Past Programs
Guitar - 2008
BB King
12/11/2008
There aren't too many musicians still producing records after 60 years, and even fewer producing records that are as good as this new release One Kind Favor from BB King. He's still singing the blues beautifully at 83 and his trusty guitar Lucille is also in good voice.
The CD is produced by T Bone Burnett and features a star cast of session musicians too many to list individually. There are tight grooves and a big lazy horn section, supporting a song list drawn from such favourites as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Howling Wolf and Lonnie Johnson. And all this was recorded two years after BB King's farewell concert tour.
CW Stoneking
05/11/2008
From the deep south of Australia hails CW Stoneking who, with his band the Primitive Horn Orchestra, produces some wonderfully executed whimsy and hokum in the style of 1920’s blues and calypso.
The new CD Jungle Blues follows his critically acclaimed 2005 release King Hokum, and delves deeper into a semi-mythical land of African adventure, jail sentences, medicine shows and voodoo murder ballads. Stoneking’s own guitar, banjo and vocals are supported by a wonderful brass and string band including Howard Cairns on various bass instruments and Jim White (Cat Power, Dirty Three) on drums.
George Sibanda (repeat of 16/1/08)
29/10/2008
More mysterious than even the most obscure bluesman, there are no known existing photographs of Zimbabwean singer/guitarist George Sibanda, a man some consider sub-Saharan Africa’s first real music star.
Discovered by South African folklorist Hugh Tracey in 1948, who recorded him, George almost immediately had big hits in the Rhodesias, Nyasaland, South Africa and Kenya. George was an Ndbele from Bulawayo, a thriving outpost of British colonial southern Africa and a major industrial centre. Through performance in the Broadway hit Wait a Minim, George’s song Guabi Guabi became a US folk standard covered by Taj Mahal, Arlo Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. Sibanda’s complex fingerpicked guitar parts and humorous songs and vocals resemble African-American Piedmont Blues styles. Sibanda earned a lot of money, but by the end of the 1950s he had drunk himself to death, leaving no trace but the excellent recordings Tracey made between 1948 and 1952.
Camaron de la Isla (repeat of 8/1/08)
28/10/2008
Flamenco is divided into two periods - BC and AC - before Camarón de la Isla and after him, and our featured CD captures the astoundingly powerful singer in his prime.
It is mostly with guitarist Paco de Lucia, who said of Camarón, ‘My soul left me each time I heard him - he gave flamenco a wild, savage feeling.’ Camaron’s ability to project a near-violent emotional intensity made him a flamenco saint with a voice that seemed to defy destiny, but his use of various drugs dogged him and he died in 1992 at the age of 41, having changed flamenco irrevocably - introducing musical innovation while penetrating further to its raw core of feeling.
Fiona Boyes (Repeat of 31/12/07)
27/10/2008
Blues singer/songwriter/guitarist Fiona Boyes latest CD, Lucky 13, is her best yet, but don’t just take my word for it.
92-year-old Muddy Waters Band veteran pianist, Pinetop Perkins, said ‘I ain’t never heard a woman finger-pick a guitar like that since Memphis Minnie. She’s the best gal guitar player I heard in more than 35 years.’ The CD reached #1 on several US Blues charts and has been nominated for ‘Contemporary Blues Album of the Year’ for the Blues Music Awards, the world’s premier accolades for Blues Music, making it the first Australian album to be nominated in the 27-year history of the awards. Lucky 13 is a fine album, indeed. It features Fiona’s ebullient guitar picking and vocals and 10 of her own songs which run the gamut of the blues, from female blues styles of the 1920s to Texas and New Orleans genres. Recorded in Austin, Texas, with some of the city’s best players, another Muddy Waters Band vet, guitarist Bob Margolin, joins her on a few songs that nail the raw sounds of early Chicago blues.
http://www.fionaboyes.com/index2.htm
Golden Afrique Volume 3 (repeat of 5/11/07
24/10/2008
The Double CD Golden Afrique Vol. 3 focuses on the music of Southern Africa - pennywhistle jive, mbube and a host of later popular musical styles.
The gold and diamond mines of South Africa, the copper mines of Zambia and the newly industrialised cities of the area attracted people from all over to work and spurred new musical developments. One CD covers South Africa and Malawi, from Ladysmith Black Mambazo to Brenda Fassie. The other disc concentrates on the music of Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The Django Reinhardt Festival Live at Birdland (repeat of 17/4/07)
22/10/2008
The Django Reinhardt Festival Live at Birdland gathers American and French musicians together for an almost absurdly virtuosic display of Gypsy Swing.
