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Goran Bregovic´
34 ‘Rap music’s global takeover is now complete. And it is ruining world music.’
Philip Sweeney talks to the Balkan superstar about Gypsy music and why opinions about his success remain divided.
34
Hip-Hop Debate
16
Ravi Shankar
Fellow artists remember the legendary sitarist
Writers Rose Skelton and Nigel Williamson go head-to-head on the subject of global hip-hop.
36
Guide to Chanson
The official Songlines Guide to the artists and history of French chanson.
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Music and Food
In support of Refugee Action’s upcoming World Food Night, four musicians share their favourite food-related songs and recipes.
48 48 www.songlines.co.uk www.songlines.co.uk
Enzo Avitabile
Simon Broughton goes on set with the Neapolitan musician Enzo Avitabile and director Jonathan Demme. Songlines 3
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7 Welcome 9 Top of the World CD 10 M y World: Joe Boyd 12 N ews 16 Remembering Ravi Shankar 18 G rooves: Anaïs Mitchell, Carmen Souza, Nicolas Repac
19 Homegrown: Wara 19 Cerys Matthews 21 S onglines Encounters Festival 23 Globe-Rocker: Richard
23
Thompson 24 Letters 27 S onglines Music Travel
REGULARS
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52 Beginner’s Guide to Oysterband 54 Festival Profile: Tong Tong 57 Postcard from Jharkhand, India 59 S ounding Out New York City 63 Subscribe +GET A FREE CD 93 G ig Guide 97 You Should Have Been There... 98 Backpage from Rio de Janeiro
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MARCH13 COMPETITIONS 11 Win White Bicycles book 13 W in reggae four-CD box set 14 Win Secret Stash Records’ latest release 23 Win Richard Thompson CD 89 Win How Music Works book
REVIEWS
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Songlines 5
UPFRONT
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TM
Songlines Publishing Ltd PO Box 54209, London, w14 0wu, uk www.songlines.co.uk General Enquiries +44 (0)20 7371 2777 info@songlines.co.uk Subscriptions +44 (0)20 7371 2777 subs@songlines.co.uk Advertising +44 (0)20 7371 2834 james@songlines.co.uk Fax +44 (0)20 7371 2220 Reviews We only review full-length world music
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THE TEAM
Editor-in-chief Simon Broughton Publisher Paul Geoghegan Editor Jo Frost Assistant Editor Alexandra Petropoulos Art Director Jenni Doggett Advertisement Manager James Anderson-Hanney Subscriptions Manager and Social Media Co-ordinator Edward Craggs Podcast Producer Nasim Masoud Reviews Editor Matthew Milton News Editor Nathaniel Handy Listings Tatiana Rucinska listings@songlines.co.uk World Cinema Editor Ed Stocker ed@edstocker.com Production Consultant Dermot Jones Financial Controller Iwona Perucka Commercial Consultant Chris Walsh Editorial Director Lyn Hughes Contributing Editors Jane Cornwell, Mark Ellingham, Sue Steward & Nigel Williamson Assisted this issue by Lilly Pollard (intern) Cover Michael Putland
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Printing Polestar Colchester Ltd, Severalls Industrial Estate, Colchester, Essex CO4 4HT. Record trade distribution Worldwide Magazine Distributors. Tel: 0121 788 3112 UK newsstand & overseas newstrade distribution COMAG Specialist Division. Tel: 01895 433800 All rights are reserved. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or in part, is strictly forbidden without the prior written consent of the publishers. No responsibility for incorrect information can be accepted. The views expressed in the articles are those of the author, and not necessarily of the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of statements in Songlines, we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions or for matters arising from clerical or printer’s errors, or for advertisers not completing their contracts. Songlines is also available in audio format from the Talking Newspaper Association, tel: 01435 866102, www.tnauk.org.uk Songlines USPS 4638 is published Jan/Feb, March, April/May, June, July, Aug/Sept, Oct, Nov/Dec by Songlines Publishing Limited. Published by Songlines Publishing Ltd, PO Box 54209, London, W14 0WU. ISSN 1464-8113 © 2009 Songlines Publishing Ltd Songlines logo trade mark, registered under No. 2427714. Directors: Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, Paul Geoghegan, Lyn Hughes and Chris Pollard
