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feet tap while putting a smile on the face and good cheer in the heart. There’ are twenty- five prime examples to brighten your day on the latest Rough Guide/ World Music Net- work release for their ongoing ‘Reborn and Remastered’ series.
Kicking off with Bo Carter’s Cigarette
Blues… “Just draw my cigarette baby until you make my good ashes come!”… there’s plenty truckin’, shakin’, grindin’ and sellin’ the jelly coming from such blues luminaries as Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Boy Fuller, Charlie Pat- ton, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith… more than enough to keep most anybody “satisfied!!”. Charley Jordan urges you to Keep It Clean, Barbecue Bob can’t stand the pace, telling his woman Honey You’re Going Too Fast, female impersonator Frankie ‘Half Pint’ Jackson pleads Can’t You Wait Till You Get Home? while, out on the street, Lil Johnson extols the virtues of Sam The Hot Dog Man.
Poor ol’ Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe admit to love life problems in What’s The Mat- ter With The Mill… it done broke down!! No wonder she left Joe to marry Casey Bill Wel- don, but I hope Casey Bill is not referring to Minnie when he sings Your Wagon’s Worn Out Now. Even the usually sweet and gentle Mississippi John Hurt gets in on the act with his very risqué Candy Man Blues… “his stick of candy don’t melt away, just gets better so the ladies say”… oh, spare the blushes, please.
worldmusic.net Dave Peabody
DANIEL & EMMA REID Life Continuum Own Label EMR04
The image of the baritone sax is probably most often as the low honking end of a jazzy brass section. But it has the potential for a warm, woody, almost bass clarinet tone, and that’s what Daniel Reid uses. And the soprano sax too – the one that’s usually straight – can have a similarly mellow richness. In fact these are likely to be the sort of tones that Adolphe Sax had in mind for his inventions.
So to say that Daniel and Emma play fid- dle and saxes might evoke in the imagination a strident sound far from the reality, which is one of spring light, green shadows, rich deli- cate elegance, in winding, heart-lifting musi- cal conversations. As well as fiddle and saxes, they play viola, Hardanger fiddle, flute, accordeon and piano, and sing.
Most of the material, on this their third album, is their own, deeply imbued with and occasionally including traditional Swedish music, as well as that of Emma’s country of birth, including a tune from a Lancashire fid- dler’s manuscript, a version of Golden Slum- bers sung by Emma, and Keep You In Peace, a song closely akin to Ae Fond Kiss, sung by both in harmony. The nine tracks divide into two themes: Dances & Lullabies and Life Con- tinuum, each in two parts. The latter includes a tune, Silly Ian, dedicated to another musi- cian who’s moved from the UK to Sweden, the great guitarist Ian Carr.
Perfect music for a sunny May morning with the windows open and the light stream- ing in.
danielemma.se Andrew Cronshaw
SOKRATIS SINOPOULOS Under the Rose Tree Music & Words S 62619
Greek musician Sokratis Sinopoulos is a con- temporary master of the lyra. The lyra is not, as you might expect, a small harp but a bowed instrument, resembling the violin, held on the knee and played upright, dating back to the Byzantine era. This live recording,
recorded in Amsterdam, shows Sinopoulos at his best, accompanied by piano, oud and full drum kit. He neatly crosses the boundaries between Greek traditional music, jazz and classical music by allowing Yann Keerim (piano) and Dimitris Emmanouil (drums) the space to follow non-traditional motifs and improvisations whilst the lyra and oud keep the music on track.
Occasionally both oud and lyra allow themselves a jazz-influenced solo or two but most of their improvisations have their roots in the tradition, like the brilliant oud opener to Burnovalio Manes . One secret of the great success of this recording is that the improvisa- tions rarely stray beyond the original modes of the tune they came from. All tracks are stun- ners, from the Breton-sounding opening title track to the lyrical I Wish I Were a Bird and then onto the swinging, almost atonal piano solo of Sunday Morning. Excellent recording quality coupled with brilliant musicianship makes this a recording worth checking out.
saphrane.com Mark T.
ANN O’ARO Anne O’aro Buda/Cobalt 860336
There’s plenty here for peo- ple who already love the soulful-vocalled, largely per- cussion-based maloya music of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean. If you’re familiar with Danyel Waro or Christine Salem, you’ll feel at home here as O’aro’s expressive
voice soars, whispers, speaks and harmonises in fine fashion.
Opening track Kamayang finds her sim- ply backed by Jean-Didier Hoareau and Willy Paitre’s gentle voices and kayanm (it’s a flat shaker made of bamboo tubes) and all is well with the world. Then your ears perk up as it’s into Lo Shien (Dog) featured on this issue’s fRoots 70 compilation, with it’s subtle, origi- nal use of Fanny Ménégoz’s flute and Julien Rousseau’s euphonium over the bassier pulse of the rouller drum and you know you’re heading somewhere interesting… Next up it’s Kap Kap, an angry song in Creole, accompa- nied by Rousseau’s bobre (musical bow) that’s
about an incestuous father; the spoken poet- ry of Le Corps Conquis with the flute/eupho- nium combination again; the slow and reflec- tive a capella Lo Lor Kapé; the captivating, tootily almost-jazz of Zwazo and Zantray, and ever onwards – ringing the changes and absolutely demanding the attention. Easy background worldy music for dinner party conversations this definitely ain’t. Ears on!
Even though you’re missing out by not understanding Creole (though the lyrics are also printed in French in the booklet so you and Mr Google Translate can have a stab at it), the music speaks all emotional languages.
budamusique.com Ian Anderson DUOTONE
A Life Reappearing Garrett Brown Music GBMCD0005
Duotone (aka multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and live-looper Barney Morse- Brown) returns with eight tracks composed as responses to paintings from A Shepherd’s Life by Scottish artist Victoria Crowe which depict the life of Pentland Hills shepherd Jenny Arm- strong in the early decades of the 20th Century.
It’s a fascinating, complex work in which Morse-Brown acknowledges and explores the myriad contradictions of a modern urban man expressing a sense of yearning for a life lived in isolation and hardship. Beautifully melodic, melancholic songs like The Room are formed from stanzas that are both as simple and profound as haikus – “In your hand you held a world I cannot know.” Arrangements feature Morse Brown’s signature cello (an instrument that surely resonates at the same frequencies as human heartstrings), guitars and bass, while The Owl Light Trio’s Jane Grif- fiths contributes impeccable violin, viola and piano and Kris Drever makes a telling guest appearance on The Faintest.
Morse-Brown writes of Armstrong: “By exploring her life through these paintings, I have learnt more about my own.” Thus inspired, he has created a mesmerising and revealing record that engages both heart and mind.
duotonemusic.com Steve Hunt
Ann O’aro
Photo: Florence Le Guyon
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