On this live recording of an annual festival, the French musicians, lead guitarists Dorado Schmitt and Angelo Debarre and accordionist Ludovic Beier, run through a selection of Manouche classics backed by the American rhythm section of drummer Grady Tate and bassist Jay Leonhardt. Clarinetist Ken Peplowski guests on one track and saxophonist James Carter roars postmodernly through a couple of others. Just when you think that there’s not another note or musical effect that could be squeezed into a space, these players turn another exuberant trick, compressing a lifetime’s experience into a couple of improvised choruses.
Baden Powell (repeat of 12/11/07)
14/10/2008
Recorded shortly before his death in 2000, Baden Plays Vinicius is a collection of the landmark Afro-Brazilian songs that guitarist Baden Powell wrote with lyricist Vinicius de Moraes.
Produced by Armando Pittigliani, who produced Baden’s first album in 1959, this album consists of 8 of Baden’s and Vinicius’ co-written songs, played in Powell’s unusually ethereal solo style.
Fribo (repeat of 19/9/07)
13/10/2008
Fribo are a unique acoustic group - 3 acoustic musicians from Norway, Scotland and England who met in Edinburgh and who blend the musical styles of their respective countries on their debut CD, The ha’ o Habrahellia.
Singer Anne Sofie Linge Valdal comes from a strong traditional background on the west coast of Norway. Singer/guitarist Ewan MacPherson, one of the first ever graduate students from Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, is a member of Scottish group Malinky and a seasoned sideman. Sarah-Jane Summers, from the Scottish Highlands, plays both Scottish and Norwegian styles on normal and Hardanger Fiddles.
Jeremy Spencer (first aired on 13/2/07)
09/10/2008
When Jeremy Spencer disappeared during a Fleetwood Mac tour in 1971, who would have dreamed that he would resurface with his first blues album in 35 years, recorded with a Norwegian band?
Before Fleetwood Mac were a multi-million selling, bigger than Ben Hur rock band with two female singers, they were a blues band that included two of England’s most authentic electric blues guitarists. But there seemed to be a hex on the band’s guitarists. Peter Green succumbed to drug-induced psychosis, Danny Kirwan gave up playing in public and was homeless for a long time. In the middle of an American Fleetwood Mac tour, Jeremy Spencer went AWOL and the tour was cancelled. While visiting a bookshop, he met a representative from the religious group the Children of God. He joined them immediately, and has been happily living with the controversial group, travelling the world, playing music for the group and making cartoons for their publications. Since leaving Fleetwood Mac, he has received many offers to record, but he finally accepted the offer that was to become his new CD, Precious Little, because he was so impressed with the all-Norwegian band’s love of and ability to play the blues. Spencer’s twin early musical loves, rockabilly and Elmore James, are both represented here and it’s his beautifully nuanced slide guitar work that stands out, whether on resonator guitar or on electric guitar.
http://www.jeremyspencer.com/
Donal Clancy (first aired on 12/2/07)
07/10/2008
Donal Clancy’s new CD of of Irish guitar instrumentals is called Close to Home because, he says, ‘These are songs I grew up with, songs I can’t truly remember learning.’
Donal is the son of Irish music pioneer Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers and is a founding member of the artful County Waterford group Danú. Although he does some multitracking on Close to Home, it’s only Donal and his guitar on this nicely arranged selection of Jigs, Reels, Airs and Hornpipes.
www.donalclancy.com
Ingosi Stars (First Broadcast on 14/4/2008)
01/10/2008
The CD Langoni, by father-and-son Kenyan musicians William Ingosi Mwoshi and Jackson Amusala Ingosi, is a record of traditional Luhya music that contains a remarkable story of survival.
When William Ingosi Mwoshi arrived at the SW French World Music Festival ‘Nutis Atypiques’ in July 2003, he was unrecognisable to those who knew him - he had wasted away and was utterly exhausted. Two of the festival volunteers, who were the sons of the director of the local hospital in Langon, immediately hospitalised him to have his advanced intestinal cancer treated. William convalesced and returned in relatively good shape to Kenya in September. In 2006, Denis-Constant Martin travelled to Nairobi and recorded William’s and Jackson’s songs, including one in which William thanks the staff of the hospital that looked after him, pronouncing its locale as ‘Langoni’, hence the title of the CD.
