109 f LINDA THOMPSON
My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m On The Stage Omnivore OVCD296
Ah yes, I remember it well. May, 2005, the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith – a long delay and then an agreeably shambolic show curat- ed by Linda featuring an entertaining pot- pourri of family and friends re-visiting the spirit of music hall that had been a significant ingredient of her musical upbringing (she knew every word of Max Miller’s act without ever seeing him).
After a long absence through the dyspho- nia years it was something of a novelty just to see Linda on stage again, but she seemed to find some sort of release in the guise of vaudeville and, while she takes the lead on only two tracks – the knockabout I Might Learn To Love Him Later On and the sentimen- tal Boer War classic Goodbye Dolly Gray – she sets a mood of affectionate nostalgia while a parade of compadres have clearly relished the opportunity to dress up and let rip.
Like the wonderful Martha Wainwright, who gives us a deliciously tender Beautiful Dreamer, while Bob Davenport belts out Harry Lauder’s I Wish You Were Here Again with his customary full-bloodedness. Justin Vivian Bond is in full camp overload on A Good Man Is Hard To Find, and Cara Dillon and Sam Lake- man take it up a notch with a beautiful The Lark In The Clear Air. Linda’s son Teddy Thompson throws himself completely into the period spirit and, apart from an accomplished version of one of the great songs of the Depression, the magnificent Brother Can You Spare A Dime, virtually steals the show with his Burlington Bertie From Bow.
The album isn’t all live recordings, fleshed out with associated material from other sources. Dear old John Foreman for one, recorded at his house singing the great comic song If It Wasn’t For The ‘Ouses In Between with Linda, comedian and music hall aficionado Roy Hudd having a blast through Wotcher (Knocked ‘Em In The Old Kent Road) from a BBC documentary with Jools Holland on piano and backing vocals, son-in-law James Walbourne (of The Rails) recording his own song London Heart on iPhone, and Colin Firth – yep, that Colin Firth – providing a spe- cially recorded spoken version of Billy Ben- nett’s very funny My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m On The Stage.
omnivorerecordings.com Colin Irwin
DAMILY Valimbilo Bongo Joe BJR 031
Tsapiky. The word might mean nothing to you, but if you happen to have an interest in Malagasy music, it can give you goosebumps and get your feet tapping from the mere mention of it.
Damily hails from the south-west of
Madagascar, which is the natural home of tsapiky music. He grew up in a fisher family, and was given a small three-stringed man- doliny to keep himself entertained as the catch came in. His first gig was in 1985, and he has been playing continuously since then – 33 years and still loyal to the tsapiky music he grew up with.
This music has a relentless, driving rhythm to it, but the guitar lines float over the top, providing polyrhythms and melodies that glide like liquid over the beat.
The first track, Malay Nama, is pretty typ- ical of the style. An 8:55 journey through riffs
and lyrical shifts, ramping up the tempo about seven minutes in to end with a musical explosion – and that’s just the beginning! Tsy Miroro is also of a similar pace and energy, upbeat and happy, with a bubbling bassline that is always pushing the song forward. Like- wise, the final track, Mivaliky Tany Toy is full of joy – it sounds like a celebration of life.
However, there is also another, more tranquil side to tsapiky, which is represented by three or four tracks on this album. Take Fiaina Sarotsy: with shaker, acoustic guitar and vocals, it is almost a style of its own (and I’m sure it has a name, I just don’t know it in Malagasy). The sound is spacious, open, reflective; the kind of music you’d want to lis- ten to out in the bush on a warm starry night.
Damily is a wonderful introduction to
tsapiky. Personally, I think its some of the best music out there, but you’ll have to have a lis- ten and decide for yourself.
bongojoe.ch Joshua Coppersmith-Heaven AMIRA MEDUNJANIN &
TRONDHEIMSOLISTENE Ascending Town Hill Colony THC001
A gorgeous collection of traditional songs, largely sevdah, from Bosnia’s Amira with arrangements for Norway’s great chamber string orchestra TrondheimSolistene – the Trondheim Soloists – by two longtime Amira
Amira Medunjanin
associates, Croatian Ante Gelo and Serbian Bojan Zulfikarpašic, who also make striking contributions on guitar and piano respectively.
The word ‘sevdah’ has the same Arabic root – sewda or sawda (the ‘black bile’ of the four humours) – as Portuguese fado’s ‘saudade’, and both have the same connota- tions of pining, longing, melancholy, often of love, and there’s a musical kinship, not in the melodies but in the warm fluidity of the singing of both.
It’s a hugely melodic album that, while very much more classy, is often reminiscent of the vocal-and-orchestra form of sevdalinka performed on the airwaves of Bosnia and the wider Yugoslavia by the radio singers of the second half of the 20th century, but in far subtler, beautifully wrought orchestrations that also sometimes evoke classic black-and- white film music and intimate European chanson. Two-thirds of the songs are new arrangements of songs Amira has recorded before, or sung live but not recorded; the final four, including the justly famous Ajde Jano, are new to her repertoire.
Amira is already a leading figure of Bosnian music, taking sevdah into bold new arrangements and to new worldwide audi- ences, and her singing just gets more and more rich, warmly caressing and authorita- tive; this perfectly judged, deeply moving set is surely destined to be a classic, embraced in the Balkans and abroad.
townhillcolony.com Andrew Cronshaw
Photo: Neja Markicevic
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