An Evening of Political Song, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London, 17 June 2010
20. 12. 2010 | Categories: Articles,Live reviews
[by Ken Hunt, London] An Evening of Political Song, explained the Southbank literature, "drew upon a rich history of political song" before, sigh, spoiling things slightly by lamely billing this night in Richard Thompson's Meltdown as "a night of songs in the key of revolution and protest". Still, mustn't grumble, 'political song', as dictionary definitions go, is about as precise as 'folk song' in its handy one-size-fits-all solution to issues that just won't go away.
The night provided a blast of political song designed to engage and stimulate - or even to provoke to the point of offending - while avoiding any why-oh-why? breast-beating material. This though isn't a concert review. It focuses on three songs as snapshots of what political song today can embrace
Tom Robinson's take on [...]
[by Ken Hunt, London] The Polish revue artist, singer and actress Irena Anders, born Irena Renata Jarosiewicz on 12 May 1920 in Bruntál, in what is nowadays the Czech Republic, went under the stage name of Renata Bogdańska. Her father was a Rutherian pastor while her mother came from the Polish gentry. She studied music formally at the National Academy of Music in Lviv. The invasion of Poland in September 1939 put paid to her studies and over the next few years the tides of war and the various fortunes of Poland, its citizens and army determined her own life's course.
Her first husband, Gwidon Borucki, led a morale-boosting troupe entertaining Polish forces fighting on the side of the Allies. Poles of the 2nd Polish Division under the command of General Władysław Anders played an [...]
[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.
New releases
Laurie Anderson / Homeland / Nonesuch
Jackson Browne David Lindley / Love Is Strange / Inside Recordings
Carolina Chocolate Drops / Genuine Negro Jig / Nonesuch
Hariprasad Chaurasia / Hariprasad Chaurasia and the Art of Improvisation /Accord Croisés
Andy Cutting / Andy Cutting / Lane Records
Diva Reka / Diva Reka / Giga New
Barb Jungr / The Men I Love / Naim Label
Ida Kelarova, Desiderius Dužda, Tomáš Kačo [...]
[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 [...]
[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.
Long Black Veil (1959) was supposedly nudged into existence by the story of a woman who haunted silent era [...]
[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.
In the movie that Mathura Nagarpati comes from, a village guy [...]
[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. There's also something [...]
[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.
No doubt some will cavil and quibble about its content - in [...]
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. Alan Garner is [...]
[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). How he [...]