Clube do Balanço (First Broadcast on 29/04/2008)
19/09/2008
On their CD, Swing and Samba Rock, Clube do Balanço revive the urban Samba styles of São Paulo with guest vocalists from the era and an infectious good humour.
It’s no wonder that Clube do Balanço, the pioneers of the Samba Rock revival, are popular among the crowds in the dancehalls of the poorer districts of São Paulo, places where people have been dancing to the style since the late 1960s. Guest vocalists include Erasmo Carlos, Wison Simoninha, Max de Castro, Bebeto, Pula Lima, the modern Samba-Rocker Seu Jorge, and the quite jazzy singer Marku Ribas. With this array of talent and a knack for capturing their excitement in the studio, the group sounds even better than it did at Womadelaide 2008.
Richard Leo Johnson (First Broadcast 3/4/2006)
16/09/2008
Richard Leo Johnson was raised in a small town in the Mississippi Delta and was first inspired by a cassette tape that had Leo Kottke on one side and John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra on the other. Practicing on his own, he developed an idiosyncratic style that employed 30 different tunings on guitars of 6, 12 or 18 strings. His new CD is called The Legend of Vernon McAlister and it’s entirely played on a 1930s National Duolian guitar with the name ‘Vernon McAlister’ etched into its steel body. With it and some effects devices, Richard creates an original soundscape that blends blues with 20c minimalism in a way that would have baffled Vernon.
Buddy Guy
19/08/2008
Buddy Guy says of his new CD, Skin Deep, that it’s ‘The first time I really had more control.’ It shows - his singing and his guitar work are full of inspired abandon.
‘Everything in here is new’, Buddy said, ‘Most of the other albums have been a few new songs and then back to the older stuff or the covers.’ Buddy’s sound is loud and aggressive as he plays a selection of vintage guitars backed by a tight blues band with Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi and pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph appearing as guests.
Roberto Aussel plays Atahualpa Yupanqui
18/08/2008
With characteristic subtleness of phrase and use of silence, guitarist Roberto Aussel brings to life the music of fellow Argentinean Atahualpa Yupanqui on the 100th anniversary of this champion of folk music’s birth.
Born in 1954 in La Plata, Roberto began studying classical guitar from the age of 7 and went on to win first prizes at some of the world’s most prestigious competitions. He is known for his gift of being able to highlight a composer’s intention by his delicacy of phrase, across a range of diverse composers. He heard Atahualpa Yupanqui in his childhood and his music especially touched him. In Atahualpa’s music, Roberto heard the whistling of the wind, the silence between the mountains and the understanding of birdsong, his guitar vibrating as it related the suffering of the country folk, and rejoiced when performing a malambo from the Argentine Pampas. La Paloma Enamorada (The Dove in Love) is Roberto’s tribute to the music of a man which has raised such a profound feeling in him for many years.
Matt McMahon and Guy Strazz
06/08/2008
Pianist Matt McMahon and guitarist Guy Strazz’s new CD, 2@1, is full of fine, interactive and sometimes virtuosic playing.
Planeteers loved Guy’s CD Calcutta Express and Matt is also a Planet favourite, having most recently appeared on Tina Harrod’s CD Worksongs.
CD of the Week - Ale Möller Band
07/07/2008
On the CD Djef Djel, multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller blends Swedish, Greek and West African styles into a selection of music that bears his distinctive, adventurous stamp.
Ale has long been a central figure of the Scandinavian music scene, spurred by his experience playing Greek folk music to discover his own Swedish musical language. To do this, he applied the mandola to Swedish tunes, an innovation that influenced many others. He’s also an excellent player of flute, shawm, accordion, harmonica and trumpet. Bringing together his various musical influences, his band includes Greek singer Maria Stellas, West African singer and fiddler Mamadou Sene, fellow Swedish multi-instrumentalist Magnus Stinnerbom, French Canadian double bassist Sébastian Dubé, and Mexican-born percussionist Rafael Sida Huizar.
Julien Wilson Trio
30/06/2008
Julien Wilson’s trio’s live CD trio - live is full of the warmth and grace that we’ve come to expect of this unusual trio of tenor sax, nylon string guitar and piano accordion.
