonny Green Tree (Topic 12T359, 1977)
31. 8. 2013 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] M.S. Gopalakrishnan, Barbra Streisand, The Byrds, Barbara Dickson, Martin Simpson, The Ex & Brass Unbound, Paul Horn, Duncan Wood & Guests, Pannalal Ghosh and the Grateful Dead provide the work- and life-related materials this month. Updated 21 October 2013.
Janani Ninnuvina – M.S. Gopalakrishnan
This is a composition by Subaraya Sastri. His pedigree as a composer-musician is unmatched as far as I know. (More informed readers than I, please correct if wrong.) He was the son of Syama Sastri (1762-1827), one of the Holy Trinity of Karnatic saint-composers and he also studied with the Trinity’s other two saint-composer Muthuswami Dikshitar (1776-1835) and Tyagaraja (1767-1847). This kriti or Hindu devotional hymn seeks the protection of the mother goddess
31. 7. 2013 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Oh, the wind, the rain and sun. This month Jyotsna Srikanth, Allman Brothers Band, Simon Thacker’s Svara-Kanti, Dunaj & Iva Bittová, Jefferson Airplane, Rosalie Sorrels Véronique Sanson, Joan Jeanrenaud, Martin Simpson, Fraunhofer Saitenmusik supply the umbrellas and the parasols.
Brovabarama – Jyotsna Srikanth
This is the centrepiece of one of the finest Karnatic albums to cross my path thus far in 2013. Jyotsna Srikanth plays South Indian-style violin and this particular track is imagination distilled. From Call of Bangalore (Riverboat Records/World Music Network TUGCD1072, 12013)
Ken Hunt’s review of the album is in the online sampling of CD reviews in the summer 2013 issue of fRoots magazine at at http://www.frootsmag.c
30. 6. 2013 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Noëmi Waysfeld & Blik, Marta Töpferová & Tomáš Liška, Bob Marley & The Wailers, The Weavers, Ali Akbar Khan, Škampa Quartet, Imani Winds, Z.M. Dagar & Z.F. Dagar and Lucy Ward, Bella Hardy, James Findlay and Brian Peters.
Shnirele Perele – Noëmi Waysfeld & Blik
One of those rare, very rare pieces of music that on first pass made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The Yiddish of the title translates as ‘pearl necklace’ or, to go Glenn Miller, ‘string of pearls’. Both Noëmi Waysfeld & Blik and the album that this comes from were totally unknown quantities to me when work brought them to my attention. Once heard, never forgotten, this track got ‘unfairly’ stuck on repeat before moving through the rest of Kalyma.
Noëmi
18. 6. 2013 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Another month filled with a bunch of work-related listening patterns. Catherine Ennis and Liam O’Flynn, Country Joe and the Fish, The Who, Any Old Time, Cyminology, Chumbawamba, Uncle John’s Band, Bisserov Sisters, Rais Khan and The Home Service
Easter Snow – Catherine Ennis and Liam O’Flynn
This piece of music is a piece of passion. It is a duet that connives to bring together two remarkable musicians performing a composition that is a piece of common ground. Catherine Ennis, here playing organ, is the daughter of the superlative uilleann piper (and much, so very much more) Séamus Ennis (1919-1982). Liam O’Flynn, a musician deeply affected by her father, here is playing uilleann pipes.
Easter Snow was one of Séamus Ennis’ favourite traditional airs.
30. 4. 2013 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Another month filled with bunch of work-related listening patterns.
Angi – Davy Graham
Frequently the circumstances of hearing a particular piece of music are burned into our craniums, with a heavy dressing of associations. Angi (as it is spelled here) is an important piece of music in my life and yet I have not the foggiest notion of when I first heard Davy Graham’s performance. Almost certainly I heard it in a record shop and most likely it would have been either Collet’s or Dobell’s in London, the former an immense part of my musical education both in terms of what I fetched away from Collet’s both physically and intellectually
31. 3. 2013 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Another month filled with a musical diet of work-related listening with a smidgeon of lateral listening ideas and needs, preparation for future writings.
Happiness Is Drumming – Diga Rhythm Band
February’s entire listening could easily have tilted into a rhythmic extravaganza. A great deal of related listening was done while writing an article about Pandit Kamalesh Maitra and wallowing in the beauty of tabla tarang.
This particular performance is an instrumental, wordless version of a song that the Grateful Dead made into Fire On The Mountain
27. 2. 2013 |
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[by Ken Hunt, London] Once again it is that time of the year when thoughts of Robert Burns o’erflow, when conflations of memories evoking Cilla Fisher, Ray Fisher, Hamish Imlach, Dick Gaughan, Eddi Reader, Ewan MacColl and their kind flood in. Some of these choices have nothing to do with Burns or Burns Night on 25 January but all have a great deal to do with love, fond memory, the touch of the little death, ongoing work and work preparation and what survives.
The Russian Jew – Elizabeth Stewart
An introduction from the singer Sam Lee during one of our conversations, the choice of this particular piece was nudged along by attending Tate Britain’s exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde in January with an old friend (and occasional contributor to this website) Phil Wilson
31. 1. 2013 |
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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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