Welcome
“Most Malians find it impossible to reconcile their view of Islam with sharia law”
’ve returned to the subject of Mali quite often in recent issues, but make no apologies for that. Suddenly the country that was famous in the West for nothing but its music is now in the headlines in the struggle against hardline Islam. As the Islamists, who’ve taken control of the northern half of the country, advanced south, France took everybody by surprise and decided on military intervention. They’ve started shelling the Islamist strongholds in northern Mali and, despite inevitable civilian casualties, the French action seems to be widely supported in Mali itself. Most Malians find it impossible to reconcile their view of Islam with the banning of music and sharia law now imposed in the north. As we reported in Songlines #88, the Festival in the Desert has become a ‘Caravan for Peace,’ moving through various locations to a Festival in the Desert in Exile in Burkina Faso on February 20-22. It’s clearly going to be an extraordinary event and lots of people are going – and for those that can’t, we’ll be reporting on it in #92. The Burkina Faso location is now just 30km from the capital Ouagadougou, rather than in Oursi in the distant north-east of the country as we reported in #88. For more information go to www.festival-au-desert.org. The first track on our covermount CD this issue is from Bassekou Kouyaté, who was recording during the time of the coup last March. And, as Kathryn Werntz argued in her piece in #88, Mali’s musicians are at last uniting against the extremism. Fatoumata Diawara, the prize-winning Newcomer in last year’s Songlines Music Awards, has recently recorded a song in Bamako featuring many of Mali’s top musicians, including the three Malian artists in our feature – Oumou Sangaré, Habib Koité and Amkoullel. The song ‘Mali-ko’ (Peace) was recorded in Bamako’s Bogolan studios and also includes Amadou & Mariam, Khaira Arby, Kasse Mady Diabaté, Vieux Farka Touré, instrumentalists Toumani Diabaté, Bassekou Kouyaté and Djelimadi Tounkara and Ivory Coast’s Tiken Jah Fakoly. Check out the video on the Songlines YouTube channel (www.songlines.co.uk/youtube). Glastonbury Festival (June 26-30) recently announced that Rokia Traoré – our cover artist next issue – and other bands from Mali will open the Pyramid Stage each day in an act of solidarity with the West African nation. The severity of the situation has now got the story into the mainstream press, but there are other useful places for more insightful information. Songlines writer Andy Morgan is, of course, an acknowledged expert on both the music and politics – read his posts on www.andymorganwrites.com – and Songlines is also part of the Alliance for Mali (www.mali-interest-hub.com), who publish reports on the developing situation. On a happier note we’ve finalised the line-up for this year’s Songlines Encounters Festival – at London’s Kings Place again, June 5-8, see p21 for details. As ever, it features up-andcoming artists we’re particularly excited about. And thanks too if you voted in the Songlines Music Awards. The voting closed at the end of January and the shortlist will be announced next issue.
PS Songlines editor Jo Frost is taking a six-month sabbatical from next issue to explore the world and have a life. Her place in the Songlines hot seat will be taken by reviews editor Matthew Milton.
on the SONGLINES stereo ALex At Peace by Ballaké Sissoko, whose kora is truly peaceful and charming.
Jo Apollo by Icebreaker with BJ Cole – beautiful, ethereal music.
courtesy of Ed Mucca Pazza – the new year has welcomed a lot of brass into my life.
Paul Rokia Traoré's Tchamantché... bring on Glastonbury and the new album!