Recorded at Bennett’s Lane as part of ABC Classic FM’s Jazztrack’s 30th Anniversary Concert, all compositions are by Julien except for Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges’ Clube Da Esquina #2 and one by Bjorn Meyer, Julien and the group’s guitarist, Stephen Magnusson’s bandmate in their other group, SNAG. Stephen Grant’s accordion completes the group’s tasteful instrumentation.
CD of the Week - Pat Metheny with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez
30/06/2008
Tokyo Day Trip Live EP is the latest release from Pat Metheny with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez - a virtuosic and cohesive trio exploring the current landscape of jazz today.
The five tracks on the CD explore acoustic ballads, post-bop exuberance, ECM-like sounds and a piece that might make some happy that Pat chose Jazz over Rock.
Etran Finatawa
24/06/2008
On their new CD, Desert Crossroads, Nigerian nomads Etran Finatawa chronicle their possibly disappearing culture to the backing of deep desert guitars and percussion.
Since the release of their debut CD in 2006, this group of musicians of Tuareg and Wodaabe heritage have been touring the world. When home, they live in Niger’s capital, Niamey. Living in the city isn’t a happy situation for them, but like many other nomads, they have been driven from their lands by modern pressures and desertification. The songs are about coming to terms with these changes and with the fear of losing one’s culture and identity. Despite the gloomy prognosis, the CD’s music is full of life.
Paco Peña Guest Presenter
29/05/2008
Paco Peña Presents The Planet, The Daily Planet, that is, as he helps choose the music for the show and shares his insights and playing with us.
Paco, longtime master of flamenco guitar, is currently touring Australia with his Flamenco dance company.
29-31 May Sydney Theatre NSW
1 Jun Adelaide Festival Centre SA
4 Jun Hamer Hall - The Arts Centre VIC
5 Jun Frankston Arts Centre VIC
6 Jun Queensland Performing Arts Centre - Concert Hall QLD
7 Jun Gold Coast Arts Centre QLD
Marcus Sturrock
26/05/2008
Marcus Sturrock’s CD, Getting it Wronge showcases Marcus’ fertile and lively imagination in writing and playing instrumental pieces for his many instruments, including his custom made, low-tuned 7-string acoustic guitar.
Marcus has done many things including living in an ashram from 14 years of age, giving musical therapy for the profoundly autistic, and being an acrobat and a musician in a circus. The front cover was inspired by a load of lemons that came rolling down a steep driveway in front of his car, stopping at the road’s edge except for one, an obviously suicidal lemon. The original title of the CD was ‘The Vertigo Lemming’, but he got it a little wronge.
CD of the Week - Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson
12/05/2008
Husband and wife team Kasey Chambers’ and Shane Nicholson’s debut CD, Rattlin’ Bones is a laid-back, delightfully relaxed and artfully written acoustic alt-country album.
Shane and Kasey co-wrote nine of the songs and, rather than one vocalist taking the lead, their voices usually intertwine in the tradition of the Louvin Brothers, Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons, and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.
The Rosenberg Trio
08/05/2008
On Roots, the Rosenberg Trio join up with fellow Dutchman, clarinettist Bernard Berkhout, for a seriously swinging set of jazz standards, Django Reinhardt compositions, Stochelo Rosenberg originals and even Grieg’s Danse Norvégienne.
Even though Stochelo, the lead guitarist, came to his instrument late by Gypsy standards (aged 10), he soon became one of this era’s great Manouche guitarists. The two brothers and a cousin of the group have been playing together since then, sounding like one big instrument, first only in churches and at Gypsy camps, then to the greater world. With the addition of Berkhout’s clarinet, this makes this, their 13th album, stand out amongst the plethora of Gypsy Jazz releases.
Pete Fidler
05/05/2008
It’s been an unusual road from guitarist in Melbourne psychedelic band Tyrnaround to his passion for the dobro that’s resulted in Pete Fidler’s debut dobro CD, Slide Night.
It was the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? that inspired Pete to pick up the dobro when he was in his 30s. He quickly learned the speed licks of dobro giant Jerry Douglas and Slide Night is in response to repeated requests from dobro fans for a solo Fidler CD. It’s mostly composed of Pete’s compositions, with Peter Somerville, Hamish Davidson and Ruth Hazelton on banjos, and Nick Charles and Pete himself on the guitars.
