A Review from Froots
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fR364 PAGES 50-65 (11 Pgs)_Layout 1 01/09/2013 22:47 Page 1 f 50 Photo: Brian Shuel Photo: Judith Burrows Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita The Young Tradition CATRIN FINCH & speaking the same language. It’s less impres- decent sound quality. All the distinctive YT sionistic and more song-based than Tretakt facets are there – Bellamy on soaring, whoop- SECKOU KEITA Takissaba with Cissokho taking the vocal lead ing overload while Heather Wood’s voice Clychau Dibon Astar Mwlden AARCDA 025 in typically gruff griot style. But it’s instru- dances elegantly on top of it with Royston mentally that the trio really shine. Where the Wood’s bass vocals giving the whole thing a ELLIKA SOLO RAFAEL Finch & Keita album sounds all of a piece, coherent root. Completely unaccompanied, it Now is full of unexpected twists and turns. includes many of their old favourites, includ- Now Country & Eastern CE26 The kora can suddenly sound like a Mexican ing Banks Of Claudy, Banks Of The Nile, The harp, the percussion West African and Frisell’s Foxhunt and The Two Magicians; each mem- She was a highly fiddle and viola dance round it all. Very well ber of the group takes a solo with Heather respected Welsh worth seeking out. Wood getting the best audience reaction harpist, he was a Not- with her deft My Husband’s Got No Courage tingham-based mas- www.countryandeastern.se In Him. But inevitably Bellamy’s is the voice ter of the West Jamie Renton that keeps you gripped, wondering where it African kora… together they made beautiful will dip and dive next. Shanties were their music! No, not the tagline for the unlikeliest speciality and, never mind folk groups, any rom-com ever made, but rather a description THE YOUNG TRADITION rock band of the time would have struggled of Clychau Dibon, a meeting of musical minds that works like a treat. You can read the Oberlin 1968 Fledg’ling FLED3094 to match the intensity with which they erupt cover story of fRoots 361 to find out the tale into Haul On The Bowline. And those who behind the album, but you really don’t need THE YOUNG TRADITION consider Little Sally Racket one of Bellow- head’s most extreme tracks might be interest- to know the details in order to appreciate the The Young Tradition/So Cheerfully simple pleasures on offer here. Finch and ed in the ferocity with which YT attacked it in Round/Galleries/Chicken On A Raft BGO 1968 under the title Haul ‘Em Away. Keita play with and around each other as if CD1103 Wales and Mali were natural musical bed- www.thebeesknees.com fellows. At times it’s hard to work out who’s Forty five years on but even now – or maybe The BGO double CD collection basically playing what, as the strings ripple and shim- especially now – Young Tradition blow your puts the entire YT studio sessions – including mer for all they’re worth. There are many head off. Built around Peter Bellamy’s the 1968 Chicken On A Raft EP – under one wonderful contemplative moments here, but famously idiosyncratic phrasing and eccentric roof in digitally remastered form. It’s thus a surprising improvisatory edges and flourishes stylisation, they sound like they’ve just land- valuable resource for anyone wishing to too, with both players pushing just enough to ed from another planet with a brief to turn understand why they made such a sensation- move things away from the pleasant and traditional folk song on its head. This they al contribution to the folk revival – and why twee. Some people spend a lot of money on achieved in spectacular fashion and few wouldn’t they? The chronological course, illegal substances in order to attain the kind groups of the modern era (or indeed any era though, suggests they were running out of of mood this music evokes. since they abandoned ship at the fag end of ideas by the end and their tentative and ill- www.astarmusic.co.uk the 1960s) have replicated their extraordinary advised move into early music territory on The template for passion, power and sense of identity. More’s Galleries probably doesn’t rank beyond such Euro-West the pity. When Young Tradition sang a song, curiosity value despite the contributions of African acoustic they sang it to within an inch of its life and it Dave Swarbrick, Dolly Collins and the Early shenanigans was set, was hard to imagine anyone else doing it Music Consort. in part at least, by afterwards… even when it was drawn direct- There are some surprises in their earlier Tretakt Takissaba, a 2003 collaboration ly from the tradition’s primary sources like material. While Byker Hill from their power- between Swedish violinist Ellika Frisell and Harry Cox and the Copper Family. house 