Giant Donut Discs ® – January 2013
31. 1. 2013 | Categories: 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
[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
[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
[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
[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
[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
[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
[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.
[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
[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
