59 f


bring a very modern spin to the party. There’s gallivanting hip-hop alongside eerie piano on Fare Thee Well Lovely Nancy; Young Edmund In The Lowlands Low sounds positively ghost- ly; The Mountain Streams Where The Moor- cocks Crow builds into a choral epic with funky groove and a great deal of thought and planning has clearly gone into it.


In addition to Hamish Napier’s keyboards


and Innes Watson’s fiddle, there are also spar- ing, but hugely effective, brass parts, which work especially well on a supremely attrac- tive take on the Copper Family favourite, Sweet Lemany, on which Henderson shows he’s as effective singing gently as he is on the open-throated stuff.


It’s quite a feat to take some of the most familiar songs in the traditional canon and put your own stamp on them with style and distinction, but Henderson has done it.


www.jarlathhenderson.co.uk Colin Irwin


DALLAHAN Matter Of Time Dallahan Music, DLHN003


Dallahan draw on their mixed Irish, Scottish and Hungarian heritage to create a distinc- tive sound. They combine traditional Irish and Balkan music with jazz, pop and classical influences. Their second album has the slight- ly-changed line-up of Jack Badcock (vocals, guitar), Jani Lang (fiddle, vocals), Ciarán Ryan (tenor banjo, mandolin, fiddle) and Andrew Waite (accordeon), along with guests Jarlath Henderson (uillean pipes, whistle), Toby Shippey (trumpet, percussion), Paddy Callaghan (button accordeon), Jenny Hill (double bass) and Ciara McCafferty (vocals).


As with Dallahan’s previous release, this


album’s attraction is the unusual song selec- tion, the freshness of the arrangements and interpretations, and the sheer originality of integrating Irish and East European tradi- tional material within a contemporary folk/pop sensibility.


The genre-crossing instrumental sets are breath-taking. Wild Irish reels, quirky polkas and rhythmically-complex Balkan dance tunes are mashed up with bravura élan. Atmo- spheric slow airs quicken into bright, sparky jigs. Dallahan glide seamlessly between dif- ferent idioms, segueing from salmon-leaping Irish melodies to smoulderingly passionate Eastern European tunes. (Try the Spolkas set). The dance tunes in Pierre’s flit from Romani- an to Irish to Hungarian, with the instruments turning on a sixpence between fast and fre- netic and slow and lush. A traditional Flemish tune yields to an Irish reel, then we hurtle harum-scarum into Hungarian folk song Zöld Erd˝oben with darkly-dashing fiddle-playing (and Jani Lang providing Hungarian vocal). If Wes Anderson ever makes a sequel to the film The Grand Budapest Hotel, here’s the perfect soundtrack.


The songs are equally impressive. The sensuous love-ballad Blow The Candle Out (traditional lyrics, new tune) is a duet between two world-class vocalists. Jack Bad- cock has a perfect ballad-singer’s voice, with warm tone and clear, bright delivery. And Ciara McCafferty’s accompanying vocal is startlingly good, with its traditional Irish vocal styling, grace-note ornamentation, and a smoky, slightly bluesy timbre. The Reaper is an instantly-engaging modern classic (com- posed by Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter Mike Kearney) with vivid, poetic lyrics and a yearning melody, sung superbly by Jack Bad- cock, accompanied by romantic fiddle, surg- ing double-bass, wistful accordeon and mournful trumpet.


This is original, bold and brave music-


making. www.dallahanmusic.com Paul Matheson


FANFARE CIOCARLIA


Onwards To Mars! Asphalt Tango Records CD-ATR5116


The stiff challenge here is to embody both a region and a genre for a now global audi- ence, while continuing a tra- dition of near constant regeneration from within a small and isolated rural Romanian community. Since Fanfare Ciocarlia are also


widely admired for their extremely loud Balkan funk and stomp, it’s good to note the firmly earthed and rooted blues of their new record, summed up in the stretched, evoca- tive and traditional Doina Pentru Un Frant Inima, that digs within and takes its time.


If it’s an otherwise harried and occasion- ally confused album, this is an inevitable con- sequence of having to soundtrack the global vistas of a band on the roads of the world, while also reflecting the strong and sassy tra- ditional music background that formed them in the first place.


So after the introductory a cappella high-jinks are swiftly and brassily accom- plished in Crayfish Hora, there’s a re-buffed band staple, Mista Lobaloba, anchored here in a new arrangement that entwines famil- iar tropes, signatures, mischief, and a new and appreciative passion for cumbia, from deep inside that unfamiliar and carefully- produced earthiness. Driving Latin rhythms were always winking away in the back- ground, but here they are confidently set loose. The intriguing massive brass tropes of legend – but also of isolation – still power forwards with passionate intensity and immensity, but they are allied to a new swing. Fiesta De Negritos was recorded in Medellín, Colombia, together with renowned cumbia outfit, Puerto Candelaria. It’s a fusion that makes sense and does not taint the band’s famous and idiosyncratic wall of sound, comforting in its loudness and predictability.


Louche, captivating, refocussed and romantic, there’s often an elemental slow burn under the famous sound, above which the customarily nifty soloing is revealed and outstanding. Their version of I Put A Spell On You, featuring Iulian Canaf vocals that bustle with delight above the brass banks, is pleas- ingly deranged, a dazzling teeter between a parodic appropriation of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and a lived-in authenticity and licence. Onwards and upwards, certainly, but not at all otherworldly.


asphalt-tango.de John Pheby Fanfare Ciocarlia CHUCHO VALDÉS


Tribute to Irakere – Live in Marciac CD+DVD Jazz Village JV 570095


Sprung from the seminal Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna under the leadership of Armando Romeu, pianist-composer-director Chucho Valdés founded Irakere in 1973, with Paquito D’Rivera (alto and tenor sax, flute, clarinet) and other forward-thinking conser- vatory-trained singers and artists on flute, saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, valve trombone, tuba, guitar, bass guitar, bass, drums, batá, bongo, and a variety of Cuban hand percussion.


It is no exaggeration to say that Valdés and company staked out the territory of con- temporary Latin jazz as we continue to know it today. The spirit of Irakere’s shape-shifting blend of Afro-Cuban folk and spiritual idioms with jazz, gospel, funk, R&B, rock, tango and European classical mastery was manifest from the first batá salute to the encore’s signature carnivalesque parade through the audience.


Some four decades on, Valdés has assem- bled a younger generation of Cuban players, and he gives them plenty of latitude to improvise at their best. And rather than a nostalgic reproduction of the original materi- al, under the direction of Valdés this new ten- piece touring ensemble (vocals, alto and tenor sax, a trio of trumpets, double bass, drums, batá, percussion) reimagines memo- rable Irakere originals that span the genre spectrum from conga to tango, Afro-funk to salsa, and rumba to blues, with Valdés swing- ing harder than ever in his 75th year. (The accompanying DVD adds three additional live performances to the CD’s six core tracks).


jazzvillagemusic.com Michael Stone


ELI WEST The Both Own Label no cat no


Eli West has long established his credentials as an effectively subtle, less-is-more musician in his fine duo work with Cahalen Morrison.


Here West presents a project of his own, a collection of two takes of six songs – one in its original song form and the other a tune – with some illustrious collaborators including Bill Frisell, Dori Freeman, Elizabeth LaPrelle, Anna Roberts Gevalt and more. He explores duality – unveiling different qualities in the material in exploring them in different ways. It also serves as tribute to West’s “two very different grandfathers”, one a soldier, the other a Brethren preacher and peace advocate. One is not better than the other, just different.


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