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shows that they use singing styles that draw on trained classical, baroque and early music – both secular and religious. Their folk music influences are even more varied, encompass- ing the way that a traditional singer would approach their vocalising in English language and Gaelic singing as well as a host of approaches from all over Europe, particularly the Balkans as well as from North Africa and the Middle East. There are even places where there are traces of rock and jazz phrasing.
This does not mean that it is a mish- mash; far from it. There is a centred constan- cy about it that seems carefully organised.
Joglaresa are directed by Belinda Sykes and she brings a very broad musical experi- ence to the ensemble from playing oboe in baroque ensembles, studying singing tech- niques on three continents and singing a wide range of material on stage, in studios and on screen. As a schoolgirl she certainly sang in folk clubs and even played some gigs in a barn dance band (with her dad as caller and this reviewer in the band!).
Although there is a core membership,
different projects call for many guest musi- cians to fit the bill. With both singing and accompaniments there is a fine sense of origi- nality. Even on familiar items – Boar’s Head, In Dulci Jubilo – there is always something fresh brought to the arrangements.
www.joglaresa.com Vic Smith NINEBARROW
The Waters And The Wild Winding Track 9BTWTW
The third album from Dorset-based Ninebar- row (Jon Whitley and Jay Labouchardière) fol- lows the pattern of its predecessors, wherein Ninebarrow thoughtfully interpolate, within a sequence of original songs largely embracing their native region’s folklore and heritage, individual adaptations of poetical works and a helping of traditional song. The former cate- gory includes the almost cinematic Over- thrown (examining man’s impact on the South Dorset Ridgeway’s chalk downland) and the dramatic Thirteen Turns (sequel to Blood On The Hillside from the duo’s Releasing The Leaves album). Their ingenuity in poetic adap- tation comes to the fore on the album’s title track, which tellingly contrasts the fairy world of Yeats’ poem The Stolen Child with the depressing reality of the situation of modern- day refugee children, its poignancy accentuat- ed by the Vaughan Williams-pastoral tonality of its musical setting. There’s also an honest setting of William Barnes’ dialect poem Hwome, and Gather It In is a joyous variant of harvest-home-themed All In A Row.
The Waters And The Wild also sports high production values (Mark Tucker at the helm) and the now-firmly-established Ninebarrow ‘house standards’ of vocal and instrumental performance and attractive pre- sentation (the accompanying booklet con- tains full lyrics and back stories and beautiful artwork by Jon’s sister Sarah).
Several tracks also feature a lush string arrangement by Barney Morse-Brown, in col- laboration with Lee Cuff, while others include deft double bass (Joe Limburn) or bodhrán (Evan Carson). The Teacups contribute and arrange backing vocals to two songs – a soft- spoken take on Row On (Tim Laycock’s setting of a text found in an 1864 ship’s log), and tra- ditional favourite Prickle Eye Bush.
The Waters And The Wild is likely to be seen as something of a career milestone for Jon and Jay, for it both consolidates the Ninebarrow identity and marks a further benchmark in terms of confidence.
ninebarrow.co.uk David Kidman Charlie Musselwhite & Ben Harper
BEN HARPER AND CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE No Mercy In This Land Anti 87561-2
MIGHTY MO RODGERS & BABA SISSOKO Griot Blues One Root Music ORM331
As good as Ben Harper and Charlie Mussel- white’s 2013 Grammy-winning album Get Up! was, this second outing is better. In the five years between the records Ben and Charlie have put in some hard roadwork, which has honed their musical empathy to wondrous effect. Ben’s voice seems more positive and his songwriting is making definite statements. He can blast you with a brilliant, heavy amplified riff or he can ease back, playing lap slide or elegantly picked twelve-string guitar.
