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tional tightrope. Its only wobble is the over- reaching Metamorphosis, a head-on collision of relentless instrumental build and shloka (or sloka), a couplet-driven Vedic form, sung here by Anil Narasimha and Sandhya Chan- drachood, which is like a piece awaiting an AR Rahman-style resolution that never comes. In Jyoti’s Name is a piece with fast- tempo sitar against South Indian percussion – mridangam and ghatam – played by Pirashanna Thevarajah. She imbues it with another dimension by writing in the notes: “Sexual violence is something that has left me deeply saddened and angry.” It is safe to read into it that one inspiration is Jyoti (‘flame’), the Delhi bus gang-rape victim who died of injuries sustained in December 2012. Setting In Jyoti’s Name in raag Shree (‘Sir’) is probably no feminist accident.
Arguably Traces Of You has one domi- nant inspiration, one that the spirit of In Jyoti’s Name supports. That is family and mor- tality. For example, the sitar and piano instru- mental Fathers reflects on the deaths of both principal participants’ fathers which occurred a few months apart. In it Anoushka combines thoughts of her husband and parenthood and her father’s passing. Sawhney’s River Pulse is like a full-tilt affirmation of his father’s life. Chasing Shadows is based on something Shankar recorded that Vishwa Mohan Bhatt played. A marvellous chase of a piece, it has a Rajasthani feel to it and is one of three tracks without any explicit (as in credited) input from Sawhney. Last, to Traces Of You. Norah Jones wraps herself around the 25-word lyric like a vine and in so doing must have turned it into front-runner for the album title. One of Anoushka Shankar’s finest releases, Traces Of You seems like a work long in the gestation but with a perfectly timed birth.
www.anoushkashankar.com Ken Hunt
FLACO JIMÉNEZ & MAX BACA
Flaco & Max Smithsonian Folkways SFWCD 40569
FLACO JIMÉNEZ Y TOMÁS ORTIZ De Los Alegres De Terán Arhoolie CD543
I’m sure I’m not alone in hav- ing first encountered Flaco Jiménez on early Ry Cooder albums, then digging deeper into his local recordings and backwards into his family history and that of conjunto music itself via the wonder- ful series of albums of his-
toric Texas-Mexican border music that Arhoolie began releasing in the ‘80s.
I remember coming across a stash of his albums for regional label DLB Records on my first trip to Los Angeles around 1980, and a couple of years later deciding I’d license Mis Polkas Favoritas for our newly-established Rogue Records label, where we re-titled it Viva Seguin after one of his father Santiago’s greatest hits. It became his first UK release. It was only when I rang up the label boss in San Antonio that it really dawned on me how deep this culture was: he lived and ran a busi- ness in the USA, but hardly spoke English.
Later, after guesting on a few Cooder and Peter Rowan tours, Flaco brought a prop- er conjunto with bajo sexto king Oscar Tellez to the UK and they blew our heads off – I remember a deep roots ‘real stuff’ buzz akin to catching the Muddy Waters band for the first time. Flaco may have greatly extended the range of influences at play in conjunto music and applied his formidable accordeon technique to Grammy-winning bands like the
Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven and records by Dylan, the Stones and many more, but deep down he’s never lost being a tradi- tional conjunto music player. That’s what’s showcased on these two new releases.
While both are excellent, and much as I have a deep allegiance to Arhoolie, I have to say that the Flaco & Max set on Smithsonian Folkways has to be the more attractive proposition for anybody who’s just discover- ing the music and not a Flaco completist. It’s seventeen tracks and an hour long com- pared to the other’s ten tracks weighing in at just 29 minutes, and comes with a gener- ous 40-page bilingual booklet. Neatly pro- duced, the playing is absolutely sparkling. Flaco’s unmistakeably fiery squeezebox runs are undiminished by his now 75 years (how did that happen?!) and propelled along by super-tight, inspiring bajo sexto work by the younger Baca (a mere whippersnapper at 46, but from an equally long generational fami- ly tradition). Their voices harmonise beauti- fully too, on a typical selection –mostly can- ción-polcas (songs made for dancing in fast polka time), all pinned down perfectly behind the beat by long-time electric bassist Oscar Garcia and snappy, minimalist kit drums from Flaco’s son David – with the odd cumbia and waltz for variety.
www.folkways.si.edu and via Discovery in the UK.
The Arhoolie album is a wonderful thing too, for all its shortness. It’s a re-issue of a local 2005 limited release album that Flaco made sharing the dueto vocals with Tomás Ortiz of Mexican musica norteña superstars Los Allegres De Terán. Baca and Garcia once again do their sterling bajo and bass duties, but the real extra flavour you get here is the glorious presence of that authentic mariachi brass from David & Panchito Villareal on trumpets and saxophones. If you’re in conjun- to heaven after discovering Flaco & Max, you could do worse than pick this one up too.
www.arhoolie.com Ian Anderson
ROSS AINSLIE Wide Open Great White Records GWR001CD
Ross Ainslie is such a prolific musician and com- poser, and so prominent in the Scottish folk scene in various bands (Salsa Celtica, Treacher- ous Orchestra, Ross & Jarlath, Dougie Maclean band, India Alba), that it’s almost impossible to believe this is his debut solo album.
Flaco & Max
As debut albums go, this one arrives like King Kong on top of the Empire State build- ing. Ross has channelled all his experience with big dance-music ensembles like Salsa Celtica and Treacherous Orchestra into creat- ing an album with an absolutely massive sound. The line-up is: Ross Ainslie (Highland pipes, whistles, cittern, mandolin), Ali Hutton (acoustic & electric guitar, bodhran), Duncan Lyall (double-bass, electric bass), James Mack- intosh (drums), Innes Watson (fiddle), Angus Lyon (keyboard, accordeon), John Somerville (accordeon), Gyan Singh (tabla).
On this album, Ross shows off his versatil- ity as performer, arranger and composer. Most of the tunes are by Ross himself, composed in a range of styles. A lot of the material here is more suited for the O2-ABC than the convert- ed Methodist hall. The wryly- entitled Problem Child is full-on folk-rock with pipes, electric guitar, bass and drumkit. The Clans opens with wailing pipes and forlorn whistle against brooding chords on keyboard, then drums and bass kick in to launch an uptempo, Bre- ton-influenced tune, before going ballistic with the stomping Unite The Clans (pipes, drumkit, electric guitars, kitchen sink…).
Wedding Waltzes is an elegant set of tunes that could indeed be performed in a church hall, starting with a beautiful melody performed on whistle with delicate keyboard accompaniment, and then whistle doubles up with fiddle to lilting, graceful effect.
Again is a dizzy, spiralling piece with an Eastern European flavour, with complicated rhythms to give the drummer and bass-player a field day. Morning After is a catchy, infec- tious whistle jig with irresistible syncopation and Mediterranean café accordeon. True opens with a terrific pipe reel performed as a bagpipe/tabla duet, and there’s Indian raga influence in the To The Woods Suite.
A whirling dervish of an album – one to play loud on a hot summer’s day, driving with the car windows down.
www.rossainslie.com Paul Matheson
HABIB KOITÉ Sôo Contre-Jour CJ030
Sôo, which translates as ‘home’ in the widest sense, was basically recorded on a home- studio set-up in Bamako, lead vocals and solo guitar added in Belgium. The album is subtitled ‘The Happiness of Roots’, Koité gently insisting that we are better off at home than being uprooted
Photo: Tom Pich
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