THE WEEKEND WALKABOUT (volume 3) Pass It On
THE WEEKEND WALKABOUT (volume 3)
collated and edited by Norman Warwick
Welcome to volume three of our new supplement, in which we take a gentle Weekend Walkabout. We play lost and found with the pieces that have escaped us in daily posts of the previous week and alert you to upcoming events you might not be aware of. Along the way we will hear of some Jazz In Reading, enjoy a plate of Hot Biscuits, and hear from all across the arts. We will also hear of how a timple and some tiny guitars from The Canary Islands.are identifying new markets in the UK and around the world.
Contents:
by Jazz In Reading
PAUL HIGGS
BUDAPEST CAFÉ ORCHESTRA HUNGARY
by Steve Bewick
HOT BISCUITS ON AIR
written and collated and edited by Steve Cooke
ALL ACROSS THE ARTS
THE BOOK OF WILL
TOAD LANE CONCERTS by Dr.Joe Dawson
NO PAY? NO WAY? (by Steve Griffiths)
BULI CORBY: artist
Sidetracks And Detours by Norman Warwick
ECHOES IN THE TIMPLE
DANCING IN THE STREETS OF YAIZA
THE BANDA MUNICIPAL DE YAIZA
NEWS FROM LANZAROTE ART GALLERY
Jazz in Reading stages regular events with top-class bands at Reading’s Progress Theatre. See the current programme here
We list jazz events in Reading and the wider area at no charge if you simply submit your gig details. We also offer an affordable service to further promote events – such as the one above – by email: details here.
Jazz in Reading, using its extensive contacts in the jazz world, is in an excellent position to help you find the right band for your wedding, party or other special occasion.
Venues include
PWMC
Rosewood Hall
Whitchurch Road
Pangbourne RG8 7BS
This venue, (left) ia a really nice venue in a beautiful setting. With club bar prices and ample parking. Pangbourne Jazz Club is delighted to be here. The Club will run every first Sunday in the month. For any further information: brian.greene@gigajam.com
The guest this weekend at PWMC is
Paul Higgs (trumpet) (right)
backed by the Pangbourne Jazz Club rhythm section:
Terry Hutchins (guitar) | Andy Crowdy (double bass)
Jim Pollard (piano) | Brian Greene (drums)
Paul Higgs is renowned as one of the UK’s leading trumpet players and composers. We are really looking forward to Paul bringing his Brief History of Jazz programme to Jazz@PJC.
Blending the traditions of classical and jazz, he has the rare ability to capture the most elusive of dreams in his music, expressing subtle emotions and bold exciting energy with equal ease. Melodies soar and float, while rich harmonies create shadows and depths beneath. Paul has had an extensive musical career in many fields including performing, composing and arranging music for film, TV and theatre.
He was a Musical Director for many years for the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company. He has performed with luminaries including Sir Peter Maxwell Davis, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Johnny Dankworth, Lulu, Tony Hatch, John Williams, Nancy Wilson and Shorty Rodgers. Paul has also performed in major concert venues around the world, such as the Royal Festival Hall, the Schubert Theatre (USA), Berlin Concert Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and Ronnie Scott’s.
Monday 3 July
THE BUDAPEST CAFÉ ORCHESTRA; HUNGARY (left)
The Crooked Billet,
Newlands Lane, Stoke Row RG9 5PU
Arrive 6.30pm, 7pm latest | Music 8.30pm
Full regular menu, £30 music cover charge
The Budapest Café Orchestra of Hungary, a gypsy jazz quartet on steroids. Performing rollicking dances from Romania and Moldova. Bitter sweet Jewish laments. Impassioned Hungarian Czardas. Evoking vivid images of Tzigane fiddle maestros, Budapest café life and gypsy campfires. They’ll make you want to book a holiday along the Danube.
Established in 2009 by award winning jazz violinist Christian Garrick – the first ever non-classical violinist graduate from London’s Royal Academy of Music. Christian has recorded numerous albums including The Sunday Times Jazz album of the year. As well as The Budapest Café Orchestra of Hungary, he’s also played with numerous notable artists including Biréli Lagrène, Nigel Kennedy, Dolly Parton, All about Eve, Duffy, Van Morrison, Dame Cleo Laine & Sir John Dankworth.