Charlie’s harmonica weaves, dodges, enhances… always finding the right phrase and the right tone to galvanise whichever song Ben is delivering. On the opening track, When I Go, the first brief notes you hear are vocally intoned before the atmosphere is abruptly shattered by the band’s dynamic entrance. The second number, Bad Habits, has a more regular blues style on which Charlie has no problem laying down a constant catchy underlying riff. This is followed by the beautifully constructed Love and Trust, a song that really catches the ear. Ben gets heavy again with The Bottle Wins Again with some punchy guitar work and with Charlie on full volume. Six more tracks, each with a dif- ferent dynamic, complete the album, with the aching, soul-drenched ballad When Love Is Not Enough proving one of real highlights. The title track No Mercy In This Land has Ben playing the acoustic twelve-string guitar and overdubbing his lap-slide, while Charlie plays lightly amplified harmonica, and is the only track that features Charlie’s vocals, as each swaps vocals on alternate verses to good effect. Overall more bluesy than Get Up!, but virtually perfect in all departments, No Mercy In This Land could also be a contender for a Grammy.
benharper.com
Another excellent collaboration is between bluesman/keyboard player/ vocalist Mighty Mo Rodgers and Malian instrumental- ist /vocalist Baba Sissoko. So much music spills out of this CD it’s like a musical waterfall. Track one, Shake ’Em Up Charlie, really catch- es you by surprise as it has a strong reggae beat that you’re not expecting knowing
where each gentleman emanates from, but titles like Mali To Mississippi, The Blues Went To Africa and Griot Blues firmly nail the guys’ mission statement to the post. African and American rhythms sometimes mingle and mix, sometimes contrast… Mighty Mo’s throaty vocals play opposite Baba’s lighter, more floating voice. Baba’s ngoni, djembe, kalimba and talking drum weave and dart hypnotically throughout. Every song is credit- ed to both men who seems to understand innately each other’s music and heritage. The recording and mix are first class, as is the input by all the other musicians who help cre- ate the vibrant musical sound scape alongside Mighty Mo and Baba. Like Talking Timbuktu, the Ry Cooder/Ali Farka Touré project, Griot Blues is another successful meeting between Mali and America. Don’t tell Trump!
griotblues.com Dave Peabody FERD Music Without Borders Heilo HCD7324
A big project led by Norwegian musician and producer Bjørn Ole Rasch, recorded across the world over three years, involving four- teen singers and instrumentalists from Nor- way (including Rasch’s wife, well-known hardanger fiddler Annbjørg Lien), two from Sweden, one from Ireland (Rasch’s former Secret Garden colleague Pat Broaders), and 35 representing seventeen other countries well to the east of Norway, including India, Thailand, China, Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet, Iran, Indonesia, Palestine, Syria, Cambodia, Jordan, Armenia and Romania.
Its strength and essence is that it has a focus, the traditional music of Norway’s Setesdal and the repertoire of four of that region’s key tradition-bearing musicians: singer Kirsten Bråten Berg, hardanger- fiddlers Hallvard T Bjørgum and Gunnar Stub- seid, and jew’s harper Sigurd Brokke. (Setes- dal is the heartland of Norway’s jew’s harp making and playing, and also of silver- smithing of which Bråten Berg and Bjørgum are notable exponents.)
For example, in the opening track Nys-
tev, Kirsten Bråten Berg sings, to its winding tune, the lyrics as written at the end of the 19th Century, and Ouch Savy responds in simi- lar melodic vein in her Khmer style with an improvised melody and lyrics. They’re accom- panied on bowed Khmer tro, with qanun, flutes, çumbus and oud from Syrian, Nepali, Jordanian and Lebanese musicians.
To follow in Fanten Sigurd Brokke plays a lively Setesdal dance tune, to which Ouch Savy and Thai singer Boonchung Dandung respond vocally with lyrics in their own tradi- tional styles. Elsewhere there’s Hallvard T Bjørgum and Annbjørg Lien in glorious wild hardanger-fiddle duet, limpid duduk intro- ducing a series of lullabies blending Norwe- gian, Khmer and Romanian voices, Sámi joik meeting Mongolian throat singing and horse-head fiddle with raga vocalisation, hardanger fiddle, jew’s harp, qanun and Ara- bic and Indian percussion in Nordafjells/Liti Kjersti, and Iran’s Mahsa Vahdat responding with Persian lyrics to Bråten Berg in Gam- lestev accompanied by deep flute from Groupa’s Jonas Simonson.
Sordølen has twin hardanger fiddles with Chinese flutes and guzheng. Guds God- het is a gorgeous slow ten-minute piece fea- turing Bengali, Persian, Norwegian, Tibetan and joik vocals and a large ensemble includ- ing an Indonesian gamelan orchestra, Chinese erhu and pipa, bowed electric guitar, Indian sarangi and more.
It’s a big piece of work full of genuine, meaningful encounters in beautiful, spirited music.
grappa.no
Andrew Cronshaw
Photo: Dave Peabody
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