Number Seventy News

A quick plug, first, for Kendell’s Bistro in Leeds. opposite The Venue and very close to the West Yorkshire Playhouse – french-style food – lots of choice – lots of fish – and opens at 5.30 so you can have a leisurely meal and still get to the gig / show.

A double bill at The Venue.  First up a stunningly good Indo-jazz outfit called Samay – guitar, sarod, tabla, saxophone and bass.  Their own tunes – exciting improvisations- good beat- nice varied set.  Bought the CD and it’s good at home too.  Hadn’t heard of them before – but glad I went.

The hook was Andy Sheppard and his group, which included Arild Anderson and Oyvind Aarset plus a guitarist and a drummer who could play tabla with his left hand and a standard drum kit with his right.  They produced a really nice sound – I thought it was very Norwegian – it had that slightly ethereal quality – but that might have been the ECM sound.  Some nice solos from the band and Sheppard very tuneful.  I look forward to getting the latest CD and listening with attention.

Maybe it’s too late to start going to see Bob Dylan.  I can at least say that I saw him live, that it was an enjoyable evening, and that he and his band make a good rocking sound.  But his croak is more croaky than ever and I really ony could make out the words on songs I knew already. And that was only once I’d worked out what song they were, as he keeps changing how he does any particular number. That’s fine, and I quite liked the rock “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” and “Blowin’ In the Wind”.  But overall there wasn’t much variety in presentation – he’s determined to make a loud noise and has taken to playing the keyboard as well as the guitar and harmonica.  I did wonder at times if he was using the keyboard to hold himself up.  A lot of people at Sheffield Arena had gone minus their critical faculty, it seemed.  Bob’s still great – but he’s not as good as he was.  

To the Sage at Gateshead for some fiddle concerts.  Note 1. The Sage’s sandwiches have improved, though not tremendously. Note 2. The programme implied fairly constant entertainment in the foyer – in fact extremely sporadic during the time we were there, roughly 12 to 5. Note 3. There was supposed to be a non-stop “session” in the upstairs hall in a pub-style atmosphere – it seemed like the hope was that this would just happen – in the afternoon at least, it didn’t.  It could have done with a bit of nurturing / leadership.

Having said all that, the two concerts we attended were excellent, and both confounded expectations.  I know Annbjorg Lien from CDs like Aliens Alive, which is very much the folk-rock end of Norwegian traditional music.  However, this was an excellent acoustic solo set of traditional tunes on the Hardanger fiddle, introduced with just enough information.  Good to see where the roots are.

And then the Harald Haugaard Trio from Denmark.  We’d seen Harald as part of Hoirup and Haugaard at the Cambridge Folk Festival – an engaging fiddle and guitar duo doing traditional music so it was quite a surprise to have an amplified quite wild set here.  Good stuff though, mostly traditional based.

ECM is the Munich-based record label which puts out many of the jazz artists I like best – Gabarek for a start, and Trygve Seim and Arild Anderson.  Serious Music had arranged a little festival at Kings Place to celebrate the 40th birthday of the label.  A concert featuring Trygve Seim (sax), Frode Haltli (accordeon), Garth Knox (Viola d’amore) and Agnes Vestermann(cello) was a delight – nice improvisations seeming to start from a selection of disparate notes and phrases and building to a tune.  As a duo, I prefer the 2 Norwegians, but as a quartet they were wonderful. A privilege to catch a one-off like this.  Garth Knox is an engaging gangly Irishman.

The second concert, the Julia Hulsmann Trio’s debut in the UK, was a bit disappointing.  There wasn’t really anything which made them stand out from the general run of piano drums bass trios – and I had hope for something a bit more inspiring.  Though her CD of pieces around poems by Emily Dickinson is really nice.

Both concerts in Hall 2 at Kings Place – excellent acoustic.

Fibbers is very less than perfect, the Duchess nearly as lacking.  Admittedly there are more seats at the Duchess, though as some of them used to be church pews the comfort level must be low.  There are also some more comfortable looking chairs but like Fibbers, the audience numbers allowed in far exceed the number of available seats so it’s standing room mostly.  Not so good for a 2.1/2 hour concert.  And then the tickets say 7.30 start, the website says 8, and things finally get under way about 8.30.  Presumably this is to maximise the bar takings but when one also has to stand it adds insult to injury. And there was only one decent beer, Theakston’s XB, indifferently kept.

So why were we there ? For a concert advertised as Chris Drever, John McKusker and Roddy Woomble.  In fact Boo Hewardine and Heidi Talbot were there too.  Chris and John were great, especially when they were just playing together, but the other 3 didn’t add anything much to the evening.  John on fiddle, mandolin and whistle is so inventive, a pleasure to listen to, and Chris Drever is a wonderful powerful singer.  Boo seemed mostly asleep, Roddy’s style of singing and range of songs just don’t appeal, and Heidi seems pretty average for girl singers.  Sorry chaps – overall a pretty average experience.