Catch the Budapest Café Orchestra on Monday 3 July at The Crooked Billet, Stoke Row. A 4-piece acoustically electrifying orchestra playing the hottest gypsy fiddle, squeezebox, double bass and Django Maccaferri guitar with a sole mission: to entertain & enchant audiences, leaving them grinning like monkeys.
For further information, tickets & table reservations contact the Crooked Billet on 01491 681048 or paulclerehugh@thecrookedbillet.co.uk
HOT BISCUITS ON AIR with Steve Bewick
Forming synergies with Sidetracks & Detours
Last weekend, when I sent details of my Hot Biscuits mix-cloud programme for the week I also included details of a couple of jazz albums that had caught my attention of new albums by emerging artists that might attract a few of Sidetracks And Detours´readers as well as my radio audience. I was pleased to see that Norm had published a piece about these albums immediately on receipt, and had also e mailed Dominic, who had provided me with that information. Dominic immediately responded to Norm and thanked him and offered to include Sidetracks and Detours on all his mailing lists in future. This is how synergies are formed, and audiences are built !
If bands, promoters, venues send details to media like Hot Biscuits and Sidetracks and Detours we will always be happy to read it, share it and
My Hot Biscuits this week will be made ofWith summer in mind why not join us on Hot Biscuits Jazz broadcast next week with a review of Matteo Ciminari from my colleague Gary Heywood-Everett. Also playing music from Ed Jones Musician and saxophone player. Olivia Moore & Adam Fairhall with violin & Accordion. Brendon Allen Groove band in action. Finishing with a lock down composition from Jim Faulkner. If this looks good tell friends and join us 24/07 at
WWW. MIXCLOUD.COM
The Book of Will – ‘A Hilarious Love Letter To The Theatre’ – at the Octagon Bolton.
Review By Steve Cooke (right)
After the show Bill Ward (left) – Henry Condell – enthused about Lotte Wakeham’s ‘top notch direction’ and the ‘warmth’ the company of actors had developed. That goes a long way to explaining why The Book of Will at the Octagon is such a delight
American playwright Lauren Gunderson’s play connects with Shakespeare’s universal humanity, reflecting the emotional rollercoaster of life – love, betrayal, triumph, and loss with lots of tears and laughter. In the 400th anniversary year of the first publication of Shakespeare’s scripts in the First Folio of 1623 The Book of Will transports us back to the time when a group of grieving actors embarked on a project to preserve the words of their departed friend – battling against the odds – “Half the country can’t read; the other half can’t pay.”
The wonderfully talented cast of 10 play 30 different characters, among the many highlights being Andrew Whitehead’s hilarious take on a very drunk Ben Johnson, Zach Lee’s creepy, blind printer/publisher William Jaggard, Jessica Ellis’s loveably salty Alice Heminges and of course the central characters Russell Richardson’s deep-thinking, emotional, John Heminges and the superbly ebullient Bill Ward’s Henry Condell.
The creative team, headed by the Octagon’s Artistic Director Lottie Wakeham, expertly stage The Book of Will in in the round, drawing every member of the audience into the action – transporting us back in time to the world of ‘players’ in 1623
.To see The Book Of Will, which closed last night, was to enjoy live theatre at its very best. A ‘Hilarious Love Letter To Theatre’
TOAD LANE CONCERTS 17TH MAY, 2023
Dimitra Ananiadou violin
Richard Whalley piano
Impromptu international concert
Review by Dr Joe Dawson (right)
Fortuitously, this concert coincided with celebrating 70 years of twinning with Bielefeld. So, some of our German friends were in town for our Mayor-making. What better place to spend a Wednesday lunchtime in Rochdale than a concert at St Mary in the Baum?
Adding to the international feel, was the Greek violinist Dimitra Ananiadou – a graduate of the Universities of Greece, York, and Manchester. Along with her violin playing she has master’s degrees in Musicology and Historical Performance and is a teaching assistant and doctoral researcher at the University of Manchester.
Dimitra opened with the challenging unaccompanied Chaconne in D minor by JS Bach. Like recent classical guitar and harp performances, such an accomplished player uses their full expressive range in the superb acoustic of St Mary in the Baum without amplification.
