Festival Music
3T MARY’S CATHEDRAL’S STEINWAY
Flash new keys get christened
It‘s not every day that a brand new Steinway arrives on the doorstep. So when St Mary's Cathedral took proud delivery of their specially ordered grand piano — and its price tag of around the $50,000 mark ~ rt seemed only right and proper that an appropriate series of recitals should be presented to mark the occasion. Apart from lunchtime performances every day (except Sundays) during August. there are two concerts that place the piano directly in the spotlight. Putting the instrument through its paces in an inaugural recital is the superb international pianist David Wilde, while six of Edinburgh's most talented yeting pianists show what the piano can do a couple of days later. For cathedral lay clerk, Henry Howard. who has already experienced the piano in accompaniment. “the sound is beautiful. We had a Bechstein before. which is a very good piano. but in comparison, the Steinway is a Rolls Royce.’ (Carol Main)
I St Mary's Cathedral, 226 0000, 78 Aug, 7.30pm, £72 (£8); 20 Aug. 7.30pm, free.
BARB JUNGR SINGS DYLAN
Fringe vet is whacked by Dylan
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Barb Jungr's cabaret—influenced take on the songs of Bob Dylan is certainly a distinctive one, but it proved very effective on disc when the Glasgow- based Linn Records issued Every Grain of Sand back in 2002. and should do likewise in this outing. The singer admitted that taking on such an iconic repertorie was a risky one. but — having tackled Elvis as well - she clearly likes a challenge.
TOM TOM CLUB
Breakin. beatin, bouncin‘ brilliance 00000
Not to be confused with the 80$ hip hop band. this Tom Tom Club comes from Australia. They are a troupe of super-talented boys, who use turntablism, ridiculously impressive beatboxing. high energy drumming and acrobatics to make a slick modern day circus show.
If the handless backflips, headspins and samples of ‘Skippy the Kangaroo' don‘t get the more reserved members of the crowd whooping for more, then the vocal gymnastics of award-winning Tom Thum will. Without batting an eyelid, he creates perfect impressions of crackly vinyl being speeded up, slowed down again. scratched, then layered with hip hop beats, trumpet solos and police sirens. His one-man renditions of “Billie Jean’ and the Knight Rider theme tune are worth the ticket price alone. This energetic show is tighter than a jerry curl. and never shifts out of top gear. Makes you wish you had another pair of hands so you could give them four thumbs up. (Claire Sawers)
I UdderBELLY's Pasture. ()8/‘0 7-1.6 3083, until g’f Aug}, Jrrm, i‘ 7.1 waffle
(1‘ 101‘ I2).
'l'm never so interested in ideas that come very consciously — the ones I like best are the ones that sneak up and whack me. It's all very much about gut feeling. It's a bit like Newton sitting under an apple tree for ages, and then an apple suddenly falls on your head. The Dylan project was like that — it just hit me, and my first reaction was, “don't be insane!" Mind you, some people still think I must have been} (Kenny Mathieson)
I AssemblyWOueen '3 Hall, 668 2019. 20 Aug, 7.30pm, F75 (HS).
JAMIE T An exciting new sound courtesy of Wimbledon's coolest son
A formerly ‘crazy', now defunct football team; excitable. litter collecting rodents and (lets face it) a boring tennis tournament. These were previously Wimbledon's most famous offspring, that is until Pan/c Prevent/on. Jamie T's debut album blazed its way
82 TH! LIST PENNAL MAGAZINE 16—23 Aug 2007
onto our stereos a few months ago.
It's rare in these days of Top Man rock and all that ‘hrppity hop' stuff that someone emerges With a sound that is. for want of a better word, ‘new' inot Enter Shikari 'new', good ‘new').
The combination of intimate. established venue and the Borough of Merton's finest musical crusader is a heady one. Expect polo shirts. acoustic bass guitars and Mr T‘s clever mix of ska, indie and breaks to get the capacity crowd rnovrng in what looks set to be one of the musical highlights of this year's l estival.
(Ric McLaughlin)
I T on the Fringe, L/(ltlld Room, (Ni/(l 769 0/00, 79 Aug, 7pm, SOLD OUT. See page 22 for our specra/ T on the Fringe ticket QIVL’HW'IVS.
FETTES JAZZ FESTIVAL
Jazz goes to college
The raw weekend under canvas in the grounds of Fettes College has become a bit of a staple of the otherwise rather thin ia/z representation in the Fringe. and all the more so wrth absence of a Jazz programme at The Lot this year. That has left Bill Kyle's Jazz Bar and this assooated festival as the main standard-bearer for the music.
The festival operates in five separately ticketed blocks this year (the opening Friday sessron is Latin night). and offers a Wide variety of styles. from the classrc era arrangements of the CIassrc Jazz Orchestra through to the experimental
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MONTEVERDI’S VESPERS OF 1 6 1 0
More grand-scale choral works from the great Italian composer
While Monteverdi'f; l '( )rleo oerui )l‘f‘ festival pole position there r-. pletll‘,’ more on the prograinine from the great Renaissance ’iaroriiie transitionalist Italian live ii(ill<,t‘llf. of inadrigals make up what i ll tilllfli’fl Jonathan T\/1|Hf;(iil”‘i “the ‘Lki'llll hook". As he says 'lhese are little drainas, funky, heautifiil. iit llllllr‘. erotic and (lllll“_ (lllll‘) gorgepun' if these are the works on paper. thr- other oil alongside l '()rfeo r‘, the
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rnonuinental choral preae. the Vespers of Nil!)
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