43 f
O
ne thing led to another – and the tacit trilogy of Early Music, Caravan and Nuevo. “The idea for Caravan came about when I was in Prague. Actually it was Adam’s birthday, the birthday after he died. I got this recording of Gypsy string orchestra music. I was listen- ing to it in the hotel and there were moments that were ecstatic and then there were moments that were so sad. I thought how the same note could be so many things. Eventually the idea for Caravan was to try and explore that sense.”
Moving to the trilogy’s upbeat, life-affirming conclusion, he rec-
ollects, “Nuevo was the result of [wife] Reagan, [daughter] Bonnie and me going to Mexico that first Christmas, the Christmas of 1995. That album gestated for five or six years before it became this attempt to musically explore all the different sounds that we heard while we were there, the kinds of feelings [we experienced] and the way that the culture and life of Mexico saved us. And the way life and death are so vividly a part of the music and the culture there. For me, Nuevo was a little thank-you note to [Mexican] culture.”
He adds philosophically, “I look at our albums as these musical constellations that can be added to. They can also be added to infinitely into the future. It’s interesting because now Kronos is playing music from Ethiopia [notably Aha Gèdawo from Getatchew Mekurya, a long-standing collaborator with Amsterdam’s The Ex ]; we recently recorded with Angélique Kidjo [on her Eve, 2013]; and we are working with a fabulous trio from Mali, Trio Da Kali.”
One May 2014 live project at the Barbican in London, as part of the Kronos 40th and Nonesuch 50th anniversaries, has Kronos slat- ed to collaborate with the Nonesuch acts, Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens of the Caroline Chocolate Drops and Natalie Merchant. It is label chief Bob Hurwitz’s idea. Kronos’ folk affiliations go further back in the Harrington household at least. As children, both Adam and Bonnie got a diet of folksong, served up by Pete Seeger: “We played his recordings for our kids and then we played them for our grandkids. His music was on infinite repeat in our house and our car.” On trips to London Harrington made sure he fed his son’s growing appetite for, in particular, Irish folk devel- opments. They included the debut from Shane MacGowan & The Popes and whatever Christy Moore was doing at the time. The Bar- bican recital will show off a different kind of Kronos folk roots.
In conclusion, Harrington returns to survival strategies, “I
think it’s probably the energy that the members of Kronos have received from the music that we play and from the relationships that we have with composers and other performers. And the fact that the music that has come our way has been so interesting, exciting, and fun and challenging. For me, that’s what’s kept me going for sure.”
Ken Hunt first wrote about the Kronos in 1981. Between 1991 and 2005 he wrote booklet notes for five releases, including Pieces Of Africa and Caravan; concert programme notes thus far to 2014; and conceived and co-programmed their You’ve Stolen My Heart project of RD Burman compositions with Asha Bhosle (with possi- ble further project programming coming). So not biased at all.
www.kronosquartet.org F
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