CD of the Week - Jeff Lang
05/05/2008
On Half Seas Over, Jeff Lang, accompanied only by his own guitars and Grant Cummerford’s bass, channels the dark Appalachian and Celtic sounds and tales that Greil Marcus referred to as the ‘Old, Weird America’ on an outstanding set of original songs.
Jeff seems to be going from strength to strength - his voice and guitar work continue to evolve in a beautiful way and his songs, like dark short stories, go way beyond the ‘Moon in June’ school of songwriting. He ends the CD with a dark joke of a song set in Newman, Western Australia, in which attempts to force a local to sing the Appalachian murder ballad Pretty Polly result in the creation of a new murder ballad story.
Clube do Balanço
29/04/2008
On their CD, Swing and Samba Rock, Clube do Balanço revive the urban Samba styles of São Paulo with guest vocalists from the era and an infectious good humour.
It’s no wonder that Clube do Balanço, the pioneers of the Samba Rock revival, are popular among the crowds in the dancehalls of the poorer districts of São Paulo, places where people have been dancing to the style since the late 1960s. Guest vocalists include Erasmo Carlos, Wison Simoninha, Max de Castro, Bebeto, Pula Lima, the modern Samba-Rocker Seu Jorge, and the quite jazzy singer Marku Ribas. With this array of talent and a knack for capturing their excitement in the studio, the group sounds even better than it did at Womadelaide 2008.
Alesa Lajana
28/04/2008
Home Calling is young Queensland guitarist Alesa Lajana’s first full-length CD. It’s especially notable for her beautiful lap slide versions of Celtic tunes.
As one of her prime influences, the masterful and innovative Celtic guitarist Tony McManus said, ‘Alesa has managed to absorb and respond to various influences and turn them into something truly original and creative. Her playing of Celtic music on dobro, for example, is unique’. Alesa is joined on six tracks by tabla player Dheeraj Shrestha and she plays steel string, classical and lap steel guitars. In addition to Celtic music, she plays an interesting, modal version of Nat Adderley’s gospel-ish Work Song and a vocal rendition, in German, of her own song First Star.
CD of the Week - The Audreys
28/04/2008
On their second CD, When the Flood Comes, Adelaide group the Audreys stay their course as purveyors of understated gothic country tales with surprise twists.
Their excellent debut CD, Between Last Night and Us, won the 2006 ARIA award for best Blues and Roots Album and put them on tour more than they’d ever been, bringing on a songwriting drought of 18 months which they finally broke, then teased out more songs by staying at New York’s famous Chelsea Hotel, one time home to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Jack Kerouac and Dylan Thomas. As on their first CD, Shane O’Mara is the engineer, producer and mixer and he does a great job, achieving an even darker sound this time.
CD of the Week - Dick Gaughan
21/04/2008
There are no half measures on Dick Gaughan’s new CD, Live at the Trades Club, in which he snarls and rails out against hypocrisy and prejudices of all sorts with only his acoustic guitar and voice to back him up.
The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge, UK, was built in 1924 by the textile and tailoring unions of West Yorkshire and taken over by the Labour Party in the 1970s after the demise of those industries. Since then, it’s developed into a multi-purpose venue presenting various activities and music from around the world. As one of Dick’s favourite places to play, he reserves it for the final night of his annual tour of England and Wales.
Ingosi Stars
14/04/2008
The CD Langoni, by father-and-son Kenyan musicians William Ingosi Mwoshi and Jackson Amusala Ingosi, is a record of traditional Luhya music that contains a remarkable story of survival.
When William Ingosi Mwoshi arrived at the SW French World Music Festival ‘Nutis Atypiques’ in July 2003, he was unrecognisable to those who knew him - he had wasted away and was utterly exhausted. Two of the festival volunteers, who were the sons of the director of the local hospital in Langon, immediately hospitalised him to have his advanced intestinal cancer treated. William convalesced and returned in relatively good shape to Kenya in September. In 2006, Denis-Constant Martin travelled to Nairobi and recorded William’s and Jackson’s songs, including one in which William thanks the staff of the hospital that looked after him, pronouncing its locale as ‘Langoni’, hence the title of the CD.
Bardic Divas: Women's Voices in Central Asia
02/04/2008
Bardic Divas: Women’s Voices in Central Asia is a beautifully produced collection of recordings of very strong female singers and instrumentalists, funded by the Aga Khan Music Initiative.
