Past Programs
Chamber/Instrumental - 2008
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
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
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
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
Bennie Maupin ( in Poland )
27/09/2008
Bennie Maupin is a gifted composer and brilliant improvising player of reeds and flute. His bass clarinet work with Miles Davis was likened to a barracuda, prowling the lower clef. Keenly aware that ‘there are infinitely more sounds than there are notes’, Maupin is a master of quiet surprise and space. He is still growing, musically. On Early Reflections the 68-year-old from Detroit makes beautiful new music in Warsaw, with three fine young Polish jazz players and a superb female singer. Having previously recorded only operatic and Polish folk musics, Hania Chowaniec-Rybka here proves ‘sui generis’, quietly astonishing and absolutely comfortable.
Maupin’s official site:
www.benniemaupin.com
A very revealing, 2006-vintage interview is here:
www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=22723
Dřrge Becker Carlsen ( in church! )
21/09/2008
For nearly three decades Danish guitarist Pierre Dřrge has led one of the world’s more eclectic, creative and entertaining large ensembles. Keyboardist Irene Becker and reeds player Morten Carlsen are also founder-members of New Jungle Orchestra. Pierre, Irene and Morten’s occasional trio inclines rather more to contemplation and to intimate settings, most especially churches. The Skagen Concert was recorded in one, in Denmark’s northernmost town, near the tip of the Jutland Peninsula. We also venture into a Norwegian church tonight - in Oslo, where John Surman and Howard Moody recently recorded some sublime duets.
For more about Pierre Dřrge etc, this is still the best place to start:
www.newjungleorchestra.com
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
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
Bar Kokhba: <i>Lucifer</i>
09/08/2008
Sephardic ‘Surf’? This hitherto-unsuspected genre almost fits some of the music on Lucifer: Book of Angels Volume 10. The more extreme end of John Zorn’s wildly eclectic musical world may be ‘hellish’ to some ears, but not so anything here. Zorn’s compositions for Lucifer are immediately-attractive, mostly genial and nigh-irresistible. They also reward close attention. Lucifer is the first new recording in a decade by the Bar Kokhba sextet: violinist Mark Feldman, cellist Erik Friedlander, guitarist Marc Ribot, double bassist Greg Cohen, drummer Joey Baron and percussionist Cyro Baptista.
Zorn is an extraordinarily multi-faceted musician. To discover a little (or a lot) more, begin at this well-linked place:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Zorn
e.s.t. ( 'live' in Hamburg )
24/05/2008
‘Europe Invades!’ screamed Downbeat when e.s.t. became the first European group ever to make its cover. Pianist Esbjörn Svensson - their nominal leader - admits to drawing more inspiration from Beethoven and Bach than from any jazz icon. But the collective mind that is e.s.t. has no place for silly wars about continents or genres. Double bassist Dan Berglund mostly listens to hard rock. Drummer Magnus Öström listens ‘to every kind of music.’ Their double-CD Live in Hamburg is exciting, powerful, lyrical, surprising. Two members of this ‘definitely not just another piano trio’ have made music together almost their entire lives - since 1967, when they were aged 2 and 3.
Discover more, here:
www.est-music.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
Horn Please! ( Jonas Knutsson)
27/04/2008
File under ‘Swedish folk’. But prepare to be surprised, very nicely! Horn Please! is an octet, led by Jonas Knutsson. He is a saxophonist, as are five of his seven colleagues. The others play acoustic and electric basses and various percussion. Their eponymous debut CD offers a mostly-Scandinavian repertoire of ingeniously-arranged traditional tunes and Swedish-accented originals, plus the odd Carnatic {South Indian} number. The band’s name comes from the back of the Subcontinent’s trucks!
Discover a little more, here:
www.hornplease.se/e/hornplease.html
and here:
www.touchemusic.se/jknutsson.html
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
Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill
02/03/2008
Martin Hayes plays fiddle. Dennis Cahill plays acoustic guitar. Singly, each is remarkable. As a duo they are sublime. If you love Irish music you will surely love their sensitive, quietly inventive approach. If you generally don’t much care for Irish music, you may well love this duo all the more! Welcome Here Again is their first new duo CD in eight years. Fortuitously, its international release coincides with their February/March 2008 Australian tour.
Martin Hayes/Dennis Cahill site { includes tour details } :
www.martinhayes.com
Carla Bley (with Paolo Fresu}
24/02/2008
For more than three decades Carla Bley has been one of the most consistently creative composer-arranger-bandleaders. Although best-known for large ensembles, she can make a very small one sound remarkably ‘orchestral’, yet intimate. On The Lost Chords find Paolo Fresu, her regular quartet becomes a quintet, via Carla’s wish to give her saxophonist a ‘present’. Aware that Andy Sheppard so admired and felt a real affinity with the Sardinian trumpeter, Carla recruited Paolo - even before she knew his abilities, directly. Her trust in Andy’s judgement was not misplaced! Carla so loved his and Paolo’s interactions that she remarked, ‘I couldn’t wait to get through my solo...so I could simply listen to them.’ As always with Carla, the music is beautiful, surprising ... and humorous.
A conversation with Carla Bley - about this CD - can be read here:
www.ecmrecords.com/Background/Watt/Bgr_W34.php
For general info on Carla Bley, a good place to start is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carla_Bley
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
Joubran Trio
02/02/2008
Majâz means ‘metaphor’. It is also the Joubran Trio’s sparkling new CD, on which the three brothers from Nazareth are joined by a percussionist. Samir, Wissam and Adnan Joubran are Palestinians who travel on Israeli passports. Each is a brilliant player of the oud. Wissam - the first Arabic graduate of Italy’s Antonio Stradivari Conservatory - is also a superb luthier; he hand-crafted their fretless lutes. Expect oomph, delicacy, immediacy, complexity and surprise.
Discover more here
www.letriojoubran.com/en/le_trio_joubran.html
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
