Past Programs
Acoustic - 2008
Seckou Keita
13/12/2008
Seckou Keita’s music is a happy marriage of innovation and tradition. From Senegal, he resides in Britain and will tour Australia in February/March. A fine singer, but most especially a master of the kora, Seckou is noted for devising entirely new tunings for his 21-string harp/lute. The Silimbo Passage is named for the special time of day when ‘darkness gives way to the light.’ It is the second CD from what he now calls ‘SKQ’. The quintet’s other members are a sister of his who sings, a percussionist from Gambia, an Italian bassist and an Egyptian violinist.
Seckou Keita’s currently-functioning site is here:
www.myspace.com/seckoukeita
{includes details of his Australian tour}
www.seckoukeita.com is ‘under maintenance’, as I type.
A revealing recent article is here:
www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/383.cfm
George Kuo
07/12/2008
George Kuo is a virtuoso, but very relaxed, always lyrical. That remains true on O Ke Aumoe, nothwitstanding that it finds him in a Bordeaux mansion, rather than in Hawaii where his favourite playing venue is ‘outside on my porch, late at night.’ As its title suggests his new CD was at least recorded at the right/night time, when ‘You can hear the spirit of all the ancestors.’ George is a master of ki ho’alu - the Hawaiian style of finger-style acoustic guitar, known in English as ‘slack-key’ guitar.
Discover more about George Kuo and his new CD, here:
www.winterandwinter.com/index.php?id=1505
For a brief overview of ‘ki ho’alu/slack key’ go to:
www.dancingcat.com/about-hawaiian.php
For the ’full monty’, in depth, start here:
www.dancingcat.com/skbook-tableofcontents.php
radio.string.quartet.vienna with Klaus Paier
30/11/2008
As the name suggests, radio.string.quartet.vienna embraces the present and future. Its second album, RADIOTREE, is a quintet affair with an eclectically inclined compatriot. Accordion and bandoneón virtuoso Klaus Paier is its primary composer, writing with all five players specifically in mind. All value and honour their classical roots, but are not constrained by them. Paier's compositional ingenuity is matched by his improvisatory abilities. The CD's four not altogether new pieces were penned by two late, great Austrians— three of them by Joe Zawinul.
Discover more about this album, here:
www.actmusic.com/pdf/ACT_9473-2_PFE.pdf
The artists’ sites are here:
www.radiostringquartet.com
www.klaus-paier.com
Edgar Meyer/ Chris Thile duo
29/11/2008
Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile is a singular instrumental duo's debut CD. Each man is a phenomenon of his instrument and is astonishingly flexible—mentally as well as physically. Edgar Meyer was five years old when he took up double bass, 42 years ago. A wizard with the bow, Edgar enjoys iconic status in both classical and bluegrass circles. He has had his eye on mandolinist Chris Thile for 22 years, since Chris was five. As one critic recently opined, Chris 'may well be the most virtuosic American ever to play the mandolin.' Their particular passion is to mix formal music and improvisation in a way that is natural, retaining the best elements of both.
A revealing, interview-based article on this duo is here:
www.aspentimes.com/article/20080813/NEWS/641201050/1077&ParentProfile=1058
Discover more about Chris Thile here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Thile
Discover more about Edgar Meyer here:
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=51628806
Jonathan Zwartz
23/11/2008
Double-bassist Jonathan Zwartz has for decades been one of Australia’s ‘most valued/most flexible’ musicians, especially {but not only} in jazz. The Sea is one of the lovelier - and longer-awaited - Australian debut recordings as leader. Its composed notes are all Jonathan’s. The superb players are a ‘dream band’ of longtime mutual admirers. This is intimate, very lyrical, keenly focused music - never self-indulgent, but conversational, with some inspired improvisation. Sound quality is remarkable. As tonight’s show will divulge, behind The Sea there is quite a story.
Jonathan Zwartz site:
www.myspace.com/jonathanzwartz
Mamadou Diabate ( solo )
16/11/2008
Douga Mansa is a feast of absolutely solo, West African instrumental virtuosity and improvisatory flair. ‘Live’ in the studio, Mamadou Diabate plays kora - a 21-string harp/lute. As a griot/jeli, music and oral history have been his family’s calling for centuries. Mamadou was born in 1975 in Kita, Mali. His hometown is a major cultural centre. So is his adoptive one: New York. Mamadou is at once conservative and innovative, true to a tradition which ‘has always put a premium on holding on the old way, whilst constantly innovating and developing the art.’ He tours Australia late December to mid-January.