With musicians from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kalmykia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, it’s a huge and very well recorded undertaking with an accompanying DVD and excellent liner notes that all serve to make this an enlightening and inspiring collection. As one of the singers, Fargana Qasimova, says, ‘Women can sing not only with delicacy, but with the strength of warriors.’
Cyril Pahinui
17/03/2008
On He’eia, Slack-Key guitarist Cyril Pahinui channels the musical spirits of his Dad, Gabby Pahinui, Atta Isaacs and Sonny Chillingworth for an excellent CD of mostly traditional Hawaiian instrumentals and songs.
Cyril says that whenever he plays music, he thinks of Gabby, Atta and Sonny and gives thanks for what he learned from them in his younger days. But Cyril’s music is now very much his own, with his use of the 12-string guitar, his emphasis on ‘C’ tunings, his muting techniques, his likeably loose approach and his improvisation. He has a strong voice too, and He’eia (A bay on the Kona side of the big island of Hawai’i) is a beautiful overview of Hawaiian music as played by a modern master.
Sam Baker
17/03/2008
Sam Baker’s brush with death from a guerilla bombing in Peru in 1986 gave him a thankfulness to be alive and a desire to ‘do one great piece of art’ - his debut CD Mercy - which is now joined by the equally beautiful Pretty World.
After the bombing Sam had to relearn guitar upside-down and had great difficulty finding words for things. The latter difficulty influenced his songwriting in that he has to find words - they don’t just come - and when he sings them, it’s in short, truncated phrases that emphasise the individual words, which he’s painstakingly edited to tell his stories in song. Another thing that has transformed him from a self-described ordinary writer is his abiding thankfulness and wonder at being alive and his ability to appreciate the charm of ‘ordinary’ life in his fellow Texans. Continuing with the pedal steel and violin dominated sparse landscapes of his first CD, Pretty World looks compassionately at his fellow humans, gives thanks for the ordinary things of life, and in one song, revisits the day that changed his life.
Martha Tilston
13/03/2008
With her new CD, of Milkmaids and Architects, Martha Tilston uses her pleasingly pure voice to sing her songs, combining the personal with the political, with a subtle acoustic backing.
As the daughter of Steve Tilston and the stepdaughter of Maggie Boyle, she grew up in the UK surrounded by the music of her parents and visitors such as Bert Jansch and John Renbourne. This early intro to folk music gave her an understanding of the importance of music in communities which she has translated to innovative avenues - the wupudupa collective of artists she set up with friends, the musicians she plays with on the Small World Solar Stage, playing ‘under the radar’ around campfires and in people’s houses and releasing an album with her band the ‘woods’ as a free download. Martha funded her debut album on her own label by selling paintings she made of each song on the album. She began writing her songs at an early age, first on piano then on guitar. Martha is touring Australia in March.
Pablo Ziegler - Quique Sinesi with Walter Castro
11/03/2008
As a key member of Astor Piazzolla’s quintet, pianist Pablo Ziegler helped reshape tango, adding jazz rhythms and improvisation. On Pablo’s new album, Buenos Aires Report, he’s joined by fine musicians, guitarist Quique Sinesi and bandoneonist Walter Castro, in a live performance of seven of Pablo’s compositions, one of Quique’s and the master’s Libertango.
Pablo has taken Astor’s Nuevo Tango a step further with a touch more jazz and improvisation, and there’s an obvious rapport between him and his playing partner in various line-ups since 1990, the ever-exploratory guitarist Quique Sinesi.
Music Deli Presents Live Recordings From the Port Fairy Folk Festival
06/03/2008
On the eve of the 2008 Festival, we bring you Music Deli Presents: Live Recordings from the Port Fairy Folk Festival.
Produced by Radio National Music Deli’s Paul Petran, it includes excellent performances by Fiona Boyes and the Fortune Tellers, Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne, Habib Koite and Bamada, and Eric Bibb and Dave Bronze.
Son de la Frontera
05/03/2008
On Cal, Son de la Frontera continue their explorations of the music of Diego del Gastor, with Raúl Rodríguez’ Cuban très guitar adding a new musical colour.
The group also interpret pieces by Diego’s brother Antonio Amaya Flores and some of his contemporaries - Montoya, Sabicas and Niño Ricardo.
