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la Púa, María Celeste Torre and Federico Gar- cía Lorca. Welcome to the quirky, twisted sweep of Melingo’s wry bohemian universe— Carlos Gardel in a post-industrial pall—a fab- ulous, boozy, theatrical milieu where Tolstoy, Kafka, Piaf, Brecht, Waits and Cohen might find cold solace and unsettled lodging. Notes and lyrics in French, Spanish and English.


UK distribution via Harmonia Mundi.


www.worldvillagemusic.com Michael Stone


KANDA BONGO MAN


King Of Kwassa Kwassa Nascente NSDCD027


Lucky enough to stumble on Kanda at Womad 20 years ago, I emerged KO-ed, battered and euphoric. His whole presence beamed out a soppy who-me? George Melly-Formby type of saucy goodwill, aided and abetted by some of the sexiest dancing ever allowed on stage, while a nuclear rhythm section and two of the finest guitar players ever to walk the planet – the incredible Diblo and Rigo Star – blasted body and brains into the stratosphere.


Melingo


the album, as Campbell himself declares after her hushed, seductive rendering of Balu- lalow, “this song is being sung for you by Sandy Denny – hell, yeah!” as if nothing which follows could match it. As for the rest, they serve as a reminder that much that passed as folk in 1967 was a real soupy jam- balaya of trad, carols, blues, jug band and self-composition. So, Alex chips in as does his wife Patsy and Sandy sees out the evening with a trio of numbers that could frame the next few years of her cruelly short life. Milk & Honey is from the pen of then current beau Jackson Frank, while She Moves Through The Fair, wistful and ghostly, transferred almost as was to Fairport Convention, where her own Who Knows Where The Time Goes took anchor to remain for evermore. Quirky yet appealing is her version of Fairy Tale Lullaby, a casual ramble through a child’s dreams, all the more idiosyncratic because it’s the work of embryonic strummer John Martyn, from whom Sandy must have learned it some- where on the circuit, its author had yet to lay down his own version.


All too soon she’d be caught up in tan- gled webs of indecision, musical highs, poten- tial stardom and ironic self-doubt. The 19-CD box set tells almost all her story, though this little sideshow captures her laughing, clearly at ease and among friends. This is as too few knew her and her obvious enjoyment is worth the asking price alone.


www.witchwoodrecords.co.uk Simon Jones MELINGO


Corazón & HuesoWorld Village WVF479064


Singer Daniel Melingo (Spanish guitar, piano, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, whistle, bag- pipes, harmonica, bass, castanets, cymbals, vocoder) worked with Milton Nascimento before returning to his native Argentina to become an early rock en español innovator under the military dictatorship. More recently Melingo has turned to tango, backed by the Ramones del Tango, an eclectic congregation of bandoneón, accordeon, violin, guitar, elec- tric guitar, bouzouki, baglama, guitarrón, piano, organ, double bass, drums, vibes, per- cussion, cymbal, palmas, dub, vinyl and cho- rus. Recorded between Buenos Aires and Paris, the repertoire (canción, chamamé, cueca, milonga, tango, vals) was penned by Melingo, with additional lyrics by Luis Alpos- ta, Celedonio Flores, Dante Linyera, Carlos de


Kanda may not have had a voice to catch you by the throat – not that he sang so much, with such eloquent guitars doing the talking – nor did his songs stray far from the original formula. But what a formula! A zouk-rumba fusion, losing the slow intro sections and hurling out the brass.


Kanda’s later recordings on the South African Gallo label have experimented with a duet with David Masondo of the Soul Broth- ers, a few gospel tracks, and that cloudy woo- woo theremin-flute noise used to such great effect on Lucky Dube albums. But the great Congolese inventor of soukous is never going to be an all-rounder. He does one thing, he does it blindingly well, and here’s the evi- dence: a double best-of CD that follows and builds on Nascente’s previous Very Best Of released ten years ago.