Mamadou Diabate site {includes tour details and performance video}:
www.myspace.com/diabatemamadou
You can read a revealing article here:
www.eyefortalent.com/eft-press/M-D%20Sing%20Out%20062007sm.pdf
Dem Trio
09/11/2008
Dem Trio has a name with multiple meanings and an exquisite new CD. The Fountain is a multi-faceted expression/exploration of Turkish musical traditions. This is beautiful, refined, virtuosic, intricate music. It is also direct and surprising, a ‘chamber music’ which does not merely permit improvisation: it’s integral. The trio’s members are primarily players of various Turkish lutes, although human voice and a Turkish flute are also deployed. By choice of instruments and their attitude, Okan Murat Özturk, Murat Salim Tokaç and Cenk Güray show how ‘classical/courtly’ and ‘demotic/folk’ elements can be embraced simultaneously, without diluting either.
You can discover a little more, here:
www.oz-ist.com/artist.asp?id=9
Malinky
02/11/2008
Flower & Iron is the fourth album from Malinky. Based in Scotland, but not exclusively Scots, Malinky began ten years ago. Although instrumentally excellent, what really sets Malinky apart is its three fine singers. Each is distinctively different, two are founder-members. Respectively, a lowland Scot and an Ulster man, Steve Byrne and Mark Dunlop are players too. Steve mostly plays bouzoukis and guitars, Mark bodhran and whistles. Cellist Fiona Hunter is an exceptional singer. Her Scottish compatriot Mike Vass plays fiddle and guitar. Englishman David Wood plays guitar and bouzouki. Malinky deliver an astutely chosen mix of trad/anon and contemporary numbers, including some original tunes.
Discover more about Malinky here:
www.malinky.com
Hans Theessink and Terry Evans
01/11/2008
Tonight’s duo partners were born in the 1940s, in low places - the Netherlands and Mississippi, respectively. Hans Theessink is every bit as much a blues/soul man as Terry Evans. You have almost certainly heard Terry, even if you do not know his name. He’s sung back-up on countless albums; most famously for Ry Cooder. Ry long ago opined that Terry was even better as ‘front man’. Hans is a fine singer and superb guitarist, Terry a superb singer and capable guitarist. Visions fulfils a dream long-shared by friends and mutual admirers - to make a stripped-down, ‘2 voices and 2 guitars’ album. It’s warm, relaxed and beautifully recorded.
Hans Theessink site:
www.theessink.com
Terry Evans site:
www.terryevansmusic.com
Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider
19/10/2008
The relevant ‘f’’ word fits more failures (some, well-intentioned, others exploitative) than musical successes. Silent City is, however, a brilliant example of ‘fusion’. Its makers have direct experience of both their very different home-places: Iran and the USA. Persian classical music has a longer history than the Western kind. Kayhan Kalhor is one of the most eloquent players of any violin species. He is the supreme exponent of the kamancheh. Brooklyn Rider is a New York-based string quartet. They met as members of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project. Equally apropos are all these words: new, ancient, refined, earthy, composed, improvisatory, surprising, lucid. The key word is ‘beautiful’.
Discover a little more, here:
www.worldvillagemusic.com/anglais/album.php?album_id=109
Discover quite a lot more, here:
www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/arts/music/27kayh.html
Bako Dagnon
12/10/2008
Titati is spectacular. Bako Dagnon’s debut CD is also spectacularly overdue. As singer and cultural knowledge-bank, Bako is one of Mali’s living musical treasures, long recognised as such by her peers. The late Ali Farka Toure used to consult her. Mali’s most celebrated diva - Kandia Kouyate - was her protogé. In a career of more than 35 years she had made 5 albums, domestically. But only in 2007 - the year before her 60th birthday - did she record the album which now introduces her to the world. Bako Dagnon is powerful in every sense and well-served by her accompanists; they include two splendid acoustic guitarists and a harmonica ace.
Discover more about Bako Dagnon at these two sites:
http://bako_dagnon.mondomix.com/en/chronique4177.htm
www.geocities.com/fbessem/frames/art_dagnon_bako.html
Sainkho with Huun-Huur-Tu
05/10/2008
Mother-Earth! Father-Sky! is a sublime set of new and old songs from Tuva. This southern Siberian, central-most Asian nation is wildly beautiful. So is its music, most especially the singing. Sainkho is Tuva’s most celebrated female vocal artist. Huun-Huur-Tu is the seminal band in traditionally-based Tuvan music’s creative renaissance. Their collaboration is quintessentially Tuvan, but would have been absolutely unthinkable until a very few years ago. Some sounds may startle a Western newcomer, but most ought prove irresistibly beautiful to any attentive ears.
