Past Programs
Poetry - 2008
Patricia Barber
26/10/2008
The Cole Porter Mix is the latest from Patricia Barber. Her piano would be worthy of attention, alone. Barber also offers - as W Magazine wrote - ‘the voice of a cabaret chanteuse, the soul of a beat poet and the mind of an English professor’. She sets herself high standards and leads a superb little band. Eight years ago Barber said, ‘my ideal would be a songwriter like Cole Porter’. Her new CD offers acute, fresh readings of ten Porter songs. Irony informs them all, but none are merely-ironic. The same applies to the album’s other three, equally sophisticated songs, penned by herself.
Patricia Barber’s site is here:
www.patriciabarber.com
A very revealing {2000-vintage} interview can be read here:
http://jazzinchicago.org/educates/journal/interviews/conversation-patricia-barber
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
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
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
Huong Thanh and Nguyên Lê
19/04/2008
Fragile Beauty is unmistakably Vietnamese, yet full of hybrid vigour... and delicacy. Happily, Huong Thanh made an incorrect assumption in 1977, when she and her parents moved from Vietnam to Paris. The then-17-year-old singer was in tears, thinking ‘my dream of performing on stages had turned to dust.’ In 2008 she’s renowned worldwide as a superb singer and very interesting recording artist. On her new CD are many fine musicians of highly diverse backgrounds - most crucially, its co-leader, producer and guitarist Nguyên Lê.
Discover more about the singer and the new CD here:
www.actmusic.com/product_info.php?products_id=217&show=2
and:
www.actmusic.com/artist_detail.php?bio=1&manufacturers_id=12
Nguyen Lê’s site is here:
www.nguyen-le.com
www.antoniosanchez.net/press.html
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