SONGLINES DIGITAL Songlines B&W stereo www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/sos Super high-quality downloads curated by Real World Studios
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SONGLINES DIGITAL Look out for this symbol throughout the issue to see which free tracks are available for subscribers. For a free trial see www.songlines.co.uk/digital Songlines 7
UPFRONT
90
On your free CD – the editor’s selection of the top ten albums reviewed in this issue
1
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni ba ‘Ne Me Fatigue Pas’ From Jama Ko on Out Here Records Political turmoil in Mali leads Bassekou to blur the line between praise and protest songs. See p67
2
Nicolas Repac ‘Chain Gang Blues’
From Black Box on No Format Old blues favourites are rediscovered alongside lesser-known tracks and respectfully reinvented on this soulful album. See p86
6 4
9
3
Frigg ‘Vierivä’
From Polka V on Frigg Ltd A joyful and energetic album, which has at its core a sophisticated knowledge and appreciation of traditional Finnish fiddling. See p75
4
Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer ‘Willie’s Lady (Child 6)’ From Child Ballads on Wilderland Records Emotive interpretations of Francis Child’s ancient English ballads from the American duo. See p76
5
Ballaké Sissoko ‘Asa Branca’
From At Peace on No Format Sparse instrumental accompaniment adds gentle texture to the beauty of the kora on this subtle and skilful album. See p69
3 8 †
7 15
2 10
TURN OVER TO SEE WHAT’S ON JOE BOYD’S PLAYLIST
We Banjo 3 ‘Over the Waterfall/Liberty Polka’ From Roots of the Banjo Tree on We Banjo 3 A reeling and rocking homage to past Irish and bluegrass players. See p78
7
Abdou Diop ‘Kodo’
From Nootee on Sterns Music Melodic and uplifting, this second album from the southern Senegalese musical ambassador blends gentle traditional acoustic sounds from Casamance. See p66
8
Vinicio Capossela ‘Abbandonato’
From Rebetiko Gymnastas on La Cupa Rebetika-flavoured covers and new interpretations of his old compositions are favourably transformed in this offering from the Italian troubadour. See p74
9
10
The Dust Busters with John Cohen ‘The Honest Farmer’ From Old Man Below on Smithsonian Folkways The New York trio’s musical prowess carrys the legacy of American folk revivalists into the 21st century. See p71
New to Songlines? Subscribe now and get a
Arifa ‘Maktub’
From Anatolian Alchemy on Mundus Production The talented quartet’s second album easily surpasses the first in a masterful blend of beautifully nuanced compositions. See p84
album for free!
We’re giving away a choice of Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni ba, Vinicio Capossela or Nicolas Repac’s new albums (to new subscribers only). See the flyer inside your covermount CD for details, visit www.songlines.co.uk/cd90 or call +44 (0)20 7371 2777. www.songlines.co.uk
Songlines 9
† FUSIONLAND
6
UPFRONT
My World joe boyd The American record producer and writer talks to Simon Broughton about his fascination for world music and how it all began for him in the 60s Also on your CD: five tracks chosen by Joe Boyd Carlos Gardel ‘Mano a Mano’
From the album King of Tango: Volume 1 on Nimbus Records “The guitar player – probably Luciano Ríos – was black and black musicians were at the heart of early tango. There’s a comeback now for guitar tango in Buenos Aires.”
12
Toots & the Maytals ‘Premature’
From the album Reggae Got Soul on Island “Toots’ great songs are always about moments in Jamaican life. This song is about showing movies in the street. It’s a picture of ghetto life. That’s the genius of Toots.”
13
Étoile de Dakar featuring Youssou N’Dour ‘Jalo’
From the album Once Upon a Time in Senegal: The Birth of Mbalax 1979-1981 on Sterns Music “I remember stumbling across this record in New York called the Star Band of Dakar and I was amazed by this voice.” This track is a praise song to a woman.
14
Detty Kurnia ‘Sorban Palid’
From the album Dari Sunda on Riverboat Japanese producer Makoto Kubota puts pop stylings onto the music of Detty Kurnia from Sunda, West Java. ‘Sorban Palid’ means ‘skimming turbans’ of the sort worn by Hadji Muslims who’ve been to Mecca.
15
Forro in the Dark ‘Asa Branca’
From the album Bonfires of São João on Nublu Records “David Byrne gives forró music real respect, which so many people who are ‘updating’ the music don’t.”