1965 debut is classic explosive YT, they Senegalese kora-man Solo Cissokho, which The recently dis- follow it with a movingly tender lead vocal deservedly bagged a BBC Award for World covered live recording from Bellamy on The Bold Fisherman, and Music back then. A decade later and they’ve from Oberlin College Royston Wood – sometimes dismissively consid- joined up with percussionist Rafael Sida in Ohio in 1968 is ered merely the bass voice tempering Bellamy’s Huizar (originally from Mexico, now based in especially fascinating, vocal gymnastics – turns in a glorious unaccom- Sweden) for a three-way cultural conversa- capturing them in something approximating panied solo delivery of Dives & Lazarus. There’s tion that somehow sounds like they’re all their prime and duly restored to a pretty some strong material on So Cheerfully Round fR364 PAGES 50-65 (11 Pgs)_Layout 1 01/09/2013 22:47 Page 2 51 f too, including a beautifully pure Bold Dragoon Musiki wa dansi was built on the Con- from Heather, and Bellamy’s The Old Miser golese rumba model, with gentle exposition offers an interesting flavour of the colourful and then, foundations laid and anticipation solo singer he was to become. high, stopping and moving up a gear with And, for all its faults, Galleries does offer the supercharged seben section. Many emi- a contrasting perception of their voices when gré Congolese musicians fleeing Mobutu’s pitched against the precise musical accompa- Zaïre found work in East Africa. But the Tan- niment of the Early Music Consort. It also zanian style, incorporating local elements to includes a great version of Bitter Withy, plus produce a more compelling product, ended a rare chance to hear Bellamy as impressive up faster and some would say more exhilarat- old blues howler – albeit in parody form with ing than Congolese rumba. When you have record scratches and all – on Entracte: Stones either of these great bands at full stretch, In My Passway. He could have been a serious smooth harmonies urged on by blazing brass, blues man, he really could. And this package light drums skittering beside circling guitars, serves as both valuable introduction and joy- it’s a very special kind of music. This antholo- ous celebration of a group who still sound gy captures the magic perfectly. entirely different to anything before or since. www.budamusique.com www.bgo-records.com Rick Sanders Colin Irwin CAPERCAILLIE MLIMANI PARK At The Heart Of It All Vertical Records ORCHESTRA / VERTCD100 INTERNATIONAL Thirty years on, and ORCHESTRA SAFARI with their first album SOUND in ten years, Caper- caillie once again Zanzibara 7 – Sikinde vs Ndekule Buda demonstrate convinc- Musique 860241 ingly they are still masters at introducing new life into traditional Gaelic songs and tunes. A Zanzibara release, Karen Matheson’s singing is as glorious as but important to note ever whether singing up-tempo waulking that the label actually songs or doomy ballads, and Charlie McKer- deals with all the east ron, Manus Lunny, Donald Shaw, Ewan Vernal coast of Africa. Dar es and Mike McGoldrick have always been in the Salaam is where this music here comes from, ‘band to die for’ category despite all the a late-’80s assembly of superb musiki wa young masters and mistresses that have dansi tracks from two of Tanzania’s leading emerged more recently. orchestras of the time. It’s all arranged in the form of a Battle of the Bands with alternat- Coming back full circle with pretty ing tracks from the Mlimani Park and Safari much an entirely acoustic album, the open- bands. Sounds a bit contrived, but in practice ing waulking song S’Och A’ Dhomhnaill Oig this does not make for bad listening. It does Ghaolaich features atmospheric sax from underline the differences – and actually cor- Edinburgh jazzer Tommy Smith weaving in responds with the bands’ status as the two and out of the fiddle and pipes but that and best in Dar es Salaam, each followed by their some modest brass elsewhere is about as far hordes of partisan fans. The rivalry began in as it goes on the innovation front – there’s 1985 when local impresario Hugo Kisima nothing to frighten the horses. Just fright- poached six members of the Mlimani Park eningly good music and beautiful singing, Orchestra – then the unchallenged kingpins, with occasional friendly help from the cream high-stepping residents at the Mlimani Park of the crop like Gerry O’Connor, Kathleen bar – to be the nucleus of a reformed Safari MacInnes, Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever, Aidan band to play at his Safari Resort in the sub- O’Rourke, and some fiery piping from Jar- urbs. Feelings ran high at this treachery. Bat- lath Henderson. tle lines were drawn.