Sainkho’s site:
www.sainkho.net
Huun-Huur-Tu’s site:
www.huunhuurtu.com
Jerry Douglas
04/10/2008
Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Parker and country music are not often found in the same sentence. To dobro supremo Jerry Douglas, all are apropos. So are Ireland, New Orleans, even Baghdad: all are connected to his new CD, Glide. Douglas has done more than anyone else to raise the dobro’s profile and to make it ‘at home’ in lots of ‘new’ musical territories. The slide-wizard is a steel-worker’s son who fell in love with his instrument as an eight-year-old, forty-four years ago. In explaining why, the man hailed as ‘the holy ghost of the resonator guitar’ says of the dobro, ‘It’s just like a voice.’
Jerry Douglas’ site:
www.jerrydouglas.com
A recent interview (with Douglas playing, too) can be heard here:
http://wpln.org/?p=842
Steve Tilston
28/09/2008
His 1971 debut made clear that Steve Tilston was one of England’s finer acoustic guitarists/songsters. Ziggurat shows he is even better now, in all departments. Ziggurat is a set of new, shrewdly-observant originals, plus lovely new versions of two traditional songs. Tilston’s keen melodic sense is always-evident, as are his guitar skills and good taste. He borrows well, too: ‘One of the best melodies I never wrote’, he says of Chopin’s unwitting contribution to a very beautiful, otherwise-original love song.
Steve Tilston’s site:
www.steve-tilston.co.uk
Benji Kirkpatrick/ Faustus
14/09/2008
Benji Kirkpatrick is a passionate young Englishman. He is a powerful player of bouzoukis and guitars and an eloquent singer. A fine interpreter of traditional songs and tunes, he writes good new ones too and is now one of the busiest people in English ‘roots’ music. We co-feature two new albums. Boomerang is Benji’s new CD as singer-songwriter. Faustus is the eponymous debut from a trio which inclines mostly to traditional English songs. Its members sing as well as they play. Benji’s colleagues are melodeon ace Saul Rose and fiddler Paul Sartin, who also plays oboe.
Benji Kirkpatrick’s site:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=47702840
Faustus site:
www.faustusband.co.uk
3ma ( Malagasy/Moroccan/Malian string trio )
07/09/2008
3ma is an unprecedented string trio. Their music makes pleasing sense the moment you hear their eponymous debut. The album title makes sense in French. Madagascar’s emblematic instrument is the valiha. Rajery is known as the ‘prince’ of that tube zither. From Mali, comes a master of a harp/lute hybrid - kora player Ballaké Sissoko. Morocco (Maroc) is home to Driss El Maloumi. He is a virtuoso of the oud - the fretless, Arabic lute. A festival in Morocco sparked the trio, which came together in Madagascar and made their album on another Indian Ocean island.
This project’s genesis is explained here:
www.rfimusique.com/musiqueen/articles/104/article_8087.asp
You can discover a deal more about Rajery here:
http://rfimusique.com/musique/siteen/biographie/biographie_7035.asp
Rabih Abou-Khalil: <i>em português</i>
06/09/2008
Lebanese lutenist Rabih Abou Khalil lives in Europe. His highly original, cosmopolitan music has particular colleagues in mind - in recent years, an Italian, an American and a Frenchman. All four players are highly individual, virtuosic, lyrical, adventurous, humorous. Abou-Khalil’s em português crucially involves a young newcomer: Portuguese vocalist Ricardo Ribeiro, who had previously ‘only sung fado’. This beautiful, unique CD is ‘deeply rooted in the everywhere and the nowhere.’ Its leader is keenly aware that wonderful/fresh - or terrible/banal - things can happen when very different folks join forces; em português illustrates his analogy concerning what a gynaecologist knows and what a lover knows!