10 Songlines
Jim Floyd
11
I
n his book White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s record producer Joe Boyd writes about his life in the 60s with Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and many others. But he subsequently created one of the great world music labels – Hannibal – and became associated with global sounds. When did that interest start? “I always liked music from other cultures. I grew up listening to Édith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich so I was up for listening to music in a language that wasn’t English, as long as it was good. But I blotted my copybook around 1982/83 when I had Hannibal going and my brother was helping me out. I was trying to pay the pressing plant bills fast enough to fill orders for Shoot Out the Lights by Richard and Linda Thompson, which was selling like hotcakes. My brother suggested we license Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares and start a series of international vocal harmony records. And I said ‘Get out of here. I love that stuff but it will never sell.’ At one fell swoop two of the biggest selling world music acts were dismissed.” Boyd was born in Boston, Massachusetts and began by touring blues artists like Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe and working as production manager on the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965 [pictured above, in the hat] when Dylan went electric. He moved to London and started the UFO Club, the ‘hub of psychedelic London,’ where
Pink Floyd and Soft Machine were virtually the house bands in 1967. The stories of these years are very entertainingly told in White Bicycles. Over many years in the music business, Boyd has found common threads in the diverse music he likes: “It’s not that I start with the a priori idea that I like roots. But I’ve listened to many types of music and I’ve noticed that the music I really respond to has tradition, virtuosity and a live spontaneity. I think most world music fans are looking for what we’ve lost in our own culture – great playing or singing, a strong personality and a connectedness to a tradition.” Boyd names several singers who’ve really stood out in their respective cultures – Édith Piaf, Carlos Gardel, Oum Kalthoum and Caetano Veloso. He’s been researching the Argentinian tango singer, Gardel, for the book about world music he’s working on. What he loves about ‘Mano a Mano’, recorded in 1928, is its energy and guitar sound. “The guitar player was black and black musicians were at the heart of early tango but then the Italians took it over with the bandoneón and tried to Europeanise it. There’s a comeback now for guitar tango in Buenos Aires.” For all the other tracks, Boyd has his personal stories beginning with Toots and the Maytals in the mid-70s: “People forget that in the late 60s reggae was the most unhip music there was,” says Boyd. This was March 2013
UPFRONT
“Charles Dickens went to see a Zulu choir in London... he hated it but the audience loved it” pre-Bob Marley and Boyd was working with Chris Blackwell who played him a record of Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert, which he loved. “Within a year Bob Marley had made Catch a Fire, his first record for Island, and suddenly reggae was the hippest thing in the world.” A few years later, Blackwell had also signed Toots who had recorded tracks in Jamaica to edit and mix in London. “Somebody at Island told me they thought that Bob got jealous and didn’t like Chris working with Toots,” recounts Boyd. “And just as he was about to work with Toots, Bob called up and said ‘I’ve got a bunch of tracks, come on down to Nassau and let’s work.’ And Chris couldn’t really say no to Bob. So he called me up and said ‘Do you want to produce a Toots record?’ and I said YES. Reggae Got Soul is one of the few records I made in my life that I put on to listen to for fun.” Boyd pauses and then corrects himself. “Actually, Chris stuck around for the ‘Reggae Got Soul’ track and overdubbed Sue and Sunny [who also accompanied Lulu on the Eurovision-winning ‘BoomBang-a-Bang’], which I always hated, but the rest of the record is wonderful.” In the early 80s Boyd came across a record of the Star Band of Dakar and was struck by an extraordinary voice. When he first heard it, Youssou N’Dour was unknown, but then word started to spread. Sadly, it hasn’t been possible to licence that first track Boyd heard – ‘Bouna N’Diaye’ – but he’s selected another of Youssou with Étoile de Dakar from 1979/80. “He has such a remarkable voice,” says Boyd, “but to me it’s a tragedy that this great talent has ended up making records that are produced to the nth degree and they don’t even sell. He rents out his studio in Dakar to Orchestra Baobab who spend a week recording everything live, another week mixing it and sell quarter of a million copies. Youssou spends eight months making his and doesn’t sell enough to recoup the costs. But he’s such a great singer.” www.songlines.co.uk
*
Win
We have 3 copies of White Bicycles (on Serpents Tail) to give away. Answer the following: Which reggae star did Joe Boyd work with? See p7 for Songlines competition rules and address details. Closing date March 29 2013
The song by pop-Sunda singer Detty Kurnia comes from a record Boyd bought in Tokyo (later released in the UK by Riverboat Records). It’s a shame that the popular Indonesian styles like dangdut and pop-Sunda aren’t better known outside the country and Boyd has a vivid memory of a dangdut concert in Yogyakarta in an old bus station. “The dangdut singers – all female – had the shortest miniskirts you’ve ever seen. It was quite surreal. There were all these Islamic students with beards down the front looking up their skirts as they were humping the microphone stand. None of them were as sophisticated as Detty Kurnia.” One of the lesser-known styles from that musical powerhouse of Brazil is forró, a working-class dance music from the northeast. Boyd was introduced to it by one of David Byrne’s excellent Brazil Classics compilations. “Luiz Gonzaga (1912-1989) was always the king of forró and ‘Asa Branca’ is the song that broke the music of the north-east to the rest of Brazil. I always loved the melody but didn’t know what the lyrics were about. One night I was at SXSW
[South by South West festival] in Austin and there was a concert by Forro in the Dark and David Byrne joined them to sing this lovely translation.” The many unsuccessful attempts to ‘modernise’ traditional music is one of the topics of Boyd’s eagerly-awaited book. “It’s going slowly, but it’s fascinating,” he says. “I am writing a book about the story of world music, meaning the privileged bourgeoisie’s fascination with exotic authenticity, but it keeps going earlier. I discovered that Charles Dickens went to see a Zulu choir in London in 1853. He hated it but the audience loved it. It’s a metaphor about our attitude towards ourselves and the developing world and its attitudes towards backwardness. We’re comfortable with being backward because we are rich and comfortable. But if you’re struggling to get out of backwardness you want something that sounds modern. But we know that the old stuff is good.” PODCAST Hear the track ‘Eddig Vendég’ by the Hungarian group Muszikás, chosen by Joe Boyd, on this issue’s podcast Songlines 11
GUIDE TO...
