(for » ,. non-festival magazine
LIVESCIENCES Sprawling beat collective come home
Freestyle and organic. Livesciences is a hip hop ensemble forged in jamming sesSions at the old Beat Jazz Basement and Bongo Clubs. Now with a 10" under their belts (phnar, phnar). and a $000 jazz recording session in a long forgotten Old Town attic. they're coming back out to play their home Festival.
‘What we like deing is playing in the band,‘ explains Johnny Crawshaw. AKA DJRedG. 'And the festival gives us a great opportunity.‘ Grasping such opportunities the band have a gruelling schedule. but here there is a feeling the collective could perform twice a day and still sound fresh. 'We just really enjoy what we play — and usually we can bring the audience along with us.'
They're looking set to break out of the Edinburgh scene on a UK tour come the autumn. and the Festival could be yetir last chance to support this accomplished outfit while they're still considered local.
(Mark Edmundson)
I Underbelly, 0870 745 3083, 7 Aug, 70.30pm. £5.
SALSA OELTIOA Local heroes rustle up some spicy musical flavours
Representing an unprecedented Caledonian ltlSlOll Wllll world influences
unequalled until the birth of the haggis samosa. Salsa Celtica turn out to be just as bizarrely palatable as the leftfield delicacy.
What they're all about is obvious when yOu consider that name — a melding of traditional Scots ceilidh music with the slightly more fashionable Salsa sound (in world music terms) of the Latin Americas. It works for them. and not just as a homegrown novelty. but as a truly marketable musical commodity across the world. The ever- malleable outfit (they average ten in number) regularly crop up in world music charts across Europe. while their album before la The Great Scottish Latin Adventure hit number seven in the LA Salsa Charts.
Resulting from a sojourn to Cuba. the recent paved the way for a tour of North America and startled yet overwhelmingly positive reaction from the Latin press there. An ever- dependable draw on home turf. then. Salsa Celtica represent one diverse attraction that won’t find it hard to Win yOu over. (David Pollock) I Queen's Hall, 668 2019, 5 Aug, 8pm, F1250.
SLUTS OF TRUST
Put your faith in rock sleaze
T on the Fringe might have all the big musical hitters this Festival. but in Sluts of Trust its smaller-scale ceiinterpart Tigerfest has seemed the services of a band who. once witnessed. Wlll stay With you like a particularly yiriilent dose of the clap.
Salsa Celtica
54 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE I") 1? Aug 7004
BIRELI LAGRENE
Jazz guitar’s crown prince gets fitting tribute
Martin Taylor described Bireli Lagrene as the greatest guitar player in the world. Given the source, that is quite a recommendation for the Alsace-born guitarist. His concert in the Jazz Festival will pay homage to the music of the greatest of his predecessors in the gypsy-jazz tradition, the inimitable Django
Reinhardt.
Bireli has worked over the music of Django many times and in several guises, including his debut recording, Routes to Django (made when he was 13), and jazz-rock versions of his tunes, but will approach the task in straightforward fashion this time around, in the company of a trio of UK musicians who are more than familiar with the style.
‘I think maybe the style of Reinhardt and Grappelli has lasted so well because he was the best,’ Lagrene suggests. ‘I really don’t know the answer for sure to that, but if you look at the guitar, in my opinion Django was really the inventor of the guitar in jazz — nobody had played like that before. Someone like Eddie Lang was a wonderful guitar player, but Django was even before that.
‘It is amazing to think how he came up with music he did - now we can all see what Django did, but there was nobody for Django to follow, you know? Nobody had done it before. He couldn’t read music anyway - he just went by his feelings and his ear, and invented that music, and made something for all us guitar players who followed after him.’ (Kenny Mathieson) I The Hub. 473 2000. 6Aug, 8pm, W260.
Glasgow duo John McFarlane and Anthony O'Donnell have oft been compared to something approaching a Weegie White Stripes. probably for no other reason than the amount of members in the band. While it must be confirmed that the live show does mirror the Stripes' dynamic somewhat. however. the recent Chemikal Underground signings debut album We Are All Sluts 0/ Trust (brilliant name asidei does present a side to the band which can best be described as more sadistically piayful. Imagine Led Zeppelin covering the Vaselines and . . . well. you can't until you've seen it. really.
Words can't do ‘em justice. You'll laugh. you'll jump. you'll shake your head at the sheer perversity of it all. (David Pollock)
I The Venue, 5:37 3073. 9 Aug, 7.30pm, 1‘6.
TAM WHITE The original Old Town blues explosion
He may not hail from the Mississippi Delta or have a nickname like Smokin'. Howlin' or Wailin' but Tam White is as true a bluesman as you'd care to find this side of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Born and raised in Edinburgh. Tam \N'llllC can comfortany be branded a legend in. Scottish musrcal 1ore. and the former stone mason is as at "ome Singing in h s sexcnth decade as he .'.as belting out early Ra’sB works heading the Boxton Dexters in the (30s.
Occasional forays :nto film and TV aside appearances in Br‘.’tvelieart and. more recently. Clasgwegian crime thriller Mmidancin' White remains dedicated to preaching the blues in his own inimitable style. His sonorous. gravelly tones Elr() lll()r(} tliziii El illitl(il) for Fraser Spiers' emphatic harmonica work and he rules the roost over the beefy back beat proxided by the nine—piece Shoestring Band.
(Mark Robertson)
I Why Not? 220 0000. ll- 14, 1842/ Aug. 7.30pm, {‘0 (5‘7).
OUT OF THE BEDROOM
Local unsung heroes get singing
For three weeks in August Edinburgh is transformed into a familiar heavuig mass of energy and excitement. but that isn't to say there isn't plenty to keep the juices flowuig for the
other «’15) ‘.“/(}(3kS. Out of the Bedroom is such a beast. a get together showcase [)lélllUlll‘ where local singers and musicians converge to perform their own songs. share ideas. advrce and collaborate in front of a small but enthusiastic audience.
With any luck the 'lli().'llléll ‘.'ll)(} of the regular exents at the Waxerley Bar ‘.‘.’lll be transported to the Cafe Royal too for ti‘ese Testin'al shows as the cream of the {]l().il) assemble foi this “an.
They also staged their own contest. Acciistic Idol. for which the audience got to note for their favourite a'tist. The Winner. Hannah O'Reilly joins the likes of Norman l aniont. the Cloadland Blue ()iiaitet. Peter Michael Rona/an and .John Hunt for peek at some of t dinl)iiigh's unsung inspired musical talent. (Mark Robertson) I (Ia/e ["l’UlTll, sse 9:340, ()1 l0, 1;) ll Aug. ll. lop/7). to (fill; l/Vrtzrer'lej' Bar. 55:53 ()‘I’r' 7 ll. 18. 2’33 Aug. 7 Sep. /'..’)’()/)rn. flee.
THE RAGE Flautist and Paragon Ensemble collide
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Bireli does Django
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