She was then joined by the industrious pianist and composer, Richard Whalley, Senior Lecturer in Composition at the University of Manchester, a York graduate, and Harvard PhD. Their performance of the dramatic Beethoven Violin Sonata Op. 30 No. 2 was compelling and stunning as it moved through changing moods from serenity to storms in the skilful and energetic hands of these fine interpreters. Similarly, the highly charged ‘Praeludium and Allegro in the style of Pugnani’, a Romantic pastiche of Italian Baroque by Austrian violinist-composer Fritz Kreisler, was a delight. What a glorious way to spend a lunchtime … and improve international relations.
The Queen’s Award-winning Toad Lane Concerts are every Wednesday at 12.30pm at St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane, Rochdale, OL16 1DZ. Entrance fee is £6. ntact 01706 648872 for further information.
NO PAY? NO WAY?
The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
Review By Steve Griffiths
If you want a farce which is loud, anarchic and tries to appeal to the current trend for over-the-top responses to the ever-increasing price rises then this is the play for you. The audience loved this retelling of the original Dario Fo play from the 70s.
The update is written by Marieke Hardy, originally for the Sydney theatre, where there was an ecstatic reception. The director of the Exchange, Bryony Shanahan, takes on the responsibility of staging it for the Manchester audience.
She reckons that it is a joyous play where the audience will laugh out loud. From the response of a large part of the audience she has her wish.
The laughter which regularly met the appearance of the authority figure, Anwar Russell, as policeman/undertaker/etc showed the value of a stage set which incorporates a children’s slide for actors to use as their entrance.
Marieke tells of her experience in writing it ‘Like I’m a huge book lover- Like why why- So I like to think- So I did really want to reframe it’ which gives some idea of how well the play is written. If you like simple ideas expressed simply and loudly then you will love this.
Marieke comes from a family in which there was a culture of hard left thought. This clearly comes through the play. As she says ‘the working class fights and the working class fights and there’s a reason why those struggles are so familiar to people fighting the ongoing war against capitalism’. Which can be fun to follow on the streets but can be a little hard to sit through.
The actors follow up the views of the director that many comedic plays with women characters display them as weak. That we live in a world where misogyny rules.
As a result the main character, Kathleen Pearce as Margherita, feels that it is necessary to show that she is a strong presence by shouting her lines. Given that the Exchange is round, and some actors find it difficult to share their lines with the audience this may be no bad thing.
Normally it is possible to find something good to say about the set. Even that, apart from the slide, is difficult to find interesting.
But at the end of the day the audience reaction is the key. And in the main they loved it. So go and make your own mind up.
On until June 10.
Steve´s all across the arts column also delivered news of a lady we have featured on these pages a three or four years ago.
Closes Sunday 4th June BULI CORBY. artist
Calling her exhibition Gallery Exhibitions: Prints and Acrylics and Phenix Textiles Buli Corby has been showing in Littleborough recently. Today is the final day it can be seen for free from 10.am to 3.00 pm .
Although the collection sadly closes today at the charming Littleborough Coach House, (01706 378481) if my computer schedules this post correctly you should be receiving it on Sunday 4h June at 7.00 am which means you might have a chance to catch the final showing if you are in the area. We´re sure Buli´s work will reward your visit
SIDETRACKS AND DETOURS
Written and collated by Norman Warwick
ECHOES IN THE TIMPLE AND TINY GUITARS
I never thought I would attend a classical concert and hear echoes of an album by the late Americana singer writer John Stewart (left), but the players tonight evoked distant traces of Centennial, one of two guitar instrumental albums the singer songwriter released on a home produced label to great acclaim even from the audience that had already loyally bought his dozen or so sole singer-writer albums.
John Stewart was a former member of The Kingston Trio, who later saw The Monkees take his Daydream Believer to the top of the pop charts, and Roseanne Cash ride his Runaway Train to the top of the country charts and she very nearly enjoyed another top hit with his To Dance With The Tiger.
John enjoyed his own top ten chart hit with his song about (People Out There Turning Music Into) Gold. John was ´Americana´ when country was still called country and western.
This was all brought to mind by the Canary Guitar Quartet in the opening set of this wonderful concert. The show was part of a classical concert, and they played classical music, with a classic Spanish feel, but stormed across any musical borders on their way that might have denied them entry.
I heard Blues, I heard Western Swing and I heard John Stewart and, unless I´m being fanciful (it happens!) I heard Aaron Copland in his jazz and folk phases.