Mike Seeger
04/03/2008
Today we feature Early Southern Guitar Sounds, the new CD by Mike Seeger whose folk musicianship Bob Dylan explains was his reason for giving up being a folk singer: ‘In order to be as good as that, you’d just have to be him, and nobody else ...I saw that it could take me the rest of my life to make practical use of that knowledge and Mike (Seeger) didn’t have to do that (Hewasjustrightthere). He was too good and you can’t be ‘too good’, not in this world, anyway.’ (Chronicles, pg. 71).
Folk music’s loss was music’s gain, but Mike has continued playing and researching folk music in the 5 decades since Dylan changed tack. On his new CD, multi-instrumentalist and stylist Mike concentrates on a range of Southern USA guitar styles played on a diverse collection of fine instruments. With Mike playing cowboy, Appalachian, blues, slide and archaic African-American styles, we get an enthusiastic and well-researched overview of a rich field - the work of a lifetime distilled into one album - not surprising given his pedigree - son of folklorists, brother of Peggy Seeger and half-brother to Pete Seeger.
Paco Peña
03/03/2008
Almost 40 years after he first performed at Wigmore Hall, Paco Peña returned there in December of 2006 to play a concert of solo flamenco guitar that affirmed his musical mastery.
Paco’s glorious technique and ability to get to the heart of a piece are evident in this concert in which he covers a wide range of flamenco styles from its beginning with the reflective sounds of a Granaína to its close with an explosive, festive Bulerías.
Petri Hakala
26/02/2008
On Trad., Finnish musician Petri Hakala explores a range of traditional Finnish fiddle tunes on guitars and mandolins.
Chosen over a long time span during which Petri taught at the Sibelius Academy Folk Music Department and at various folk music camps, this collection of polskas, minuets, marches, shottishes and waltzes mirrors his development as a musician and reflects the influences of various other string instrument traditions, including North American folk ones.
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
25/02/2008
Gurrumul, the long-awaited solo debut CD by North East Arnhemland musical powerhouse Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, presents songs of his people, culture and land sung in his angelic voice, with elegant backing of guitars and double bass.
Blind from birth, Geoffrey, or Gudjuk as he is also called, is from the Gumatj nation, his mother from the Galpu nation. A former member of Yothu Yindi, his own band, The Saltwater Band, hail from Galiwin’ku on Elcho Island, NE Arnhem Land, and are a much loved and most popularly noted Indigenous band, partly because of Gurrumul’s influence and guidance.
Album launch, Darwin Entertainment Centre, February 28th and 29th 2008
Golden Afrique Volume 3 (repeat of 5/11/07
25/01/2008
The Double CD Golden Afrique Vol. 3 focuses on the music of Southern Africa - pennywhistle jive, mbube and a host of later popular musical styles.
The gold and diamond mines of South Africa, the copper mines of Zambia and the newly industrialised cities of the area attracted people from all over to work and spurred new musical developments. One CD covers South Africa and Malawi, from Ladysmith Black Mambazo to Brenda Fassie. The other disc concentrates on the music of Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Baden Powell (repeat of 12/11/07)
22/01/2008
Recorded shortly before his death in 2000, Baden Plays Vinicius is a collection of the landmark Afro-Brazilian songs that guitarist Baden Powell wrote with lyricist Vinicius de Moraes.
Produced by Armando Pittigliani, who produced Baden’s first album in 1959, this album consists of 8 of Baden’s and Vinicius’ co-written songs, played in Powell’s unusually ethereal solo style.
Malouma (repeat of 25/7/07)
21/01/2008
After years of her music being banned by Mauritania’s military government, Malouma now speaks through her new role as one of the country’s 56 senators and through her new CD, Nour, which brings the desert blues of Mauritania into the 21st century.
Born in the sand dunes in the south of the country into an artistic community, with a father whose musical tastes were wide-ranging, Malouma raised controversy at the age of 16 with a song she wrote and sang which criticised polygamists and the way they married ‘younger and more charming’ wives and turned the old ones out into the street. Opponents of her views threw stones at her and she was unable to go out alone, have her music played on State media, perform anywhere local, or even to take a permanent address. Still, she continued to write songs criticising the government, performing them overseas or at opposition political rallies. One of her party’s political missions is to unite currently divided Moorish and black Mauritanians. One of her personal crusades is to keep alive the Moorish music of her childhood and on her new CD (which means ‘light’), she does this by mixing the traditional sounds of her ardin (A Mauritanian harp played only by women) with more modern, electronic sounds.
