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THE URBAN FOLK QUARTET The Escape SAE CD11

Nobody’s still these days, musical chairs are in fashion. UFQ it seems are no exception, so it’s goodbye Frank Moon, hello Dan Walsh. And though there are inevitable shifts in sound, the Quartet are still first class musical smart arses!

No more oud but heaps of banjo instead and more vocals as Walsh brings his claw - hammer technique and Americana to the table, where, blended with the remaining trio’s pan-global agenda, once the computers have had time to adjust normal service is resumed. Boat Up The River pushes off on a slightly different tack as Dan – more upfront – delivers a pioneer song before a clutch of tunes expand beyond any kind of genre stamp you might care to hang on them. It’s a great game to play as one hapless visitor dis- covered: “er.. it’s folk, no there’s jazz, heck, that’s a blues lick, God they improvise…” and that friend has been writing about music for almost 30 years.

A huge roar of approval please for the Cuban grooves on Resiste where they go all Bueno Vista Social Club and give Paloma Trigas free rein in a gorgeous, smoky arrangement where Walsh’s picking is exceptional. Barn- storming is just that, Joe Broughton’s fiddle set to free-flow, it has an almost Irish edge which isn’t developed until they go full-tilt emerald three minutes in. The Beginning Of The End is perhaps the shortest, snappiest thing they’ve ever committed to disc but as a piece of funky, gypsy dance it’s spot on. Closing, The Lan- guage Barrier is almost elegiac in form and melds in classical structure with slow air dynamics. The results are peaches and cream.

Due respect too with the inclusion of a more or less straight shot of Brit folk: The Snows They Melt The Soonest is as close to trad as they’ll ever venture, I dare say.

Produced by Mr Broughton, finding him- self with an increasing portfolio of production credits. It must have been fun to bounce ideas off Bellowhead engineer Andie Thomson, utilising a decent studio environment at Gig- house. With everyone dipping into the cre- ative cauldron there’s no domination and cre- ativity blooms across the whole album. Hero- ically diverse, no-one puts more sunshine and fizz into acoustic cavaliering. Addictive, yes but unlike other substances, a fix of UFQ is positively health-giving. Just groovy!

www.theufq.com Simon Jones The Urban Folk Quartet

MÉLISANDE Les Métamorphoses Own Label PRU2-4401

Here is the Québécois tradition with two very interesting twists. The songs still have a typi- cal fiddle-driven accompaniment but the usual foot-tapping is replaced by the key- boards player providing electronic pro- grammed percussion. The overall effect gives a variety of effects, almost of folk-rock at times. Then there is the singer. Mélisande has had a good look at some traditional songs and at times given the words a considerable re-working to deliver them from a feminist perspective This has been achieved in a very skilful manner so that the lyrics retain the res- onant impact that is so important in this genre. She also comes over as a singer with great style and confidence.

Despite these innovations, the outcome is immediately recognisable as Québécois with turlutte that harks back to Mary Bolduc, lots of call and response and the soulful, lament-like complaintes.

At the 2014 Canadian Folk Music

Awards, Mélisande was chosen as Traditional Singer of the Year and there is plenty of evi- dence here to show why she deserved to be chosen. She is probably at her best on the slower items such as Complainte De Daniel Label and La Récompense. The three accom- panists provide just what is needed to aug- ment the voice. Her husband, Alexandre Grosbois-Garand (of Genticorum) shares the singing on some tracks as well playing bass and some stunning sounds on flute.

Overall, she inspires a great deal of inter- est on what is her debut album and she is clearly breaking new ground.

www.melisande.com Vic Smith

MOSTLY KOSHER Mostly Kosher Mostly Kosher Music

Mostly Kosher are a Jewish cultural revival band based in southern California. Their source material ranges from klezmer to traditional Yiddish melodies and standards such as Donna Donna. The band comprises brass, reeds and two vocalists plus an exceptionally adept rhythm section and the whole band are very, very good. The richness of Jewish music is seamlessly fused with Latin tango, samba and cool jazz producing a world beat cabaret which swings high and low from ecstasy to longing, from community and celebration to the

maudlin as in the tale of Papirosen. The bitter- sweetness of Mostly Kosher’s music is best rep- resented by the defiant klezmer Dos Keshenev- er Shtikele. It is a beautifully upbeat song with words which dizzily spin within the Jewish experience: “Despite any pain we feel today, despite there are no more drinks to drink and no more glasses left to clink, today’s the day the whole world’s out to play.” Much like America from West Side Story there is joy here but the lyrics deliver a hidden sting in the tail.

The band’s musical director, Leeav Sofer, deserves a special mention for the wide range of sounds he gets from the band (even pulling in some Zimbabwean jit music and jazz scat) without sacrificing the band’s over- all sound. The plaintive harmonies he uses in Dodi Li remind me of Tim Hill, while the twists and turns of rhythm in Ikh Hob Dikh Tsufil Lib (I Love You Much Too Much) never sound forced but illustrate the different facets of the story being told. The singers do a nice job of making the music accessible by singing all the songs convincingly both in Yid- dish and English. The skilful performances on this CD are equally matched by the produc- tion values, you could be forgiven for think- ing this is a major label release. One hell of a debut … how will they follow up this one?

www.mostlykosher.com Mark T

MICHAEL CHAPMAN Deal Gone Down Secret Records SECCD120

“I sometimes see myself as a rambler, living hand-to-mouth…” he sings, on Stranger Pass- ing By. The Keith Morris cover shots show the dissolute artist lighting a cigarette, a bottle of red wine at his feet. But friends, nobody ever made weary and wayworn sound quite as heartening as Michael Chapman.

This self-produced album from 1974 is a largely stripped-back affair, and none the worse for it. Steeleye Span’s Rick Kemp and Nigel Pegrum supply bass and drums, with Maddy Prior & Bridget St John singing back- ing vocals on the title track.

Released as a single, The Banjo Song (on which the titular instrument doesn’t actually feature) failed to chart, despite being graced by the harmony vocals of Prelude (of After The Gold Rush fame) and propelled on the kind of boogie-beat that saw plenty of lesser songs into the Top 40 at the time.

There’s plenty of Chapman’s gorgeous, trademark acoustic work here, and in Theme From The Movie Of The Same Name, an engrossing instrumental that features dou- ble-tracked acoustic and electric guitars.

While never as celebrated as earlier

albums like Rainmaker and Fully Qualified Sur- vivor, Deal Gone Down is nonetheless a very good Michael Chapman record, which means it’s very good indeed. Six demo bonus tracks enhance the appeal of a very welcome reissue.

www.michaelchapman.co.uk Steve Hunt PRINCE BUJU

We Are In The War Makkum Records/Red Wig MR13/RW015

Prince Buju hails from the north east region of Ghana and plays the kologo, a two- stringed lute related to the ngoni, and shar- ing common ancestry with the banjo. This album is entirely solo – and it’s not one of those fancy multi-track one-man-band things, every track is a single-take affair with only Prince Buju and his kologo.

Almost all of this release is taken from

Buju’s debut Ghanaian cassette, which was released in 2011 as Roots And Culture Music.