MUSIC PREVIEW V LISTEN! |
I Tour news: Nirvana’s SECC show has now been rescheduled for Fri 15 April. All tickets for the original date remain valid, but the deadline for refunds is Fri 1. Lloyd Cole, who was supposed to be touring in May has pulled out due to ‘recording commitments’. The dates will be rescheduled for later in the year.
I ln-stores: On the ‘altemative‘ circuit - that is, afternoon gigs in record shops - is yer man Fish, who releases ’Lady Let it Lie'. the first single on his own Dick Bros Record Company label, on Mon 4. He'll be promoting it at HMV in Glasgow (lpm) and East Kilbride (4.30pm) on Tue 5 before heading south. Also, Rock. Salt And Nails, hailed as ‘the band that could do for traditional what Nigel Kennedy did for classical’ will be appearing at HMV, Edinburgh at lprn on Wed 30 and Tower Records. Glasgow at 3pm on Mon
4. I The curtain fell on
Scotland‘s only nationally
networked radio show on Tue 22 as Earshot made way for BBC Radio 5’s rolling news and sports service. Over its three- and-a-half-year run, the programme gave UK- wide plays to more than 300 Scottish bands (200 of them on demos), and as such was a valuable source of exposure which will be missed. The Beeb have no plans, apparently, for a similarly Scottish- slanted show.
I Edinburgh-based organisation AMPS (Arts and Music Promotions Scotland) are sending two Scottish bands, Odd Bodhran and Stringjammer, to the Eighth European Juggling and Music Convention in May. While there, AMPS intend to set up a stall displaying publicity packages and demo tapes of Scottish bands to the organisers of other European music festivals. This is an excellent chance to get your material heard by some people who really matter, so whack your CDs. tapes and all kinds of info to AMPS at 43 Barclay Place, Edinburgh EH10 SDW (031 667 4484). Potential sponsors should take a note of the address as well, as sending bands abroad isn't cheap.
Extending tradition
Singer llee Dee Bridgewater is a woman with something of a mission, namely to keep alive that line of jazz singing which began with the late Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, but seemed threatened in the 70s and 80s by new lazz styles, and by the fashion for singing ‘original’ material.
Dee Dee knows this story first hand; after graduating through the Thad Jones-Mel lewis Orchestra and replacing Abbey lincoln in the Max lloach t'luintet, she made something of a name for herself working in a more pop-orientated vein with electric fusion bands led by the likes of Stanley Clarke, and cut albums of her own for Elektra featuring Chick Corea and George Duke.
At the same time, a promising career on the musical stage also beckoned following her success in shows like ‘The \Viz’, ‘Sophistlcated Lady’ and ‘Lady Day’. In the end, though, it was the pull of that tradition which won out. She made ‘a conscious decision to concentrate on lazz’, and her work with an acoustic trio has fully justified that choice.
She lives in Paris, and works with a regular trio of French-based musicians, pianist Thierry Eliez, bassist llein van de Ceyn, and drummer Andre ‘llede’ Ceccareli, with whom she has ‘a very close musical understanding’. Their latest album, ‘Keeping Tradition’, is her first under a new deal with Verve, and is a superb
showcase for both her voice and her deft handling of a song.
Simply to label her as a Vaughan- Fitzgerald copyist, however, would be well wide of the mark. She may be dedicated to working in that idiom, but like every jazz musician worth
their salt, she is constantly looking for
a new twist on familiar songs, and a fresh way to approach the great tradition in which she has placed herself. it‘s been a long wait to hear her, but it should be well worth it. (Kenny Mathieson)
Dee Dee Bridgewater plays at the
Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on Fri 25, as
part of the Silk Cut City Jazz series.
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Whose
‘People seemed very forgiving of “Bring it Down”, of its flaws. People could easily have said, why don’t these people come back when they have their act together. But instead people encouraged us.’ When the debut album from Madder Bose started doing the rounds last spring, the domino effect worked its wonders: fawning praise followed fawning praise. The world, we were told, revolved around the spacey, spooky, urban country music of Madder nose. In truth, on the streets, the band’s gig at Glasgow’s Arches last October was
d glory
half-full and adequate, apart from the lazy magic of ‘Swim’. The absence of lead guitarist Billy Cote through illness is only half an excuse.
So what happens now that the flew Yorkers’ second, better album is released? Reviewers pop a vein, that’s what, while back on Planet Practical, listeners might wonder why the album is called ‘Panic On’ and be born of a year of personal stress, yet still sound so compelling, calming and smiley. The heart-in-her—mouth, lump-in-her- throat voice of Mary lorson might have something to do with it — making beauty of misery, and all that iamzzz. But 1993 was a tough year, no mistake; the final track on the album, ‘Mad 009’, a loony howl, is bladder Rose’s trauma given (gibberish) voice.
‘We went on the road and said goodbye to our home lives,’ says Lorson. ‘All our relationships suffered. It’s tough realising that when your dream comes true you often have to give up something else that means a lot to you . . .’
But personal loss is public gain, and bladder Rose’s dream of becoming full-time musicians is still no nightmare. llence ‘Panic Cn’, single and album, are marvellous, evocative, graceful and very probably cathartic. But don’t take my words for it . . . (Craig McLean)
Madder Bose play The Venue, Edinburgh on Wed 6.
The body eclectic
Norman Chalmers discovers that the performers at this year’s Edinburgh Folk and Harp Festivals are crossing more stylistic boundaries than ever before.
Crocuses croak and so do some unpracticed voices. The annual Edinburgh Folk and Harp Festivals are upon us again, filling Teviot Row Union and the beer glasses till early in the rnoming over the ten days before Easter. The two separate events have a symbiotic relationship, and jointly share the opening concert at the Queen‘s Hall with Mac-Talla and The Poozies. both bands featuring the little Scots harp or clarsach.
With no Big Names on the bill, the festival period is given over to music- making, relaxed concert-going, dancing, informal sessions. workshops and tuition, with the chance to hear the originators and creators of tomorrow‘s trends and styles before they are swept into the cornrnerciality of the contemporary folk scene.
‘Music For Music’s Sake‘ might be the motto of what is a very broad church, from the concert of unaccompanied traditional Scottish song to the proofthat the devil has all the best tunes when Shooglenifty do their bit of hell-raising.
Making sounds that make more sense on a club dance stage or at a rave than in your traditional folk club, musicians like ‘Nifty, from Edinburgh. are at the forefront of a new wave of post-fusion
26 The List 25 March—7 April 1994