Discover more about this project here:
http://www.enjarecords.com/cd.php?nr=ENJ-9520
Various interview/performance videos are here:
http://www.nme.com/video/id/jE3IcK1gOMU/search/abou
Aliéksey Vianna (plays Sérgio Assad ) repeat: first aired on 17.2.08
31/08/2008
Tonight’s show revolves around a definitely-Brazilian album for classical guitar, solo. Its still-young virtuoso Aliéksey Vianna was just eight when he took up guitar, via a happy accident at home; in a cupboard he found the guitar his mother had never quite got around to playing. Aliéksey Vianna plays Sérgio Assad: solo guitar works is a project actively encouraged/heartily approved of by the composer. Sérgio Assad is the older sibling in {arguably/inarguably} the world’s top classical guitar duo. Tonight’s show includes that duo’s astonishing take on George Gershwin’s best-loved orchestral work. They manage it wonderfully well, sans-orchestra.
Discover more here: www.aliekseyvianna.com
Darrell Scott { Modern Hymns }
24/08/2008
Darrell Scott is living proof that a ‘talented non-conformist’ can enjoy success, even in today’s Nashville. He has won more than one national award for ‘Songwriter of the Year’, but other great North American songsters wrote everything on his Modern Hymns. Darell is a superbly soulful singer and multi-instrumentalist. With top-shelf accomplices, he does wonderful, non-imitative, oft-surprising, but always-appropriate things to Joni, Bob, Kris, Leonard, Paul et al... including some writers whose surnames you’d not so easily guess!
Darrell Scott’s site:
www.darrellscott.com
Timo Alakotila and Johanna Juhola
17/08/2008
Our featured duo’s members are, respectively, one of her and his generation’s key figures in Finnish music. Johanna Juhola was born in 1978. Her ‘creative fury’ moved one approving reviewer to remark that she was one reason ‘Finnish tango is not what it used to be’. Tango is just one aspect! Before she was born Timo Alakotila was already one of the keys to Finnish ‘folk’ music becoming so vibrant, creative, so unconfined by ‘folk’ or any label. On Vapaassa Tilassa {their first duo album} Timo plays grand piano and Johanna two kinds of accordion. The duo performs its own original music, with very nice cameo roles for splendid players of other instruments.
Johanna Juhola site: www.johannajuhola.net
Timo Alakotila site: www.myspace.com/timoalakotila
Baaba Maal (‘live’, acoustic)
16/08/2008
Senegal’s Baaba Maal has one of this planet’s singular voices. For too long, it has not graced a new album. His 2008 release On the Road is not on a shop shelf near you, and Baaba Maal did not enter a studio to make it! A lot of Maal’s finest moments occur on stage, especially when he is in intimate, ‘acoustic’ mode. Available via the artist’s own site, On The Road presents 8 such performances. The late-great kora player Kaouding Cissoko is on several cuts. Ernest Ranglin plays very tasty guitar on one. Maal’s mesmerising singing is the key, constant element.
To learn more about Baaba Maa (and to purchase this CD-download) go to:
www.baabamaal.tv
Trio Miyazaki
27/07/2008
Saï-Ko is the debut CD from a splendid, seemingly-unlikely trio. Its leader is a virtuoso of the long zither which is emblematic of Japan. Koto player Mieko Miyazaki is also a singer-songwriter and musical adventurer. Manuel Solans is a master of the western classical kind of violin. Trio Miyazaki’s other member is Bruno Maurice. He plays the Bayan - a huge, Russian species of accordion. The CD title refers to coloration (Saï) and rhythm or palpitation (Ko); its music ranges widely, with precision, daring and lyricism. Expect to be surprised, nicely.
Mieko Miyazaki site: www.geocities.jp/miyazaki_mieko/e_index.html
Trio Miyazaki site (click the union jack for English): www.triomiyazaki.com
Bruno Maurice site: http://appassionata.free.fr/pages/anglais/biography.htm
Alim and Fergana Qasimov { repeat: 1st aired on 6.4.08 }
20/07/2008
Azerbaijan may not be the ideal base for an international career in music. It is, however, home to one of the world’s greatest vocalists. Alim Qasimov says ‘there has to be a fire burning in you..It’s either there or it isn’t’. To hear him is to be amazed. To pay close attention is to be rewarded, more richly. He is a subtle as well as powerful, immediately-arresting singer. So is his daughter, Fargana Qasimov. Their Spiritual Music of Azerbaijan offers superb players as well as the leaders’ solo and duo vocal flights.