chanson
Philip Sweeney examines the defining artists who have contributed to the global success of chanson and discovers who will carry the torch for the next generation of singers
as French chanson gone the way of French cuisine, down the pan? In a world of rampant globalisation, it’s pertinent to wonder. What about, for example, the ever-increasing ranks of young French bands with English names, singing in English. Johnny Hallyday, France’s biggest star, and arguably their prototype, was the French song flag bearer in the UK in late 2012, one of dozens of acts listed by the French Music Bureau in London, the city with the sixth largest French population in the world. Not one of these acts was described as chanson. But look more closely, and the undergrowth is actually alive with chanson. Following Hallyday in London was another big name, Patricia Kaas, a sort of Celine Dion from Lorraine, but her show was of songs by Édith Piaf, to many the very personification of chanson française. Record-wise, lists of new releases include discs by Françoise Hardy, the gamine star of the 60s who’s become a highly respected chanson figurehead, and Benjamin Biolay, leading light of new millennium chanson. In the reissues charts, Jacques Brel is up there with Michael Jackson and Pink Floyd, and the 20th anniversary of the death of Brel’s contemporary Léo Ferré is about to unleash a flurry of hommages and box sets. And nouvelle chanson, the new wave of the 90s, has started to produce anniversaries: the 20-year career retrospective of Dominique A, once nouvelle chanson vanguard. Meanwhile, the offspring of chanson stars are coming out with records: Thomas Dutronc, son of Françoise Hardy and 60s star Jacques Dutronc; Ours, son of the actor and singer Alain Souchon; Lulu Gainsbourg, son of Serge, whose recent CD featured his father’s songs reinterpreted by himself and guests from the fairly sublime (Rufus Wainwright) to the ridiculous (Shane McGowan). In short, no less than three generations of classic chanson française respond present to the roll call.
Rex Features
So what is chanson?
But let’s recap on what chanson française is. Not French folk music, which nonetheless still exists. Nor the old ‘Gay Paree’ soundtrack of bal musette accordion, the working-class dance music of the pre-war years that still thrives in both historic and updated forms, and whose emblematic instrument, the accordion, is also still a trademark of some chanson arrangements. Not exactly French pop, though pop and chanson have always overlapped, and you see Star Academy/X Factor artists like Jenifer or Nolwenn Leroy billed as chanson. Chanson française is in fact not a precise genre, but a form of popular song, porous to all the influences that surround it, while relying critically for its appeal on the poetry and musicality of its lyrics. To trace a lineage for chanson, you could find worse places to start than a poster shop. The classic image by Toulouse-Lautrec, of the bulky black clad figure of the great chansonnier Aristide Bruant in his red scarf, sold by the million. Bruant was a pivotal figure: he connected back to the 18th century satiric chansonniers, who performed in basements known as caveaux, and he also pioneered chanson realiste, the lyrical preoccupation with the lives, often tragic, of ordinary people, including the outlawed demi-monde. By the 1920s, chanson realiste’s first female stars, Damia and Fréhel, were setting the mode for theatrical performance, later raised to its greatest heights by Piaf and Brel, and the use of texts by great poets such as Verlaine.
