Other lives – May 2013
15. 6. 2013 | Categories: Articles,Lives
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of flux as news comes in, details get corrected, information emerges and useful weblinks appear.
23 May - On this date in 1913, Le Sacre du printemps ('The Rite of Spring') received its premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on the avenue Montaigne in Paris' 8th arrondissement. Its music is by Igor Stravinsky: its choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky: its performers the Ballets russes company under Serge Diaghilev. It was the sensation of the company's 1913 season.
25 May - The Tamil playback singer T.M. Soundararajan , born on 24 March 1922 in Madurai in the Madras Presidency, died aged 91 in Chennai.
30 May - Proinsias Ó Conluain, the RTÉ broadcaster, documentary-maker (subjects include the singer Eddie Butcher and [...]
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of change as and when updates arrive, details get corrected, information emerges and useful weblinks appear. Updated 12 June 2013.
7 April - The US film-maker Les Blank died at the age of 77 in the Berkeley Hills area of the San Francisco Bay. Born on 27 November 1935 in Tampa, Florida, he made film portraits of Clifton Chenier, Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin' Hopkins among other subjects.
The Guardian published Les Blank's obituary in its edition of Friday, 10 April 2013: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/12/les-blank-dies-documentary-music
11 April - The Oakland, California-born violinist Sue Draheim died aged 63 in Berea, Kentucky.
The Independent published Ken Hunt's obituary in its edition of Wednesday, 29 [...]
[by Ken Hunt, London] Back in New York, Seeger enthused about what he had seen and heard. Broadside, a publication with a tiny circulation - using, as Cunningham recalled, a hand-cranked mimeo machine "we had inherited when the American Labor Party branch closed in our neighbourhood" - became a vital conduit for song. Originally published fortnightly, very soon monthly, topicality was a major goal. It published its first issue in February 1962 and folded in 1988. By comparison Sing was launched on May Day 1954 and Sing Out! had first appeared in 1950. Unlike Sing Out! or Sing, Broadside did not interleaf traditional songs with its songs of struggle, diatribes on themes of social justice or political squibs. However imprecisely or colloquially some dubbed this latter category 'folksongs' - [...]
[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. This [...]
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of flux as news comes in, details get corrected, information emerges and useful weblinks appear. Last expanded 1 May 2013.
7 March - Born 5 February 1923, in Keithville, Louisiana, the country singer and songwriter Claude King died at the age of 90 in Shreeveport, Louisiana. He was a member of the Louisiana Hayride radio and television show and was famed for his song, Wolverton Mountain, co-written with Merle Kilgore.
Further reading from the Los Angeles Times is here: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings-20130308,0,3695361.story
20 March - The animator Jack Stokes died. Born in Leigh-on-Sea on the Essex coast on 2 April 1920, he was instrumental in animating the Beatles' Yellow Submarine (1968), a [...]
[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. Where else was I going to get a chance to listen to Harry Cox or Anne Briggs or the Pinder Family? No high-street record shop stocked [...]
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of flux as news comes in, details get corrected, information emerges and useful weblinks appear. Latest update: 12 April 2013.
4 February - Pat Halcox died at the age of 82. He born on 18 March 1930 in the London district Chelsea. Trumpet player with the Chris Barber Jazz Band from 1954, he replaced trumpet and band leader Ken Colyer of the Ken Colyer Jazz Band when the band rebranded itself on Colyer's departure.
His obituary from The Daily Telegraph of 7 February 2013 is here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9853652/Pat-Halcox.html
4 February - The Jamaican musician Alva Lewis died. Born on 16 April 1949, he worked with Bob Marley and the Hippy Boys amongst others.
His obituary, anonymous as ever from [...]
[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. From Diga Rhythm Band (Rykodisc RCD 10101, 1988)
Raga Charukeshi- Kamalesh Maitra
This live recording was made at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of the Cultures of the World) on John-Foster-Dulles Allee in Berlin on [...]
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of flux as news comes in, details get corrected, information emerges and weblinks appear. This month's includes the centenary of the birth of Indo-Hungarian artist Amrita Sher-Gil.
Last updated: 27 February 2013
3 January - The Karnatic violinist M.S. Gopalakrishnan died, aged 81, in Chennai.
Ken Hunt's obituary 'MS Gopalakrishnan: Revered Southern Indian violinist ' from The Independent of 20 February 2013 is here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ms-gopalakrishnan-revered-southern-indian-violinist-8501679.html
15 January - The singer and guitarist Shirley Douglas died, aged 73, in Benissa, Spain. She sang with the Chas MvDevitt Skiffle Group, replacing Nancy Whiskey (who left for personal reasons) in [...]
[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 [...]