Discover more, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alim_Qasimov
and here:
www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt_9895_ma.html?selecteddate=10272007
Luciano Biondini and Ricardo Rocha { repeat: 1st aired on 16.9.07 }
13/07/2008
Two unusual, beautiful, virtuosic solo performances: one in a theatre in its Italian artist’s home city, the other in a Portuguese monastery. Luciano Biondini’s Prima Del Cuore means ‘before the heart’. A reviewer noted that Biondini ‘bristles with Mediterranean fire and charm’; any attentive listener will ‘quickly forget any prejudices.. against the squeeze-box’. Ricardo Rocha’s guitarra portuguesa is a beautiful instrument, more akin to mandola than guitar. Rarely heard alone, it usually accompanies fado singers. Ricardo Rocha’s voluptuária does not reject tradition, but his more adventurous coruscations show why Rocha has been called ‘the Ornette Coleman of his instrument.’
Learn a little more about Biondini here:
www.enjarecords.com/cd.php?nr=ENJ-9509&PHPSESSID=6b1994df5156719689a9e1d9993aeb8e
Learn a {very} little more about Rocha here:
www.vachier-producao.pt/imprimir.php?p=Ricardo%20Rocha%20%3E%20Biografia&agenda=
To discover more about the guitarra portuguesa go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_guitar
For a really good look at this beautifully strange instrument, go to this gallery:
www.pbase.com/alagoa/guitarra_portuguesa
Raphael Rabello { repeat: 1st aired on 20.10.07 }
12/07/2008
Pat Metheny regards Raphael Rabello as ‘one of the greatest guitarists who has ever lived.’ Antonio Carlos Jobim said ‘Raphael is Brazil’s finest guitarist’. Rabello died in 1995, aged 32. Seven months earlier, over just two afternoons, he recorded Cry, My Guitar. Very few guitar albums are in the same league as this posthumous release. Its astonishing, subtle, beautiful nylon-stringed acoustic guitar solos incline to choro, but draw on many sources. There are no over-dubs.
Discover a little more about Raphael Rabello here:
www.allbrazilianmusic.com/en/artists/Artists.asp?Status=ARTISTA&Nu_Artista=492
Debashish Bhattacharya
29/06/2008
Tonight’s main man is the world’s greatest slide guitarist. He’s also the inventor of a ‘trinity’ of decidedly-different slide guitars. This singular artist says ‘I am a big fan of Robert Johnson.’ He also expresses ‘great respect for Ray Charles and his Indian contemporary, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.’ Kolkata is home-sweet-home to our featured artist. Debashish Bhattacharya’s musical home-base is older than the blues: Hindustani {north Indian} classical music. Bhattacharya’s Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey is very beautiful, highly eclectic and inventive.
Debashish Bhattacharya’s site: www.debashishbhattacharya.com
Discover more about his new album, specifically, here:
www.worldmusic.net/wmn/news/item/debashish-bhattacharya
Charles Lloyd
15/06/2008
The release of Charles Lloyd’s Rabo de Nube {tail of a cloud} celebrates his 70th birthday. It superbly captures a concert given just weeks after his 69th birthday. That was more than four decades after another Charles Lloyd quartet’s Forest Flower - probably, still, the world’s biggest-selling ‘live’ acoustic jazz quartet album; its pianist was Keith Jarrett and Lloyd then led the world’s most popular jazz quartet. Lloyd is a much greater musician now and Rabo de Nube is a vastly superior disc. With the leader’s magisterial tenor sax, fluent flute and probing tarogato are three brilliant, much younger players - pianist Jason Moran, double-bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland. This truly spiritual music is light-years deeper than the bland twaddle oft-peddled as ‘spiritual’ music.
Charles Lloyd’s official site: www.charleslloyd.com
You can read a revealing interview with him, here:
www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=2046
Timo Alakotila/ Karen Tweed
08/06/2008
Seven years ago Karen Tweed and Timo Alakotila convened an unusual ensemble which made a singular CD called May Monday. She is an ancestrally-Irish, English accordionist. He is a Finnish pianist. Both are composers and influential, ear-opening music educators. Midnight is a perhaps even lovelier sequel. Its core quartet (now billed as ‘May Monday’) also includes a superb Swedish guitarist and an English fiddler, of Swedish ancestry. A bassoonist is among their various guests. Just a few of many tags which fit: ‘traditional’, ‘brand new’, ‘refined’, ‘robust’, ‘profoundly lyrical’ and ‘nicely quirky’.
