63 f Songwriter and guitar-disturbing front-
man Travis Ward is the main vocalist, joined throughout by the deliciously keening highways-and-byways register of Allison Ward on harmonies (their version of Cluck Ol’ Hen is a backporch beauty). The pace is frantic, the drive is relentless and the joy is tangible.
Travis Ward also presents a fine solo
offering, Jump Ups & Jollities, which sees a more intimate performance though no less immediate in its appeal. His vocal delivery is lower key and captivating, allowing his pick- ing and frailing intricacy on guitar and banjo to the fore (and again he is supported by his other half on banjo, washboard and wash- tub). The songs unfurl easily, a skiffle cover like Railroad Bill and exquisitely executed trad arrs like Shootin’ Creek sitting comfort- ably alongside his own charismatic songs, like The Stranger And Rowdy McLeod or plunky gem North Of Appalachia. This is talent that is wrought by a love and knowledge of tradi- tional American music, uncompromisingly raw and packed with dustbowl character.
www.hillfolknoir.com Sarah Coxson
ORCHESTRA BAILAM E COMPAGNIA DI CANTO TRALLALERO Galata Felmay fy8198
TRE MARTELLI Cantè’r Paròli Felmay Records Fy 8193
GIULIANO GABRIELE Melodeonìa Own Label 8 0199991 876350
Three very varied offerings from Italy. It makes sense to start with the first album’s title. The area sur-
rounding the citadel of Galata in Istanbul was a colony of the Republic of Genoa in mediæ- val times. This album celebrates the long association between the two important ports and brings together the long-established sex- tet with a relatively recently-formed trio of very experienced singers. There are a couple of traditional items in the programme but most of the lyrics, melodies and arrange- ments are the work of Orchestra Bailam’s Franco Minelli. He has skilfully and successful- ly woven musical compositions that encom- pass Genoese and Turkish influences and have a strong traditional music influence. Strangely, though all the performers are Ital- ian (well, at least they all have Italian names), it is when the band are playing their full-on approach to Turkish music that the album sounds most exciting. Orchestra Bailam have been immersed in Balkan and Levantine dance music since the 1980s so perhaps this is not so strange after all. There are some achingly beautiful tunes here, particularly Papun De Pessa and Ninnâ Dindanâ, and some exquisite harmony singing. Hear a track on fRoots 45.
Tre Martelli have been around for more than thee decades celebrating the traditional song and music of the Piedmont area. In the late 1980s they encountered the poet Giovanni Rapetti reciting his poet- ry and they were captivated. “The dramatic power and ethics of the texts by Rapetti immediately pushed us to imagine his poet- ry as a natural continuation of the contem- porary poetic folk songs we knew.” Since then, they have included a couple of pieces by him in their performances and albums. Now they have gone the whole hog and devote all nineteen items here to settings of his poems.
www.felmay.it
As can be deduced from his album title, Giuliano Gabriele plays the melodeon (or dia- tonic accordeon – though its Italian name organetto is probably most pleasing). He was something of a child prodigy on the instru- ment and was quickly playing with many top names such as R Tesi, S Shannon, K Junkera, and M Perrone. He also professes a mastery of the southern Italian bagpipe, the zam- pogna a chiave. In fact, he is double-tracked on both instruments on nearly every track. He can also sing in a strong convincing manner. If all this makes his performance sound mouth- watering here, it ought to be pointed out that this big production – seventeen musi- cians involved – does seem to be aimed much wider than at a roots music audience, even if in broader musical terms the album seems to have the word ‘success’ written large on it.
www.self.it Vic Smith VARIOUS ARTISTS
Baul-Fakir Gostho Lila – Conversation Between Ma Joshoda & The Cowherds Sadhu Guru Boishnob Recordings SGBR 1001
As of 2013, there is a substantial body of recordings of Baul musicianship. They are in numbers
undreamed of when Elektra and Nonesuch Explorer first brought the Western mind to bear on Baul music and Baul philosophy. When Elektra released Bauls Of Bengal in 1968, unleashing one of the world’s most idiosyncratic and most esoteric syncretic philosophies on the wider world, the guide- book for many was Edward C Dimock’s liner notes. By 2002 Jeanne Openshaw of the Uni- versity of Edinburgh’s Seeking Bauls of Ben- gal had split that atom.
