AUTUMN CDS Starry debut Claudia Aurora
SILÊNCIO (WORLD VILLAGE 450020)
choly rarely equalled even in the most lonesome blues or, across Iberia, in the deepest “deep song” of flamenco. Claudia Aurora is the new star of Portugal’s greatest musical form, a fadista who combines a light and sup- ple voice with a depth of emotion that belies her years. Recorded in Bath, Silêncio (World Village) is a breakthrough recording, and she’s supporting the release with a string of per- formances across the UK, culminating in a concert at Opera North next March. It takes courage to let another vocalist
C
open your album. It’s fully two minutes before we hear Aurora sing. Instead, Fernando Messias recites the opening “Náufrago”, which re connects modern fado with its nautical roots, its masculine origins (Coimbra fado was performed exclusively by male university students), and air of des- tiny or fate: the word derives from fatum. “Desejo do mar” is a brilliant blend of novelty and tradition, fado recast as modern pop song, and one can easily imagine a Cheryl Cole or a Tori Amos tackling a song like
RADIO
Spurious case for place
Lawrence in New Mexico BBC RADIO 4
budgets available are not notably lavish. In fact, sometimes they barely exist. Not the least question to be asked of Geoff Dyer’s entertaining precis of D.H. Lawrence’s New Mexican adventure was: who underwrote it? No BBC producer could have shelled out for the airfare, so I can only conclude that Dyer acquired some commission from a travel mag- azine and took a portable tape recorder along with him to make some extra money. But all this is by the way. Lawrence in New
A
Mexico (3 November) opened to the sound of birdsong and a grave-toned actor reciting a description of “the brilliant proud morning” to be found in Taos. Other audio effects included rattlesnakes buzzing and the noise of footsteps as Dyer and his guide tramped up some desolate hillside to visit his subject’s memorial. Great claims were made, not only about the brilliance of the proud mornings – and this was a programme in which abstract
30 | THE TABLET | 12 November 2011
nyone who has ever made an arts pro- gramme for BBC Radio 4 will know, the
astaways of the sea and of the moon, fado singers plumb a depth of graceful melan-
“Mariquinha”or the three-quarter time title track. Aurora is, as the name nicely implies, at
the start of her career. Sadly, even the turbulent Etta James has reached the end of hers. The feisty “Miss Peaches” survived prison, but has battled MRSA infection, leukaemia and sepsis and has now been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a condition which her family says was behind James’ savage comments about Beyoncé’s performance of “At Last” (a song forever associated with Etta) at Barack Obama’s inaugural ball. She was, though, equally caustic in years gone by about anyone who dared to record “I’d Rather Go Blind”, which she claimed to have written. The Dreamer (Decca) is to be her last record. The voice has coarsened, yet the soul and jazz elements haven’t simply survived but have risen to the top once more, “Champagne and Wine”, “Cigarettes and Coffee”: that sums it up.
Singer/pianist Buddy Greco these days regards a morning in the studio as a morning away from the golf course, but the 85-year- old has been doing club dates (and a Jools Holland appearance) this autumn and has an extensive tape library to dip into. Live at the Sands (BNL Records) comes from a 1967 Las Vegas engagement. The voice is in excel- lent shape and Greco works a charisma that is gentler but no less compelling than Sinatra’s. He also does the definitive “The Lady is a Tramp”. Quick music trivia question: who’s the only artist to win Grammys in jazz, pop and r’n’b?
nouns fizzed about like firecrackers – but of the galvanising effect that New Mexico had on Lawrence, changing his life, as Dyer claimed, “for ever”. The Lawrences – D.H. and his wife, Frieda – arrived in Taos in September 1922, at the invitation of the wealthy philanthropist Mabel Dodge. Other lures were the promise of a cli- mate that might help Lawrence’s already shattered health and the sheer restlessness that kept him permanently in flight for most of his adult life. Mabel’s idea was that he would write a book about her relationship with her Native American husband, Tony Luhan. If so, she must have been disappointed by the epic subversion of this cross-cultural alliance that Lawrence put into St Mawr and “The Woman Who Rode Away” – outings whose alleged bru- tality was, as Dyer pointed out, enough to damn Lawrence’s reputation for all time among the feminist critics of the 1970s. Dyer’s view, supported by the English writer Henry Shukman, with whom he had several illuminating chats, was that Lawrence’s genius (another abstract noun that burned through the proceedings) found its finest expression in the travel writing, essays and poetry in which his Mexican trip abounded. Another recital mentioned “the great free spaces”, exposure to which would guarantee that the observer “would never be the same again”. Shukman spoke of the spontaneity of Lawrence’s reactions, of Taos providing numerous spots in which he could
The blues, Portuguese style: Claudia Aurora
It’s not obvious, and Al Jarreau’s flexibility of approach has sometimes left him stranded
between markets. A fine reissue of five early records in the Original Album Series (Warner Brothers) offers a budget opportunity to judge just how good he is. The consensus is that he hit an early peak with We Got By in 1975, tailed off a little on Glowbut returned to form with All Fly Home, This Time and in 1981 with Breakin’ Awaywhich included the defin- itive “We’re In This Love Together”. Uniquely, nearly all of these finished high in more than one chart category, reaching number one in jazz and r’n’b. Jarreau does gospel, Latin and straight pop with equal facility and, like Greco, seems inde- structible. Though reportedly near death in France last year with cardiac and respiratory problems, he has bounced back. Unlike Etta James, who has announced her retirement, and Greco, who’s probably too busy with a nine iron at either Palm Springs or Westcliff- on-Sea, Jarreau is likely to record again soon, but it will be hard to better these early classics. Brian Morton
sit down and write “whatever came into his mind”.
If this didn’t instantly seem to be a point in his subject’s favour, Dyer was determined to make it so, and emphasised Lawrence’s ability to project aspects of himself on to the scene outlined to him. Thus his description of “a peculiar feel of grudgingness in the land- scape” was merely a reflection of his own exacting mood. I wasn’t wholly convinced by this subjugation of an entire environment to the observer’s personality, and even less taken by Lawrence’s rapt account of a local snake- dancing event, after which he concluded that “only the heroes snatch manhood, little by little, from the strange den of the cosmos”. Brilliant, proud mornings. Light and dark-
ness. Primitive new civilisations come to rejuvenate effete visitors from abroad. It was to Dyer’s great credit that he took pains to stress Lawrence’s comic side: the rows with Frieda; the abandonment of Luhan hospitality after Tony had laughed at his guest’s attempt to ride a horse. How could he “equilibriate” himself with his cow, he wondered at one point? Back in England, an attempt to recruit settlers for an idealistic new community realised only the painter Dorothy Brett. Come 1925, the Lawrences left Taos for Italy, never to return. As an “in the steps of” trail, this was impres-
sive, even if nothing in it quite encouraged the listener to adopt the view of Lawrence that Dyer takes himself. D.J. Taylor
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40