Other lives – December 2012
15. 1. 2013 | Categories: Articles,Lives
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] As ever these remembrances are fluid and will get changed as news and information comes in and weblinks emerge. Please feel free to send links pertinent to this website's continent for possible inclusion. Death is a state in flux.
5 December - The US jazz pioneer and early incorporator of world music and non-western classical elements Dave Brubeck died aged 92 in Norwalk, Connecticut. Steve Voce's obituary 'Dave Brubeck: Pianist and composer hailed as a major figure of 20th century jazz' from The Independent of 5 December 2012 is here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/dave-brubeck-pianist-and-composer-hailed-as-a-major-figure-of-20th-century-jazz-8386994.html
9 December - the "Diva de la Banda" and antidote to the male posturing prevalent in [...]
[by Ken Hunt, London] Another fine year for music. The evidence of this list to the contrary, much of 2012 flashed by in a blur owing to illness in the family that wiped out most of the year's listening hours. As to recorded music, the pile of unlistened to music grew, thanks to having to prioritise paid reviewing work. Yes, strange though it may seem, if one's livelihood depends on paid writing, it is astonishing how a paying commission focuses the mind.
New releases
Al Andaluz Project / Live In München 2011 / Galileo
Carolina Chocolate Drops / Leaving Eden / Nonesuch
Eva Quartet & Hector Zazou / The Arch / Elen Music
Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Friends / Y'Anbessaw Tezeta / Terp Records
Maria Doyle Kennedy / Sing / Mermaid Productions
Sam Lee / Ground of its Own / The [...]
[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.com/uk/news/06-11-12/rip-doogie-paul/
14 November - the original fiddle player with the Irish band [...]
[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.
To [...]
[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. It brings together two diaspora cultures - well, two-and-a-half or three - that have settled to the west of London [...]
[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.) In essence, that was what Aruna Sairam did in Paris - a city she first appeared in, she advised, before an audience of something like 20 or so people in 1988, as she explained in a 'Meet the Artist' discussion organised by Les Ateliers du Monde the previous [...]
[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. Within these varied contexts of sound, music and nature, her [...]
[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 chanced upon this album of [...]
[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. This recording made on 3 May 1927 [...]
[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. And how [...]