Songlines 37
BEGINNER’S GUIDE
f
BEGINNER’S GUIDE
oysterband
They formed over 30 years ago and are still going strong. Tim Cumming takes a look at the enduring appeal of one of England’s original folk-rock groups
W
hen it comes to Oysterband, the group’s sense of camaraderie and commitment is palpable, not only in the repertoire – a mix of gritty self-penned and traditional – but the philosophy behind it – a stiff measure of spirits in terms of life lived and political engagement, a commitment to climb into the skin of a song and animate it with a rollicking good time and as little divide between stage and audience as possible. The band emerged from the cultural and political divides of the late 70s and early 80s when the folk scene was under duress, vilified, mocked and despised by the mainstream – a hatred that carried through to the early 90s, when popstalgia arrived,
52 Songlines
and folk-rock could be seen as strange and pioneering rather than hippy vileness. Out of that early 80s dry-ice fog of Thatcherite pop and New Romantic escapism came The Pogues, Billy Bragg, The Waterboys and Oysterband. They started off as a dance band – first Fiddler’s Dram, then the Oyster Ceilidh Band – the Oyster introduced from gorging on fruits de mer at Whitstable. The core line-up of guitarist Alan Prosser, fiddler Ian Telfer and singer-melodeon player John Jones was set early on, with bassist and cellist Chopper (Ray Cooper) arriving in 1988, after the band’s CD debut for Cooking Vinyl. Step Outside featured a stand-out, hard-rock take on ‘Hal-An-Tow,’ and 1987’s Wide Blue Yonder included ‘The Oxford Girl,’ a cover of Bragg’s ‘Between the Wars’ and Kathryn Tickell as a guest.
At the beginning of the 90s, they made Freedom and Rain with June Tabor, a classic collection that made their name in the US, where the album tour saw queues forming round the block to see the English folk diva and band redefine songs ranging from the Velvet’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ to the more traditional ‘Dives and Lazarus’ and ‘Dark Eyed Sailor.’ That association, for both Tabor and the Oysters, would have a very long reach indeed. When, in 2011, they got back together to make Ragged Kingdom, they would make one of the finest ever folkrock albums, which won them in total four awards at the 2012 Radio 2 Folk Awards. In the early 90s, the music scene had rediscovered its sense of history, folk was no longer a four-letter word, and with the likes of The Levellers and, across the Atlantic March 2013
BEST ALBUMS
In the early 90s... Oysterband were part of a vital, politicised folk culture, embedded in the now...
in Canada, Great Big Sea (who took their ‘When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down)’ and made it a hit), Oysterband were part of a vital, politicised folk culture, one embedded in the now, but with the depth and rich colour field of tradition. Deserters, a darker album than Freedom and Rain, merged rock, folk and a punk attitude, and featured protest songs that tackled the post-Cold War explosion of big, big business and the even bigger profit-before-everything motive that has worked so well for our global economy in recent years. Great Big Sea and Chumbawamba joined in on Here I Stand at the end of the 90s, released on the band’s own Running Man label, after parting from Cooking Vinyl, which would later release an authorised ‘Best Of’ double CD, Granite Years: The Best www.songlines.co.uk
of 1986-1997. An earlier compilation set, Trawler, set the tone for the later The Oxford Girl and Other Stories, which saw the latest line-up pick up their acoustic instruments for a stripped-down tour through their catalogue. Trawler’s reversions of everything from ‘Hal-An-Tow’ to New Order’s ‘Love Vigilante’ makes it one of their more obscure but most delightful recordings. In the 2000s the Oysters mounted The Big Session festival, at a time when British folk in all its forms had built a large, new and energetic audience. Since then, Meet You There has been lauded as their finest release, sporting a more acoustic approach, and presaging the acoustic backwards look of The Oxford Girl, and their triumphant reconnection with Tabor on Ragged Kingdom. The album developed from a gig at the Roundhouse in January 2011. “It was so enjoyable, somebody said, ‘let’s do an album,’” recalls Tabor. “We’d all grown musically and it seemed a good idea to put that experience together and see what came out.” What came out was a working list of 36 songs, whittled down to a final 12. The likes of ‘Bonny Bunch of Roses,’ fitted with a rockabilly