Discover more, here:
www.myspace.com/maymonday
www.myspace.com/timoalakotila
www.myspace.com/karentweed
Enrico Pieranunzi/ Marc Johnson/ Joey Baron (in Japan)
01/06/2008
Live in Japan captures a singular Italian/American alliance. Pianist Enrico Pieranunzi has a superb touch. The trio’s sure-fingered Italian leader is never domineering and his musical mind is profoundly lyrical, yet wide open. He and his American friends - bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron - are longstanding colleagues, mutual admirers. Their music is conversational, in the best sense; lucid, logical, never merely-rambling, but oft-spontaneous and surprising. Sound quality is superb.
Pieranunzi is very thoughtful and articulate - verbally, as well as musically. His wise advice to younger musicians: ‘just keep in mind the alphabetical order and note that music comes before show and before success.’
Enrico Pieranunzi site:
www.myspace.com/enricopieranunzi
Much more revealing than the bio above is the interview/article, here:
www.jazzreview.com/article/review-5556.html
Discover more about Joey Baron here (his own site is ’dead’, as I type)
www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Joey_Baron.html
Discover more about the (secretive) Marc Johnson here:
www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608004798/Marc-Johnson.html )
Annbjørg Lien
25/05/2008
Our featured album is not at all like last night’s, but does also come from northern Europe. Waltz With Me is an unusual string quartet project, informed by ancient traditions, but novel. Norwegian leader/composer Annbjørg Lien is a virtuoso of the Hardanger fiddle. Mikael Marin from Sweden (and the great band Väsen) plays 5-string viola. Cellist Christine Hanson is from Canada, but lives in Scotland. Bruce Molsky is a master of North American ‘ole-timey’ fiddle music.. and many other things besides. Here, he plays American and Scandinavian fiddles and guitar. Bruce also sings, as does one of Norway’s greatest vocalists - the quartet’s special guest, Kistern Bråten Berg.
Annbjørg Lien’s site:
www.annbjorglien.com
Strings Tradition
18/05/2008
Strings Tradition is a beautiful, unforced meeting of two continents and three classical/erudite musical traditions. Its three co-leaders are from musical families/dynasties. Kora player Mamadou Diabate (who recently delighted WOMADelaide audiences) is a Mande musician, from Mali. Ustad Shujaat Khan is a Hindustani (North Indian) classical virtuoso. He has a lovely singing voice, but is most especially a master of the sitar. Violinist Vidwan Lalgudi G.J.R. Khrishnan’s background is in Carnatic (South Indian) classical music.
Discover more here:
www.stringstradition.com/uk/musicisti.html
Andrew Robson {reverence}
11/05/2008
Andrew Robson is not the first musician to fall in love with music penned nearly half a millennium ago by the Tudor composer Thomas Tallis. Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; is one of the best-loved 20th century classical works. The young Australian improvising saxophonist is, however, likely the first jazz artist with an album subtitled ‘The Hymns of Thomas Tallis’. His is a respectful, loving embrace; Robson’s Bearing the Bell is quite free of swinging and/or ‘Swingle’-esque inanities. This is profoundly lyrical, quietly adventurous instrumental music for Robson’s and Sandy Evans’ saxophones, James Greening’s trombone and pocket trumpet and Steve Elphick’s double bass.
Andrew Robson’s site:
www.andrewrobsontrio.com/index.html
Discover more about Thomas Tallis ( 1505 - 1585 ) here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Tallis
Tim O'Brien (alone)
04/05/2008
‘There is a soul inside of them waiting to come out’ says Tim O’Brien. He’s speaking of the vintage and custom-made instruments he plays on Chameleon. This masterful instrumentalist, singer and songwriter’s umpteenth album is the first on which he is quite solo, throughout. In Tim’s hands - one at a time - are a banjo, two different acoustic guitars, two (very different) bouzoukis, a mandola, a mandolin and a fiddle. The delicious results are sometimes unpredictable - his re-assessment of Judas, for instance. Another song sees a fiddle much older than Tim - and an even older ‘feel’ - support wry observations concerning 21st century communication modes.
Discover more about Tim O’Brien here:
www.timobrien.net/index.cfm
Marcin Wasilweski Trio
20/04/2008
January is the new CD from a splendid trio. Its Polish members are still young, but the line-up unchanged for 15 years. Suddenly, however, its name is ‘The Marcin Wasileski Trio’. Pianist Marcin, acoustic bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz are an equilateral triangle, still. But they have accepted ‘world market realities’ and that the American market would not ‘get’ the wry name which had caused the leaderless trio no ‘marketing difficulty’ at home. Poles have long recognised ‘The Simple Acoustic Trio’ (who are also the three much-the-younger members of Tomasz Stanko’s quartet) as very special. Be glad that ‘market realities’ had nothing to do with the new CD’s contents: beautiful, always-alert music, superbly recorded.
