DANCE Finitribe/Nectarine No.9
Glasgow: King Tut's, Sat 6 Dec (Finitribe only); Edinburgh: Shooting Gallery, Sat 13 Dec.
Finitribe and Nectarine No. 9 have both been around the block a bit, and, in different ways, can be considered pioneers, iconoclasts, elder statesmen even of the Edinburgh music scene. The beat and sample-heavy sound produced by Finitribe’s core duo of Davy Miller and Philip Pinsky pre—dated the then-about-to-explode dance culture way back in 1984, while The Nectarines’ Davy Henderson's fractured guitar deconstructions go way back to the seminal Fire Engines, possibly the fastest product of Edinburgh’s original post-punk scene.
Both Henderson and the Finis have been stung by the curse of big labels hurling wads of cash in their direction, only to find themselves dumped once units fail to shift. The Finis were forced down alien commercial alleyways, while Henderson’s mid-80s band Win saw the spiky discordia of The Fire Engines airbrushed into oblivion. So it's no surprise to find them preferring to be left to their own devices in a cottage
Finitribe: they've moved house
industry kind of way. To this end, new albums are forthcoming on the small but perfectly formed Sano and Infectious labels.
All good reasons to see both bands when they return to the live arena after long lay-offs and play this co- headlining gig. While this will mark the Nectarines’ first outing of the year, the Finis have been out of action a whole lot longer following protracted record company wranglings which saw the band shed one of their original trio, and are probably responsible for their new, darker sound as demonstrated by their Sleazy Listening EP. ’It comes from the bad times,’ says Miller, ’but they’re over now.’
The idea for the gig stems from Miller’s desire to mix ’n’ match sounds in a way that transcends any lazy indie/dance puritan ethic. ‘This is completely starting againfor us,’ he says. ’Collaboration is what we’re into now, so it’s about getting people to come and see different things. We used to be known as a house band, and we want to get away from that entirely.’
’We should swap record collections,’ jokes Henderson, 'then maybe we can become a house band.‘
(Neil Cooper)
had to fit into other people's schedules, and l'd like to reverse that Situation
The saxophonist's excellent gurntet features on his latest clrsc, Out Here (ASC), and on a forthc omrng Blue Note compilation He rs already planning his next album, and that -.'.i;il be reflected in hrs long-overdue Scottish gigs th:s month, with Jonathan Gee ’prar‘.<;), Geoff Gascoyne (bass) and Winston Clifford (drums) Trumpeter Byron Wallen rs una'.’arlablc‘- and rs rc-plac ed by Mika Myllari, a Finnish player he met through an exchange collaboration
'We'll play some new material I trope to recoch in the spring, plus stuff from Out Here, and the odd unusual Jazz standard,’ explains Jones ’I don't think we'd play anything earlier than that the Piper’s Tale material was right for my band then, but this group rs very
“F!
JAZZ Ed Jones Quintet
Stirling: Tolbooth Theatre, Wed 10 Dec; Edinburghzlron Tavern, Thu ll Dec; Glasgow: Tron Theatre, Mon 15 Dec.
Ed Jones was Widely tipped as the next big tenor sax star on the early 905 UK Jazz scene That never qurte happened, and while he did not exactly disappear, not too much was heard from him as a leader The release of hrs Piper's Tale
Ed Jones: leading the sax pack
album on Steve Plews's invaluable ASC label in 1995 only served to compound that Impression, since the recordings were already three years old
Jones, however, was not idle. Much of hrs time was eaten up by long stints on the road wrth U83 and Incognito, With the straighter Jazz idioms of hrs own band squeezed into the gaps However, he plans 'to concentrate more on my own music over the next year. I haven't been ignoring rt, but I've
different ' it wrll be Jones's first Visit to Scotland
as a leader since 1990, although he
was heard during this Year's Fringe wrth guitarist Antonio ForCIone, whom he first met while buskrng in Covent Garden a decade ago Forcrone's musrc takes hrrn in another direction again, requiring a much simpler and more folk-like approach, but he has proved higth adaptable in handling such changing musical demands
(Kenny Mathreson)
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preview MUSIC
FOLK Andy Irvine
Glasgow: New Dawn, Thu 11 Dec; Edinburgh Folk Club, Wed 10 Dec.
Andy lf‘.’r.'l(‘ rs the ranrblrng Irishman whose mandolin and vocal skills have taken him round the world since the 60s He's an instrumental innovator, a committed team player (Planxty, De Dannan, Mosaic, Patrick Street), but at heart a solo performer with the conViction that a gentle County Clare love lyric, a Dublin horse-racing ditty or an angry, contemporary political broadside are movrng, entertaining and relevant as much to his established fans as the new generation discovering one of Erin’s last true troubadors
Made /n Cork rs the sixth, and lust- releasecl Patrick Street album It features beautifully paced polkas, slides, slip l'()s and hernpipes played by yer man and fiddler Ken'rn Burke, accordronrst Jac kre Daly, and new boy’ Ged Foley on gurtar Included are three typical lrvrne songs, sweetly elaborated and teased out lll hrs artfully decoratiw style There is a horse song, this one from the North lrrsh tradition of trotting races, a love song that he's blended from an Ozark mountain lyric collected by Alan Lomax, and a rrrelody culled from his collaboration wrth Hungary‘s Marta Sebestyen and her band Muzsicas.
The cross-cultural rnfluenc es in lrvrne's musrc are in with the bricks. Originally inspired by Oklahoman genius Woody Guthrie, Irvrne's itchy feet took him to Eastern Europe decades before the walls came down, and hrs enthusiasm for their compound-trme rhythms enriched the repertoire of Planxty, gave birth to a urirgue album collaboration wrth Daw Spillane, and finally led into the elaborate textures of the Riverdance band and contempor.‘:ry Irish rrrusrc
No slouch on the mouth organ, lrvrne is also a very competent guitarist, but it's his style of accompanrrrrent on the bouzouki and mandolin that marks his true rndrvrdualrty Aware of the dangers, he laughs, 'On songs, I do acc‘orr‘rpanrments that aren't jllSl strummed behind the words, but go along With them The ac‘companrment's complex, and on a lot of the songs, the words are too, so to do it you have to cultrvate a schizophrenic approach which doesn't always work"
(Norman Chalmers)
Andy Irvine: Made In Cork
5—18 Dec 1997 THE ll8T49
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