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because most of the these artists seem them- selves to be in awe of their host band and rarely express the music in the sort of original or meaningful way you might anticipate in these circumstances. Lisa Hannigan, for exam- ple, sounds like a scared rabbit singing My Lagan Love – a song that has enjoyed so many spectacular versions including Margaret Barry, Sinead O’Connor and even a previous Chieftains recording with Van Morrison, that this sounds particularly lame. The same applies to the Secret Sisters’ rudimentary Peggy Gordon and, given their general forthrightness, The Decemberists’ version of Dylan’s When The Ship Comes In offers noth- ing new to the song. Bon Iver’s Down In The Willow Garden has a fragile charm, The Low Anthem’s poignant take on Ewan MacColl’s School Days Over is quietly affecting and the Civil Wars’ Lily Love is nice enough; but the most interesting tracks are those when the guest artists are less tentative, showing us their style rather than trying to fit around the Chieftains – the Punch Brothers’ The Lark In The Clear Air, Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Pret- ty Little Girl and Imelda May’s Carolina Rua.
Mostly, though, they almost seem super- fluous as the Chieftains do what they’ve been doing for 50 years with distinctive, practised ease. That it still sounds sublime counts for plenty, of course, and it would be cruel to dis- miss this album as marketing opportunism, however tempting, especially in the light of The Chieftains In Orbit, an instrumental that opens with NASA astronaut Cady Coleman recorded in space talking and playing whistle and flute. It would be laughable, except the band melts in with her playing so cleverly that the track ends up sounding wondrous. Only the Chieftains would consider an auda- cious trick like that, only the Chieftains…
www.thechieftains.com Colin Irwin VARIOUS ARTISTS
Beginner’s Guide to Flamenco Nascente NSBOX090
To survey a genre as deep and textured as fla- menco may seem a Herculean task, and to do so other than superficially is even more of a challenge, considering the profusion of talent, often unknown outside Spain, and an illumi- nating tendency to explore the many historical and contemporary influences that inform its artistry. But ethnomusicologist Jan Fairley is equal to the task, and this 45-track, 3-CD com- pilation will come as a revelation to many.
Among the better-known artists, single- handedly illustrating the diversity of flamenco, is guitarist Pepe Habichuela (José Antonio Carmona). He is heard with other Carmona family members (on Tres Colores), and with singers Miguel Poveda (El Remedio Mala - gueña) and the recently deceased Enrique Morente (Se La Llevó Dios). Habichuela also alludes to flamenco’s gypsy roots, traceable in part to India, with his signature Amanecer (backed on tabla), or teaming with the Bolly- wood Strings (En El Grec, Yerbagüena). Other noted guitarists include Juani de la Isla, Moraí- to, Diego de Morao, Juan Ramón Ortega, Tomatito, Son de la Frontera (Raúl Rodríguez and Paco de Amparo), Daniel Casares and the highly expressive José Luís Rodríguez.
Reflecting the Iberian Peninsula’s human
geography, Arab and African influences are also palpable. Ali Khattab takes a nod to the ancient cultural crossroads in Notas Mediter- ráneas and launches an audio journey up the Nile with Tangos Del Nilo, while José Soto ‘Sorderito’, Ketama, Toumani Diabaté and Danny Thompson team on a Malian-tinged Africa. Likewise, flautist Jorge Pardo (who has accompanied Paco de Lucia, not represented here) joins with Tinodi Geraldo on an impro- visatory, percussively Eastern-feeling Surcos.
Narasirato
Casual listeners may not associate the piano with flamenco, in which case the com- pelling work of Diego Amador (also a gui- tarist) will edify, as on Sangre Milenaria and Soléa Del Churri, and Muerte De Amor, with singer La Susi. While less well-known abroad, pianist Sergio Monroy, a Cádiz native, explores the genre’s improvisatory kinship with jazz on Ojos Verdes, and joins with singer Miguel Poveda on Pena De Ti. Also in the fla- menco-jazz milieu, pianist Chano Dominguez, bassist Javier Colina and singer Diego ‘El Cigala’ would fit logically here, an absence no doubt due to licensing constraints.
The human voice is at the core of fla- menco, and singers are well represented: Encarna Anillo, Cuatro Cantaores, Diego Car- rasco, Duquende, Raúl Galvéz, David Lagos, La Macanita, Mayte Martín, Las Migas, Jésus Méndez, Macarena Moneo, Curro Morena, Pansequito, Antonio Reyes, Fernando Terre- moto and Rosaria la Tremendita. Given UNESCO’s 2011 declaration of flamenco as part of the “Intangible Cultural Heritage” of humankind, this is an especially timely and enlightening compilation.
www.nascente.co.uk Michael Stone
NARASIRATO Warato’o Smash SMASH 004
Do you remember panpipes from the ‘90s? How no car was complete without a cassette of The Magi- cal Sound Of The Pan Pipes on the dashboard, when El Condor Pasa accompanied every trip to the shops and a baffling number of pan- pipe interpretations of Abba’s greatest hits filled the bargain bin of Woolworths? Well, now panpipes are back, and this time they are funky.
The reformed Narasirato are from Malai- ta, one of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. Originally active between 1991 and ‘99 as a youth project, the current group revived the name in 2007. Lead by Donation Manu’asi and recording here as an all-male nine-piece, they have perfect world music credentials – a remote and endangered cul- ture, traditional dress (or lack of it in this case), spiritual and ecological lyrical themes, strange and unique instruments…
All well and good for publicity of course, but their best selling point is that they are bloody good. Warato’o captures the group in all their glory. Alongside the handheld pan-
pipes that we are familiar with, the upbeat Narasirato sound is filled out by huge bass pipes that have to be positioned on stands and beaten with paddles, log drums and intriguingly named ‘bamboo keyboards’ (pre- sumably some form of xylophone as it’s all acoustic). The trio of producer Jason Mayall, engineer Lode De Roos and mixer Nick Man- asseh must get praise for the immaculate, close sound that captures the energy and intricacy of the music.
Aloysius Gonzaga Mauhana contributes his versatile vocals in the Are’are language, which, combined with the hypnotic instrumen- tal rhythms, strangely put me in mind of Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and his group, the Very Best. And whilst Narasirato only play native, acoustic instruments, they aren’t afraid to blend the best bits of funk, reg- gae and dance music into their sound. The final track is a dub remix that brings a nice spaciness without jarring with the rest of the album.
The package is well presented and the informative sleevenotes give full, if some- times baffling, translations. OK, it’s a bit too long at an hour, and it’s hard to imagine needing two Narasirato albums unless they do something very different for the next one, but Warato’o captures this great live band perfectly. Catch them at Womad if you can, but until then turn the volume up loud, blast this album out and feel the bass.
www.narasirato.com Christopher Conder
MIROSLAV EVACIC Portret Croatia Records CD5913429
Whenever I’ve includ- ed tracks by Miroslav Evacic and/ or his wife Gordana on one of our fRoots compila- tions or fRoots Radio programmes, people always respond. It’s something about the way he’s adapted electric slide guitar and occa- sionally mandolin to Croatian traditional music and the sort of songs and tunes that those old tamburica bands played and turned it into a local equivalent of what Ry Cooder did back on his early albums. The openers here, Alaj Je Divan Podravski Kraj and Podravino Moja Mila and later tracks like Plave Joci and particularly Zbira Miro Deklice and Volim Ja where Gordana gets a look in on the vocals are great examples of this.
I wish they’d do more of that – it’s a real- ly original sound, she’s a fabulous singer (and cimbalom player too, but not here) and if
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