riff that would grace any good Fall album, or the intense emotiveness of ‘Fountains Flowing,’ a hair-raising duet between Tabor and Jones, drawn from the traditional ‘A Blacksmith Courted Me,’ are special indeed. “I’ve always wanted to do that song,” says Jones. “There’s a sad parting at the heart of it – a young man going off to war, he sees adventure, and she sees only grief. That’s a contemporary experience a lot of people go through.” And it’s that mix of the contemporary with the tradition that runs so vividly through Oysterband’s history. And yes, they have come up with some pearls. podcast Hear Tim Cumming and music from Oysterband on this issue’s podcast Dates See the Gig Guide for tour dates
June Tabor and The Oyster Band, Freedom and Rain (Cooking Vinyl, 1990) The first pairing of June Tabor and the Oysters brought us startling, spinetingling reversions of the Velvet Underground, Richard Thompson and Shane McGowan. Oysterband, Trawler (Cooking Vinyl, 1994) A set of re-recorded highlights from their Cooking Vinyl catalogue. This album’s version of ‘Hal-An-Tow’ sounds like Hawkwind on mushrooms and speed at the site of The Wicker Man. Meet You There (Westpark Music, 2007) Recorded in a village hall in Herefordshire, sporting the big, broad anthemic feel and with songs such as ‘Over the Water’ and ‘Here Comes the Flood,’ and its theme of globalisation and climate change, this is an album with a salty, epic reach. Reviewed in #44. The Oxford Girl and Other Stories (Running Man Records, 2008) Like Trawler, but minus the amplifiers, this acoustic set looks back over the band’s catalogue and delivers fine new versions of ‘The Oxford Girl,’ ‘Put Out the Lights,’ and their hit song for Great Big Sea, ‘When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down).’ Ragged Kingdom (Topic, 2011) Back with June Tabor and a fabulous set of traditional songs, alongside a spectral ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart,’ songs from PJ Harvey and Shel Silverstein and Bob Dylan’s ‘Seven Curses’ with a driving cello riff that takes its protagonist, the judge, all the way down to the pit. A Top of the World review in #79.
If You Like oysterband, Then Try…
Great Big Sea
Play (Cooking Vinyl, 1997) Newfoundland’s finest, purveyors of Newfie songs and shanties to which the island’s French, Irish and English heritage clings like a limpet. This 1997 album features Oysterband’s ‘Can’t Get Up,’ REM’s ‘End of the World’ and a great shanty version of ‘General Taylor.’ Songlines 53
FE STIVA L
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P R O FILE
FESTIVAL PROFILE
tong tong the hague The Netherlands has a long history with Indonesia and one of the largest festivals celebrating all things Indo. Simon Broughton has the full-on Indo cultural experience
I
don’t go to many festivals where the prevailing memory is the smell. In the case of Tong Tong it’s the intoxicating sweetness of tropical fruit. On one side of the main stage is a fruit cocktail bar, serving up luscious smoothies with banana, guava, mango and, on the other side, a vast fresh fruit stall selling fleshy rambutan, vast jackfruit and that object of passion and revulsion, durian (pictured above, right)– it tastes like heaven, but smells like hell. The Tong Tong Fair is the biggest Indonesian festival outside Indonesia, but a more accurate description is the largest festival of ‘Indo’ culture in the world. The
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Indo people (Indisch in Dutch) are the result of Dutch colonial history in the East Indies, with a mixture of European and Indonesian ancestry. The Indo population in the Netherlands is estimated at 400,000, but Tong Tong reaches well beyond the Indo community and attracts visitors from all over Holland and beyond. ‘If you don’t have the time or money to travel all the way to SouthEast Asia,’ say the organisers, ‘come to the Tong Tong Fair in The Hague and imagine that you are in the East.’ For its 50th edition in 2008, it attracted 133,000 visitors, its highest attendance, but consistently over 100,000 visitors come for the food, the fair