A ‘substantial body of recordings’ natu- rally implies the likelihood of varying quality. The proliferation of Baul acts has meant recalibrating what falls on the plus or minus side of the meter. Recorded with no frills direct to two-track by Selina Begum “in a mud and thatch house in a village in Chuadanga, Bangladesh”, this album is well on the plus side. Its three main musicians are the vocalists Gonjer Shah, Amina Parvin and Nur Alam Khan. As a generalisation, the omnivore Baul philosophy devours many of Bengal’s mystical religious and faith streams. The weight of the material presented here is Vaishnava-style Bhakti (devotional, by impli-
Fakir Gonjer Shah
cation Hindu Reformation) tales about Lord Krishna – the eighth incarnation of Lord Vish- nu (hence Vaishnavas, the worshippers of Vishnu’s ten incarnations).
Baul musicians with Muslim-derived names like Shah and Khan delivering Hindu tales is hardly new news or topsy-turvy. An overview, well shy of detail, is supplied. For example, Yashoda (the subtitle’s Joshoda), wife of Nanda, Krishna’s protector-foster par- ents is cited. But the notes neither extend to describing the lila (‘play’) tales – Gostho may refer to the Baul singer Gostho Gopal – even in outline, nor explain what makes these per- formances Baul rather than Hindu devotion- al. (Enigmas being enigmas, it is a question that has been posed about Lalan Shah, one of the greatest Baul wellsprings.) The singing is excellent, unencumbered with technique, though with a soft spot confessed for the principal female singer, Amina Parvin. The dotara (Bengal’s foremost folk lute), ektara (one-string tension drum) and duggi (hand- drum) instrumentation comes with an espe- cial commendation on account of its stylistic regionalism. To describe these recordings as ‘sahaja’ (‘simple’, ‘natural’) is high praise. The packaging is, to say the least, highly unusual (unusual perhaps as only Remember Shakti’s short-run, fabric-covered Silk Box compilation was); its ‘booklet notes’ are hand-stitched into the package.
(With thanks to Anjali Sengupta and Babul Sengupta.)
www.sgbrecordings.com Hear a track on this issue’s fRoots 45.
Ken Hunt
JIM CAUSLEY Cyprus Well Folk Police FPR010
Despite some fine work with The Devil’s Inter- val, Mawkin Causley, three solo albums and assorted side projects, the boy Causley has always left the distinct impression that his best work remains in front of him. Rightly or wrongly, his right to be regarded the most nat- urally gifted folk singer of his generation has been hampered by the ‘dilettante’ impression that hovers around him. However, the happy circumstances of this album setting the poems of his distant relative Charles Causley to music seem to have given him new conviction.
Rooted in his beloved west country, it’s a project clearly dear to his heart, with much of its formidable attraction attributable to instinctive feel, strong arrangements and the immeasurable collaborative contributions of Julie Murphy and Canadian-Welsh multi- instrumentalist Ceri Owen-Jones. It’s his harp and trombone backdrops that provide a differ- ent dimension and telling atmospherics which assume a new significance through being recorded at Charles Causley’s house in Launce- ston, Cornwall (the Cypress Well of the title).
It’s not the first time Causley’s poetry has been adapted into song. Back in the day, the late Scottish singer Alex Atterson – for several years director of Norwich Folk Festival – made it something of a speciality, but he never occupied the work so intently as Jim does. Jim’s tunes, which he plays on Charles Caus- ley’s own piano, are seamless fits, whether in the dignified majesty of On All Soul’s Day, the buoyant singalong My Young Man’s A Cor- nishman, the spoken word Rattler Morgan, the evocative Trusham, the beauteous unac- companied harmony arrangement of Who or the brooding piano backdrop on Mystery Of St Mylor. His voice sounds a little cracked on Angel Hill and the addition of percussion jars a tad and seems out of place on Timothy Win- ters, but he gets almost everything else right.
www.jimcausley.co.uk Colin Irwin
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 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92