Discover more, here:
www.ecmrecords.com/Background/2019.php
Karine Polwart
13/04/2008
Karine Polwart can often be found tramping the hills near her home in southern Scotland. Wherever you look, you’ll be hard-pressed to find her peer, musically. Karine is equally uncanny as singer of traditional songs and as writer-performer of keenly-observant new ones. She has two current releases. Fairest Floo’er is mostly devoted to traditional songs, whilst this earthly spell is her new set of Polwart originals.
Karine Polwart’s site: www.karinepolwart.com
Alim and Fergana Qasimov
06/04/2008
Azerbaijan may not be the ideal base for an international career in music. It is, however, home to one of the world’s greatest vocalists. Alim Qasimov says ‘there has to be a fire burning in you..It’s either there or it isn’t’. To hear him is to be amazed. To pay close attention is to be rewarded, more richly. He is a subtle as well as powerful, immediately-arresting singer. So is his daughter, Fargana Qasimov. Their Spiritual Music of Azerbaijan offers superb players as well as the leaders’ solo and duo vocal flights.
Discover more, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alim_Qasimov
and here:
www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt_9895_ma.html?selecteddate=10272007
Joseph Tawadros
30/03/2008
Angel is the new album from one of the world’s more remarkable young lutenists. The young, Egyptian-born, Joseph Tawadros has called Australia home since arriving here as a two year old in 1986. Angel is a set of original, decidedly-conversational instrumental music. It inclines to the contemplative, but offers fire, too. With the leader-composer’s oud are frame drums {beautifully played by his brother James Tawadros}, piano and clarinet - the latter very sensitively handled, respectively, by Matt McMahon and Dimitri Vouras.
Joseph Tawadros site: www.josephtawadros.com
Djivan Gasparyan
23/03/2008
Djivan Gasparyan (aka ‘Jivan Gasparyan’) is Armenia’s best-loved citizen, at home and abroad. At home, a brand of vodka hears his name. Abroad, thanks to his masterful playing, many millions have been moved by the ‘straight to the human heart’ sound of the duduk. Armenia’s emblematic instrument is an ‘oboe’, but the duduk’s singularly haunting, fluted ‘voice’ is utterly unlike any other oboe. The Soul of Armenia is a lavish, 2-CD survey of Djivan Gasparyan. It has excellent, newly-recorded performances. Many of the older ones are made readily available for the first time.
The artist’s site is here:
www.gasparyanjivan.com
You would like to know more about the duduk?
This is a good place to start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duduk
Cindy Combs
22/03/2008
Aloha! Summer Rain is Cindy Combs’ beautiful new, all-instrumental, solo set of ‘ki ho’ alu’ - the uniquely Hawaiian school of fingerstyle guitar. The rest of the world calls it ‘slack key’ guitar. Widely known in Hawaii as ‘the slack-key lady’, Cindy Combs is a superb acoustic guitarist. Her music - whether self-penned, or an intricate arrangement of a favourite Hawaiian song - is subtle, warm, very lyrical.
Discover more about Cindy, here:
www.dancingcat.com/artists/Cindy_Combs.php
You would like to know more about ki ho’ alu?
Click the ‘slack key info book’ prompt at the top of Cindy’s Dancing Cat page
Toumani Diabate
09/03/2008
Twenty years ago, Toumani Diabate made the kora’s very first entirely solo, instrumental album. Now the world’s most celebrated virtuoso of his West African harp-lute, Toumani has since made many, varied ensemble projects. On Mandé Variations he is alone again, seeking to show the world that ‘African music is not only dance music.’ The results are sublime, refined and exciting - a simultaneous embrace of ancient traditions {Toumani’s family have been griots - hereditary musicians/story-tellers/oral historians - for more than seven centuries} and innovation/ improvisation. Most pieces honour a particular, significant African individual.