and the festival. As the brochure says in Dutch (a language that is not as difficult as people think) ‘Die Beste Mix van Oost en West.’ Tong-tong is an onomatopoeic word, like so many in Indonesian, describing a hollow log drum, beaten to call people together like a church bell. The fair is held is a vast tent complex on the Malieveld, a large grassy space close to the old town and the station. The Hague is, of course, the diplomatic capital of the Netherlands and around the Malieveld there are trees planted by the ambassador of each country in the EU. That multicultural atmosphere is extended inside, but in a much more exotic way. Tong Tong is a huge 12-day bazaar, which started out as Pasar Malam Tong Tong in 1959, modelled on the great Indonesian fairs like the Pasam Malam (Night Market) in Batavia (the colonial name of Jakarta). These were also multicultural with Javanese, Sumatrans, Chinese, Europeans, Indians and Armenians. “In those great Indonesian pasars you had commerce, food, music and dance all mixed together,” explains the artistic director of the Tong Tong festival, Arnaud Kokosky. “You could buy everything including the latest rice cooker and shaver. And you can see that here – there are massage chairs and toilets March 2013
The musical joy of Tong Tong is the chance to hear kroncong, the most seductive of Indo musical creations that will spray your butt.” There are also music shops, furniture stalls, books and masses of handicrafts. Kokosky is from an Indo family and trained as a Balinese dancer. I talk to him at the Pondok Cempaka restaurant, which won de Zilveren Rijstlepel (Silver Rice Spoon) prize for the best restaurant in the fair. There’s no doubt that for most people the food is the highlight. Nasi goreng (fried rice), satay (skewered meat) and gado-gado (salad with peanut sauce) are just the beginning. Indonesia is one of the world’s great sources of spices and every variety is available at Tong Tong. “We think of culture as music and dance and film, but cooking is also a form of art and culture,” says Kokosky. One of the aims of the Tong Tong Festival is “to bring audiences who wouldn’t normally think of going to a concert or modern dance. And they find they like it and it costs half as much as a similar performance outside the festival. People might come for the food, but they also get in touch with cultural things.” Over the space of four days at last year’s Tong Tong festival, I was able to see a wide variety of shows: the young Jakarta-born pop singer Anggun; one of Java’s leading contemporary dance groups JeckoSDANCE (pictured opposite); Widosari gamelan
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ensemble performing the music of Lou Harrison, and – a real highlight – Nomads, starring three singers from differing ethnic backgrounds resident in Holland. Nomads have already toured Holland to great acclaim, but their show was revived specially for Tong Tong. It featured Brazilian-born Lilian Vieira, Julya Lo’ko from a mixed Indonesian Moluccan background and Izaline Calister from Curaçao. The superb show also included songs in Indonesian, Papiamento, Portuguese, Spanish and English. Aside from class acts like Nomads, the musical joy of Tong Tong is the chance to hear kroncong (pronounced ‘keron-chong’) music, the most seductive of Indo musical creations. It mixes Indonesian, Portuguese and Dutch ingredients in an achingly nostalgic style like Bing Crosby or the boleros of Ibrahim Ferrer in a South-East Asian sauce with ukuleles, guitar, violin, flute and percussion. Launching their latest CD, was the Indisch Muzikanten Collectief (IMC), a nine-piece band including Portuguese or what they call fadoguitar. They’re Holland’s only kroncong band and have been going 25 years. “Kroncong is not Indonesian music,” says band member Pim Fuchs, “it is a blend of Portuguese fado, Dutch and Indonesian music. It’s a mixed
creole culture.” And IMC mix it more into bluegrass kroncong with dobro guitar. This year Orkes Kroncong Bintang Surakarta comes from Indonesia, with the big-name singer Waldjinah. From Indonesia was a resident band from Bandung called Behind the Actor (because they grew out of a theatre group). They were playing both kroncong and dangdut, one of the popular Indonesian styles combining Indonesian kendang drums, flutes, guitars and a rock’n’roll attitude. But to me it seemed like cruise-ship dangdut. Tong Tong isn’t a world music festival – for that you need to go to the Music Meeting in Nijmegen, in eastern Holland (www.musicmeeting.nl), which happens around the same time – but Tong Tong is a great culinary, cultural and olfactory experience. And The Hague is a beautiful city with a wonderful Max Escher museum, the other essential attraction. Over a saté kambing (goat kebab) I met two guys who’d come on a bus from Luxembourg. “It’s a great trip to another world,” they said. That’s true of both Tong Tong and Max Escher. DATES The next Tong Tong Fair runs from May 22-June 2 2013 ONLINE www.tongtongfair.nl
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