Giant Donut Discs ® – January 2013
31. 1. 2013 | Rubriky: Articles,Giant Donut Discs
[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. One item in the exhibition, not the Jimmy Page loan of wall tapestries, was a piece of furniture painted with scenes from the Chaucer tale mentioned below.
This double CD by Elizabeth Stewart is full-proof Scots Traveller culture. Elizabeth Stewart, according to Alison McMorland’s extensive CD booklet notes, was born in May 1939 in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. She was raised in a hothouse environment for lore and music. She has a commanding voice, full of drive and energy.
This particular song is an upbeat one and in the grand old tradition of mishearing or misunderstanding something that has been sung instead of the less attractive and grand old tradition of anti-Jewish sentiment typified by The Prioress’s Tale in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales or accounts involving Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, such as Sam Lee’s singing of The Jew’s Garden on his notable Ground of its Own (2012).
The Russian Jew veers onto different tracks based on a mishearing of a mixed English and Scots Gaelic line. “Says I, ‘Ciamar a tha sibh an diugh?'”(“Says I, ‘How are you today?'”) got turned into “Says, ‘Here come a Russian Jew’.” Elizabeth Stewart’s is a lovely rendition.
Part of the initial research for an article to be written for publication later in 2013, itself feeding into a still longer-term project. From Binnorrie (Elphinstone Institute/University of Aberdeen EICD002, 2004)
Jamie Come Try Me – Eddi Reader
After a bit of introductory chinwaggery, Eddi Reader launched a fair few gigs around 2003 with this song. The particular rhetorical device in this song is that Burns is a little monkey speaking through the voice of a woman essentially asking for a male lover to enjoy her treats. As dissembling tricks go, it is rather good. As a song it is a phenomenal piece of theatre for a female singer and Eddi Reader gives it her very all. Her interpretation remains my most favourite. Plus I have never met a woman who did not enjoy the subterfuge and complicity of Burns’ song. It is great literature in a microcosm.
Eddi Reader improvises around these lyrics:
“Jamie, come try me,
Jamie, come try me!
If thou would be my love, Jamie
If thou would kiss me, love,
Wha [who] could espy thee?
If thou would be my love
Oh Jamie, Jamie, Jamie…”
And that is not even the end of the amorous musings.
The ensemble on this album is Reader on vocals and guitar, Christine Hanson on cello and vocals, Graham Henderson on accordion, whistle, mandolin, guitar and vocals, Boo Hewardine on guitar and vocals, John McCusker on fiddle and whistle and Colin Reid on guitar. From Live: London, UK 05.06.03 (Kufala KUF 3039, 2003)
Reading Liz Lochhead’s piece My Hero – Robert Burns might help to condense much about Burns: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/25/my-hero-robert-burns-lochhead Aside from being appointed Scots Makar – the national poet for Scotland, she also worked with Mike Marra, one of those knotty Scots songwriters of the best sort. Her tribute appeared in the printed newspaper’s Review section on 26 January 2013 on page 5 if you wish to be pernickity.
La Muerte Chiquita – Kronos Quartet
From Burns to the ‘little death’.
David Harrington: “La Muerte Chiquita was something we recorded during the sessions for Kronos Caravan not intending that it would be on the album at all. Café Tacuba, the Mexican band, was releasing an album and asked us to be a part of it. So Osvaldo [Golijov] made an arrangement. We loved that piece so much and thought the sound of the arrangement and the melody line were so great. John [Sherba] and I were driving home from the recording session and we had this tape of some of the things that were going to be on the album. We took a tape of a run-through of La Muerte Chiquita and inserted it and it just worked perfectly. That’s how that ended up on the album.” – interview with Ken Hunt, 19 February 2000.
Of all the Kronos albums I never wrote CD booklet notes for, Nuevo remains the one I would most have loved to write them for. Just for the ride, for the education. From Nuevo (Nonesuch 7559 79649-2, 2002)
What You Do With What You’ve Got – Eddi Reader
This particular choice is a huge conflation of singer and song identities. Dick Gaughan performed this song of Si Kahn’s at a folk club gig in Twickenham in November 2012. His performance summoned floods of memories.
