MUSIC
Into the main- stream
There are grounds for thinking seriously about having Warren Vache declared a protected species. The 39-year-old Vache emerged on the jazz scene in America in the 19705, when bop, fusion and free jazz dominated the thinking of young players all over the world, and the mainstream jazz scene, in the words of fellow trumpeter Digby Fairweather, ‘looked like winding down for ever.’
Vache not only chose to give that faltering mainstream a much-needed shot in the arm, but elected to do so playing the , by then, highly unfashionable cornet, originally a staple of New Orleans jazz, but long since usurped by the trumpet. Vache’s playing of the smaller. more mellow horn (a consequence of its wider bore) drew on the example of Louis Armstrong, but was equally informed by more modern influences, notably bop trumpet star Clifford Brown.
The resulting style is very much his own, and his lengthy partnership with the like-minded young . saxophonist Scott Hamilton has established both as major stars in the mainstream jazz firmament. Vache has been a welcome visitor to the Edinburgh Jazz Festival on several occasions, and is well remembered for turning up in 1984 with his right (valving) hand out of commission after cutting the tendons in an accident. Undaunted, he played the entire festival using his left hand instead. (Kenny Mathieson)
Vache plays the newly re-opened Calton Studios on 14 June for the Edinburgh Jazz Club, then stays on for two nights in Leith as the headliner at the inaugural Leith Jazz Festival (see listings), before moving through to Glasgow for a gig at the Society of Musicians on 17June. He will be accompanied by a home-based trio led by the excellent Brian Kellock.
ROCK 34 JAZZ 37 FOLK 40 CLASSICAL 42
MUSlCm LISTINGS
Inna-II Drying out
'v ‘ All/4v. u. 1
World Party leader Karl Wallinger on his lormer partner, Waterboy Mike Scott in a recent Melody Maker Interview: ‘I saw most oi the big bands I liked as a kid on Top ol the Pops, and his whole attitude to that when “The Whole of the Moon" was going up the charts was “No, I’m not doing that”. And I thought, “What are you in it Ior, it not to get the whole world going?" That’s what’s so irustrating about the guy now. Just come back and stop being an Irish git. Whoops! Who cares?’
Typical Wallinger candour. And Ior Waterboys/World Party tans who may iind Mike Scott's mystical etherealism a bit much alter a while, Wallinger’s earthy, realistic approach is relreshing. It's also what makes his songs so compelling. Subject matter ranges from love, to ecology, to iundamentallsm. As his heroes The
Beatles, Prince and The Rolling Stones have managed to do, the songs are both lyrically and musically uncompromising to the masses, but remain accessible to them. We will be seeing this man on Top oi the Pops.
Wallinger Ieit The Waterboys alter helping to shape their two best LPs, A Pagan Place and This is the Sea. Re released the Iirst World Party album, Private Revolution with the beguiling single ‘Ship oi Fools’ laterthat year, then ensconced himseli in his own London studio and came up with Goodbye Jumbo. Both gritty and worldy in ieel, the album proves that quality and accessibility need not be mutually exclusive. (Tracey Pepper)
World Party play the Ma yfair. Glasgow on Tue 26 and the Network. Edinburgh on Wed27.
V CLASSICAL
When choral lesiivals appear in Britain, it tends to mean neat school unilorms and countless perionnances
oi set pieces all executed with
thoroueg precise diction and more or less all the right notes. Chorus Intematlonal is not like that. For a start, choirs such as King's College, Cambridge and the Belgian group Coilegium Vocale, appearing tor the
.Iirst time in Scotland, tend to sing all
the right notes, keeping, oI course, the aiorementioned meticulous diction. But the main diilerence is that instead oi amateur choirs, Chorus Interationai has assembled some oi the world’s linest proiessional choirs and vocal ensembles to give a total ot 12 concerts in Glasgow starting on 25 June. It‘s the ilrst time that such a iestival has been
rus Intern
ational
staged in Britain and according to its Director, Rebecca Tavener, the idea is ‘to present quality and at the same time to show what’s going on at the cutting edge, with the main thrust in early and contemporary music.’ Chorus Intematlonal is basically split into two halves, the Iirst being taken up by the visiting choirs. The second is given to Scottish based choir Cappella Nova, whose live concerts cover all the music of Scottish Renaissance composer Robert Carver, lorming a mini-lestival within the series and subtitled The Complete Carver. Other highlights include the Hilliard Ensemble with the ilrst British periormance ol Estonian composerArvo Part’s Miserere, a major coup tor the festival. Further contrast comes from VOCEM electric voice theatre, whose The Vampire Strikes Back leatures 50 Strathclyde schoolchildren. ‘All the sound eilects are vocally generated' explains Tavener “and at the same time as being Iun, they're presenting absolutely avante garde vocal techniques, with accessibility and quality going together to interest new audiences.’ (Carol Main)
Chorus International, Kelvingrove Museum/Glasgow Cathedral, 22 June-8 July. See Classical Listings.
V FOLK
PEARLY KINGS
The Oyster Band is better than the sum of its parts. There are no pearls among the musicians. no virtuoso instrumentalists or great singers. The fiddle and accordion playing. by Scottish standards. is simply competent. But the lack of complexity is a conscious process on the band‘s part.
Evolving over the last decade towards a full rock sound and attack. the band has jettisoned most of the ceilidh band attitudesof its genesis. The boys have honed down to essentials. discarding most traditional songs in favour ofthe self-penned. and writing dance music that wouldn't be. and isn‘t. out of place in the barsof Texas or Louisiana.
Not that they have lost the ability to play all night at a Suffolk barn dance— they love the set dances and polka musictoo much. But the bass, drums and electric guitar are a tremendously tight rhythm section. and they have to have a break from playing fours all night. So the music gets to rock‘n‘roll.
lfyou find traditional ceilidh dances wimpish.
and rock bands rootlessly empty. the Oysters will probably supply the antidote. their message in a rock venue with not too spacious a dance floor. letting you move any way that suits. and forget all that ‘round for eight. heel toe‘ stuff.
The band's latest album. From Little Rock to Leipzig. ends in a storming Cornish six-hand reel. but gets there by way ofcountry-rock. politically tinged lyrics, and even a punk-folk version of Sonny Curtis‘ 50s hit. ‘I Fought the Law‘.
The Oysters are consistently voted top band on the English folk/roots scene. are successful in the States.
but have yet to make much ofan impression up here in Scotland. Things are changing however. and in spite of Government Health Warnings. Glasgow‘s King Tut's Wah Wah Hut has them on the menu on Thurs 28. (Norman Chalmers)
32 The List 15—281une 1990