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the kora playing of Senegalese Solo Cissokho, and the mellifluous guitar of Malian Habib Koite lift their respective tracks to quite sub- lime heights. Cissokho’s swirling kora on the opener, Gathering Of The Tribes, is uplifting, then immediately the mood shifts with Wherza Money At, a funky diatribe against the greed of oil companies that’s propelled by the riffing horns of Kuku Ansong (trum- pet), Owura Sax (tenor sax) and laced togeth- er by the electric guitar of Kwame Yeboah. The soundscape constantly changes, with inventive arrangements utilising a huge range instrumental tones to really good effect. Eric shares writing credits with various musicians involved on the original composi- tions plus, among the total twenty-four tracks, there’s four traditional songs and two covers including Big Bill Broonzy’s still-rele- vant Black, Brown and White.
Global Griot is a two-CD set (Act One &
Act Two). The thirteen-track Act One is the stronger of the two, virtually perfect, with each song having its own individual character while flowing beautifully from track to track. Act Two doesn’t match this consistent quality; there are fewer original songs, whereas the four traditional items, as well as the other cover song, are included. Overall, it feels less focused and, to a degree, a bit self-indulgent. The closing track, Needed Time (which Eric has already recorded more than once) here, at seven minutes, just feels too long. But, that said, Act One, by itself, more than justifies purchase. All the lyrics of the original songs are viewable on Eric’s website.
ericbibb.com Dave Peabody
BERT JANSCH Just A Simple Soul BMG BMGCAT227CD
Released around what would have been Bert’s 75th birthday, this is a 39-track (27 on the vinyl version) two-disc compilation, selected and chronologically sequenced by guitarist and producer Bernard Butler.
Similar in form and function to the Topic
Records ‘An Introduction To…’ series, Just A Simple Soul covers Bert’s entire, five-decade solo recording career, from 1965 debut to 2006 swansong. As such, it’s inevitable that some will note the absence of favourite, less well-known tracks, but hey, they already have them. What’s particularly fascinating about this record is that these are Butler’s personal choices – “placing the mythology amongst my own experience.”
More frustrating is the lack of detailed track information regarding the original album sources and personnel. Anyone, for instance, wanting to know the identities of the singer and fiddle player on The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (spoiler alert – Mary Hopkin and Aly Bain) will have to seek else- where. Thank goodness for that internet the young folk have nowadays.
As Butler remarked in an fR interview (this issue) this “looks like a cool, modern record.” The (uncredited) remastering job ensures that it sounds fantastic, too. A collec- tion that brilliantly captures the essence of a “simple soul” whose unwavering commit- ment to living a musical life on his own terms freed him of the constraints of both era and genre, this really is a perfect introduction to Bert Jansch. For guitar players discovering this music for the first time, it could literally be life-changing.
bertjansch.com Steve Hunt
Maarja Nuut & Ruum
MAARJA NUUT & RUUM Muunduja 130701 CD13-30
Immediately following the release in 2016 of her second solo CD, Estonian singer-violinist Maarja Nuut began live collaboration with electronicist Hendrik Kaljujärv (known as Ruum). They’ve been recording together, and here’s the result.
The essence of Maarja’s music hasn’t changed radically – her calm, close-up voice and bowed and plucked violin textures loop- ing and overlaying in pieces that are originals but evocative of the melodic minimalism and repetition of Estonian traditional musics. Indeed, some here are from her earlier reper- toire, reworked. Kaljujärv interacts with manipulations and electronic sounds, not imposing beats but flowing and surging in the same spirit.
An important and very striking part of her live performance has been its focus on her solo figure, bowing and turning hypnoti- cally in the spotlight, so I wonder whether adding a second figure onstage on laptop could distract from that, but working with Ruum gives her new sound realms to explore and in audio terms it works fine.
I’ve long felt that the present-day cre- ativity built on Baltic traditional musics has the possibility of taking a path well away from the guitars and chords of several other folk music revivals, and the way to that path could be collaboration between sympathetic electronicists or sound artists with traditional and tradition-inspired musicians. Early exam- ples include Latvian Ugis Praulins’s 1999 Paganu Gadagramata, the odd, quirky treat- ments of the songs of Lithuanian singer Veronika Povilioniene on 2000’s Vai Ant Kalno or, even earlier, the 1988 LP by Estoni- an/Australian project Kiri-Uu treating the tra- dition-derived work of the late Estonian com- poser Veljo Tormis. And of course in Estonia, and its green-grey swamps and woodlands, there are connections with the spirit of Arvo Pärt’s music.
In the work of Maarja Nuut, and also that of some of her contemporaries, this dis- tinctive Baltic mood and approach is liberat- ing itself from the categories and boundaries of folk, classical, jazz and electronica. Maarja, whose appearances at festivals and showcas- es of all those genres are always enthused
about as special moments, is proof (and her central role in the visuals and sound of Estoni- an president Kersti Kaljulaid’s ‘We Are Stronger Together’ 2016 Christmas e-card shows how well recognised she is at home).
130701.com Andrew Cronshaw VARIOUS ARTISTS
Disques Debs International – An Island Story: Biguine, Afro Latin & Musique Antillaise 1960–1972: Volume One Strut STRUT187CD
Entrepreneur-bandleader Henri Debs found- ed Disques Debs in the late 1950s to record the Créole music of the French overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique. The first of three volumes of the label’s best, this compilation – replete with archival pho- tos, interviews and discography – focuses on the 1960s, featuring early big band meringue, gwo ka, beguine, quadrille and bolero. Still going strong, Disques Debs has issued over 300 singles and 200 LPs, and the label played a seminal role in disseminating Créole music in mainland France.
Debs, who got his start selling clothing from a market stall in Pointe-á-Pitre, was also a music aficionado who recorded his favourite artists in the back of his shop (opened in 1958) during off hours (e.g., singer-guitarist-songwriter Daniel Forestal). Debs also fronted his own quintet (two Debs tracks are included here, with the superb sax work of Ed Benoit, as heard on Douce Kom- bass). For bigger combos such as Roger Fan- fant’s Orchestre Esperanza and Cyril Diaz Et Son Orchestre, Debs arranged sessions at the Cinema Renaissance.
The selections, logged on a four-track machine in single takes, show palpable influ- ence not only of U.S. big-band jazz, but also the music of Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico that reached the islands via touring groups, radio broadcasts, film and imported recordings. This is a remarkable audio document that anyone interested in Caribbean dance music and his- tory needs to hear.
strut.bandcamp.com Michael Stone
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