The song articulates so much about how we view our fellows, how we treat them, and the unspoken how they view us. Si Kahn’s song has the strength, wisdom, humility and humanity of Burns. Wordy, yes, but not something said lightly. From the Dear John single (Blanco Y Negro 4509-98200-2, 1994)
Swing 51 – The David Grisman Quintet
The David Grisman Quintet at this point – circa 1977 – was Bill Amatneek (string bass), Darol Anger (violin), David Grisman (mandolin), Todd Phillips (mandolin) and Tony Rice (guitar). Tony Rice composed this tune and it affected me so much that I named a magazine after it. That magazine lasted for ten years. This tune has lasted far longer.
This particular version of the tune was one of the tracks cut between October and December 1976. Listening to the album wafts me back to other times and other people, especially Artie Traum who composed its Fish Scale. Swing 51’s title reconnects with Django Reinhardt compositions with titles such as Swing 39. The music of the David Grisman Quintet connected with so many acoustic music traditions. From The David Grisman Quintet (Kaleidoscope Records K-5, 1977, 1986)
La Gitana – Banda Citta Ruvo Di Puglia
This CD has survived house moves, house clearances, deaths, freelance poverty and scratching to pay supermarket bills. I reviewed it at the time of its release for a now-defunct monthly called Classical CD. La Gitana (The Gypsy) is from Verdi’s Il Trovatore and it is a demotic instrumental interpretation of the aria. The album had preyed on my mind for a long while. Reading Alex Ross’ essay ‘Verdi’s Grip: Opera as Popular Art’ in Listen To This (Fourth Estate, 2010) was the catalyst for finally plucking this magnificent piece of Italian musical literature from the shelf. It still inspires. From La Banda (Enja ENJ 9326 22, 1997)
La Noviola – La Còr de la Plana
This magnificent band re-entered my life in 2011. They sing in Occitan – a language with ancient roots and a terroir that takes in the modern-day nations of France, Spain, Italy and Monaco. The band’s name – Lo Còr De La Plana – I take to mean ‘the heart of [Marselha’s] La Plaine [neighbourhood or quarter]’. ‘Heart’ rather than ‘choir’ – more cour than chour, if you wish. Marselha is Marseilles.
A knowledge of Occitan is not necessary. Or no more necessary than Les Charbonniers de l’enfer from Canada. Both are two of the finest practitioners of vocal interweavings and booted rhythmicality. From Tant Deman (Buda 3017530, 2007)
The Spawn of Tony Blair – Robb Johnson
Robb Johnson sang this song, the opening blast from this album, at the Twickfolk folk club in Twickenham on 13 January 2013. In the time between cutting the song (at some unspecified date in 2012) and performing it live, it had grown far more muscular and assured. But this version from a limited edition release will have to do for now. Until a better one comes along.
Many people expected it of the Conservative Party. What Tony Blair and his island of Dr Moreau misbegottens did and do remains a stain on generations. The spawn of Tony Blair indeed. From Bah! Humbug! (Irregular Records, no number, 2012)
Love Is Strange/Stay – Jackson Browne & David Lindley
This pairing was a highlight of the concert tours that Jackson Browne and David Lindley with Tino on percussion. From Love Is Strange (Inside Recordings INRS111-0, 2010)
Gonna Be An Engineer – Peggy Seeger
Peggy Seeger calls this arch little dart her “albatross” but that’s nobody’s fault but her own. (The chorus in the minor key is “No sympathy…”) After all, she made this song so good. This particular recording eluded me to the extent that I didn’t know of its existence. Generally I pride myself that I stay on track about what Peggy Seeger is doing. But 2012 was one of those strange years. The fact that it was in the air and flying about went way under my radar.
Gonna Be An Engineer remains the sort of statement that only a woman can deliver with true feeling. It’s about the Pigeon-hole Principle (distant relation to the Peter Principle). It’s about men dictating what women can do – though, if someone buys into the lie, it can no doubt be a self-inflicted wound. It is not inconceivable that a woman can wield the wounding instrument as well. Quite when this song entered my consciousness is long gone. Writing a feature article about her brought many things back into focus. By then we had had many conversations. Maybe the resultant article for R2 shows that. Maybe not. That’s for the readers eventually to judge.
This recording is from a fund-raiser for the Nelson Women’s Centre in Nelson, New Zealand on 27 February 2010 on the occasion of my mother’s birthday – though I suspect that was not planned. It was for a worthy cause. Fire and smoke had damaged the centre. From Live (Appleseed Recordings APR CD 1129, 2012)
More information at http://www.nelsonwomenscentre.org.nz/ and www.AppleseedMusic.com
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