Toumani Diabate’s own site:
www.myspace.com/toumanidiabate
There’s a good article about his new album here:
www.ft.com/cms/s/67d38b32-d053-11dc-9309-0000779fd2ac.html
Aliéksey Vianna (plays Sérgio Assad )
17/02/2008
Tonight’s show revolves around a definitely-Brazilian album for classical guitar, solo. Its still-young virtuoso Aliéksey Vianna was just eight when he took up guitar, via a happy accident at home; in a cupboard he found the guitar his mother had never quite got around to playing. Aliéksey Vianna plays Sérgio Assad: solo guitar works is a project actively encouraged/heartily approved of by the composer. Sérgio Assad is the older sibling in {arguably/inarguably} the world’s top classical guitar duo. Tonight’s show includes that duo’s astonishing take on George Gershwin’s best-loved orchestral work. They manage it wonderfully well, sans-orchestra.
Discover more here: www.aliekseyvianna.com
<i>Mare Nostrum</i> (Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren)
10/02/2008
Mare Nostrum means ‘our sea’. To the ancient Romans it was the Mediterranean - a sea with European, African and Asian shores. Notwithstanding pianist Jan Lundgren’s Swedish nationality, this beautifully unusual trio has a Mediterranean flavour. Mare Nostrum is the first three-way exchange between Jan, Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu and the French (ancestrally, Italian) accordionist and bandoneon virtuoso Richard Galliano. Each is highly eclectic, highly individual, a noted leader. All are open-eared and conversational - quietly brilliant players who don’t shout out their virtuosity. The music is mostly their own, but they also do lovely, surprising things to pieces by Jobim, Ravel and Trénet.
Discover more, here:
www.actmusic.com/product_info.php?products_id=239&show=2
Chris Wood
03/02/2008
‘The gold we are searching for is in our own backyard’ says Chris Wood. Described by an Irish critic as ‘the renaissance man of English folk.’, he is passionately English, but no chauvinist. Wood is an acute purveyor/surveyor of ‘unofficial’ history. You do not have to be English or folk-ish to recognise one of the few truly singular songsters - in both writing and delivery. Trespasser is subtle, sharp, superbly played and sung. Listen closely to his new CD and you will soon cease to be surprised that American performance artist Laurie Anderson hails Wood as ‘an incredible artist.’
There is a good biography, here: http://music.msn.com/artist/?artist=16186438&menu=bio
Chris Wood’s own site: www.englishacousticcollective.org.uk
Aliéksey Vianna (plays Sérgio Assad ) { show first aired on 17.2.08 }
31/01/2008
Tonight’s show revolves around a definitely-Brazilian album for classical guitar, solo. Its still-young virtuoso Aliéksey Vianna was just eight when he took up guitar, via a happy accident at home; in a cupboard he found the guitar his mother had never quite got around to playing. Aliéksey Vianna plays Sérgio Assad: solo guitar works is a project actively encouraged/heartily approved of by the composer. Sérgio Assad is the older sibling in {arguably/inarguably} the world’s top classical guitar duo. Tonight’s show includes that duo’s astonishing take on George Gershwin’s best-loved orchestral work. They manage it wonderfully well, sans-orchestra.
Discover more here: www.aliekseyvianna.com
Les Soeurs Diabaté { Guinean Lovesongs - first aired on 25.8.07 }
19/01/2008
Fine female, non-Western voices soar this weekend. Tomorrow, our primary address is in the south of India. Tonight’s is in West Africa. Donkili Diarabi - Guinean Lovesongs features the three voices of ‘Les Soeurs Diabaté’. Sona and Sayon Diabaté are in fact sisters. Mama Diabaté is Sona’s soul sister. Their distinctive voices are heard singly and together, with beautiful accompaniment on bolon, bala {respectively, a bass harp-lute and a xylophone which sounds more like a marimba than a Western xylophone} and acoustic guitar.
You can discover a little more, here:
wwww.africanculture.dk/en/sona.html
Devon Sproule and Martha Scanlan {first aired on 17.6.07}
06/01/2008
We feature two fine, quite different North American female singer-songwriters. Keep Your Silver Shined is the second CD from Devon Sproule. Young but wise, she is witty and loving, with a light touch, but a deal of depth. Don’t let its ’down home’ atmosphere fool you - Ms Sproule is sophisticated, eclectic. She is also a very capable vocalist/guitarist. Martha Scanlan is older and more ’old-timey Americana’, musically. The West was Burning offers superb, spare-poetic songs. Her debut as leader was mostly made in Levon Helm’s studio, with himself on drums.
Devon Sproule’s site: www.devonsproule.com
Martha Scanlan’s site: www.marthascanlan.com