Some tracks overlap but it’s worth noting


that the Iyole on this anthology is not the somewhat bland re-recording used on the Very Best Of anthology. Most of the tracks come from the two Hannibal albums Amour Fou and Kwassa Kwassa, with a handful from Zing Zong of 1991 (with Dally Kimoko and Nene Tchakou now on guitars). But the best tracks – the freshest, the wildest, the thrillingest – are from Non Stop Non Stop.


www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk Rick Sanders ZOOX Ups And Downs Zoox Records ZOOX2


The first time I encountered the three women of Zoox, they were gingerly carrying a bewil- dering array of instruments down some par- ticularly hazardous stairs at a local folk club. Having duly contributed two ear-opening tune-medleys and a song to that singers’ night, they easily secured a booking… But any initial impression of cleverclogs show-off virtuosity soon gave way to a marked respect for their individual and collective talents, which grows stronger the more you undergo the Zoox experience in concert. Now you can on disc too, with a second album that really does communicate the tremendous zest of their live act and the serious fun they have making music.


Although the sheer energy of their play- ing draws you in from the outset, interest is maintained throughout any given track by means of a cleverly varied and continually shifting palette of sounds, textures and instru- mental colours. They achieve an intuitive clari- ty, while interweaving separate parts, which enables the listener to fully appreciate both


the tunes and the arrangements. At the same time they are able to utilise the potential offered by the recording studio (Ollie Knight’s) without resorting to gimmickry.


Jo, Linda and Becky all bring to the mix an exuberant yet deep appreciation, born out of both academic study and extensive on-the- road practice, of musics from Celtic to klezmer, African to Cuban, east-European to western classical, old-time to folk and rock; and always with abundant freshness and stylistic fluidity. The glory is that nothing they do ever feels forced or attention-seeking, even when they choose to dazzle with speed (as on the open- ing La Belle Catherine, a fiddle extravaganza for Linda backed by Jo’s clattering spoons and Becky’s bumbling contra bassoon that’s become somewhat of a Zoox trademark). Even the tune choices that might in lesser hands have become routine session playthroughs, such as the slip-jig Kid On The Mountain, are revived with sparkling musicianship and imagi- native juxtapositions and contrasts where their chosen instruments can just as easily wax lyrical as spin the dizzy notes around the room: the contrabassoon fruitily comic or plain sepul- chral, the balafon shimmering impressionisti- cally or skittering skeletally.


Amidst breezy excursions like All


Change, Salty and Riffwood, we encounter the masterful programmatic pizzicatos of Rainy View, the plaintive harmonies of I Wish, an almost childlike take on Richard Thomp- son’s Little Beggar Girl and (a stroke of genius, this) the conclusion on a mournful and intimate note with a poignant near- acappella rendition of Old Smokey. Thor- oughly irresistible. (Distribution: Proper.)


www.zoox.co.uk David Kidman


YO-YO MA, STUART DUNCAN, EDGAR MEYER & CHRIS THILE


Goat Rodeo Sessions Sony Masterworks 88697 84118 2


As you’d imagine from this collection of string maestros, this is a class act: by turn, del- icate and airy and rich and sumptuous.


A ‘goat rodeo’, according to Urban Dic-


tionary, “is about the most polite term used by aviation people (and others in higher risk situations) to describe a scenario that requires about 100 things to go right at once if you intend to walk away from it.” Such was clearly the scenario in trying to coordinate the schedules of four of the world’s most renowned string players in their respective fields, as well perhaps as referring to the genre-bending nature of their collective music making. Self-penned material draws on a number of traditions – from soaring Irish jigs to breakneck bluegrass to Philip Glass minimalism.


Exquisitely produced and superbly exe- cuted, this is galvanising stuff. Of course, four virtuosi in one room do necessarily guarantee a winning formula, but this instrumental- heavy release shows a lightness of touch, a razor-sharp precision and a driving passion that can’t fail to move the listener. Recorded sat around the mic in a circle, you can clearly hear their responses to each other – the gal- vanizing and joyous momentum, the intelli- gently interweaving layers and the backseat respect shown when each comes to the fore.


And each is clearly discernible: Stuart


Duncan’s sliding, whooping fiddle melodies (not to mention his elastic fretless banjo dex- terity); the jaw-droppingly intricate man- dolin-picking of Thile, his lightnesss of touch; Edgar Meyer’s gut-wrenching bass lines and the precise but heart-stirring lift of Yo-Yo Ma’s cello, which sweeps you off the ground with its beauty.


Photo: Judith Burrows


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