George Sibanda (repeat of 29/10/07)
16/01/2008
More mysterious than even the most obscure bluesman, there are no known existing photographs of Zimbabwean singer/guitarist George Sibanda, a man some consider sub-Saharan Africa’s first real music star.
Discovered by South African folklorist Hugh Tracey in 1948, who recorded him, George almost immediately had big hits in the Rhodesias, Nyasaland, South Africa and Kenya. George was an Ndbele from Bulawayo, a thriving outpost of British colonial southern Africa and a major industrial centre. Through performance in the Broadway hit Wait a Minim, George’s song Guabi Guabi became a US folk standard covered by Taj Mahal, Arlo Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. Sibanda’s complex fingerpicked guitar parts and humorous songs and vocals resemble African-American Piedmont Blues styles. Sibanda earned a lot of money, but by the end of the 1950s he had drunk himself to death, leaving no trace but the excellent recordings Tracey made between 1948 and 1952.
The Django Reinhardt Festival Live at Birdland (repeat of 17/4/07)
09/01/2008
The Django Reinhardt Festival Live at Birdland gathers American and French musicians together for an almost absurdly virtuosic display of Gypsy Swing.
On this live recording of an annual festival, the French musicians, lead guitarists Dorado Schmitt and Angelo Debarre and accordionist Ludovic Beier, run through a selection of Manouche classics backed by the American rhythm section of drummer Grady Tate and bassist Jay Leonhardt. Clarinetist Ken Peplowski guests on one track and saxophonist James Carter roars postmodernly through a couple of others. Just when you think that there’s not another note or musical effect that could be squeezed into a space, these players turn another exuberant trick, compressing a lifetime’s experience into a couple of improvised choruses.
Camaron de la Isla (repeat of 5/9/07)
08/01/2008
Flamenco is divided into two periods - BC and AC - before Camarón de la Isla and after him, and our featured CD captures the astoundingly powerful singer in his prime.
It is mostly with guitarist Paco de Lucia, who said of Camarón, ‘My soul left me each time I heard him - he gave flamenco a wild, savage feeling.’ Camaron’s ability to project a near-violent emotional intensity made him a flamenco saint with a voice that seemed to defy destiny, but his use of various drugs dogged him and he died in 1992 at the age of 41, having changed flamenco irrevocably - introducing musical innovation while penetrating further to its raw core of feeling.
Fribo (repeat of 19/9/07)
07/01/2008
Fribo are a unique acoustic group - 3 acoustic musicians from Norway, Scotland and England who met in Edinburgh and who blend the musical styles of their respective countries on their debut CD, The ha’ o Habrahellia.
Singer Anne Sofie Linge Valdal comes from a strong traditional background on the west coast of Norway. Singer/guitarist Ewan MacPherson, one of the first ever graduate students from Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, is a member of Scottish group Malinky and a seasoned sideman. Sarah-Jane Summers, from the Scottish Highlands, plays both Scottish and Norwegian styles on normal and Hardanger Fiddles.
CD of the Week - Jeff Lang
05/01/2008
On Half Seas Over, Jeff Lang, accompanied only by his own guitars and Grant Cummerford's bass, channels the dark Appalachian and Celtic sounds and tales that Greil Marcus referred to as the 'Old, Weird America' on an outstanding set of original songs.
Jeff seems to be going from strength to strength - his voice and guitar work continue to evolve in a beautiful way and his songs, like dark short stories, go way beyond the 'Moon in June' school of songwriting. He ends the CD with a dark joke of a song set in Newman, WA, in which attempts to force a local to sing the Appalachian murder ballad 'Pretty Polly' result in the creation of a new murder ballad story.
Badi Assad (repeat of 2/8/07)
02/01/2008
Chameleon-like Brazilian singer/guitarist Badi Assad’s new CD Wonderland uses a range of Brazilian songs and international pop standards to impart the feeling of the Queen’s dominion in Alice in Wonderland - a world where values are inverted.
Despite the seeming darkness of the theme, it’s quite a sunny sounding record, with Badi and her virtuosic guitar joined by a crew of fine musicians - woodwind player Carlos Malta, Double bassist Zeca Assumpção, percussionist Marcos Suzano and producer/cellist Jacque Morelenbaum. The warm-voiced star of City of God, Seu Jorge, joins in on vocals on one song and we get a glimpse of Badi’s former forte - virtuosic mouth percussion combined with innovative guitar techniques.