A concert review published in Sidetracks And Detours, entitled Timples And Little Guitars Make Consonnances, published on 7th February 2023 and remains available in our easy to negotiate archives of almost 1,000 articles.
The concert was part of the 39th annual Canary Islands International Classical Mu8isc Festival
Any music that employs faint but familiar and vivid echoes of music I love is always more likely to encourage me to follow it over Border Crossings. When the leader of that expedition is someone like Beselch Rodriguez such a journey becomes an enjoyable adventure.
Photo beselch I spoke briefly with Beselch, one of the leading exponents, after the concert, and I bought a cd and we exchanged cards, promising each other we would talk together one day and create a piece about his wonderful music for the blog. He still had miles and miles to go on this Canarian tour, which must be a logistical nightmare of moving players and instruments from all over the world to play on each of the eight islands within a six week or so period. Wary as I was of disturbing him on the next legs of his itinerary, I posted my review and ´filed´ his card on my computer desk. Of course it soon became buried under more cards and other paraphernalia and it might have been there yet had Beselch not ed me via e mail this evening. His message read
Hello Norman,
My name is Beselch (right) and we were talking after the Timples and Other Little Guitars of the World concert in San Bartolomé, Lanzarote, last January, where we performed within the Canarias Music Festival. We exchanged our contact cards, I think. I also think you bought (or I gave you, don´t remember) a copy or our CD.
I have been looking at your website and everything you do seems very interesting to me. I have also seen that you have contacts for festivals and concerts in the UK. Can you tell me a little more about your work and what are the possibilities of taking my music as a timple player to other places?
I would also like to invite you to visit my website, where you will find out more about my work as a timple player: https://www.beselch.com/Looking forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Beselch
I hope our readers, too, will look at the web site Beselch refer to, if you are aware of opportunities that might exist for the group to widen their horizons, please let us know at
normanwarwick55@gmail.com and we will be sure to pass it on.
Of course for music to cross borders of geography and genre borders rerquires the sort of synergy Steve Bewick referenced in his earlier piece today. it is up tpo the media – the lsting agencies – the print media, the on line media, the promoters and venue proprietors, and their audiences to create free boprders. We must work together in an earean of trust we are all working to expand the music we love, and that whilst we can always ´no´we should also be more than prepared to say ýes´.
Peter Pearson spoke in last week´s edition of Weekend Walkabout about how he went to see one of his favourite, but even by his standards still obscure, guitar and vocal American dou, Brace Jutz at the non traditional venue of a church in Biddulph. He opined in his review that he fel the audience might have mostly been made up of people who didn´t know these American artists, but who trusted the venue, based on past history of good taste and convivial evenings.
Whether a group of Canarian musicians, offering eclectic music played on the timple, an instrument almost peculiar to Lanzarote, and guitar would be welcome in the jazz, folk, blues and country clubs and festivals around Europe and in the UK is a moot point.
However I am aware that there are several ukulele groups plying a trade throughout the UK. The timple is surely a descendant or ancestor of the ukulele, an instrument made famous by George Formby perhaps, and is certainly a descendant or ancestor of the timple. They might well be interested in seeing this beautiful little instrument.
I also know of major annual events such as The Manchester International Festival that it might be worth Beselch contacting.
The Ribble Valley Jazz And Blues Festival and the huge number of jazz, blues, country and folk clubs of England and Scotland would surely find an appreciative audience for such maestro-like playing, but the logistics of bringing even a four piece band over for the Canary Islands could be a tough call..
It would take a concerted effort from all of us to make any such tour mutually profitable, or at least break-even to overcome the difficulties Peter Pearson mentioned in Weekend Walkabout Volume 2.
Nevertheless, I´ll chat with Beselch to try to make something work. If all our readers could try to hear some of his work by visiting his web site, at
and liking it, we could perhaps create a loud noise out of a sudden buzz
DANCING IN THE STREETS OF YAIZA
ON DIA DE CANARIAOS .2023
As the Mayor of the municipality had been re-elected only the day before with a somewhat overwhelming 93% majority, and that today was the first of a new government of the island on the eve of Canaries Day, there was a pretty euphoric atmosphere in the Plaza Los Remedios in the centre of Yaiza on Monday 29th May 2023.
Free seating for around a hundred had been laid out in front of the stage, with a dance-performance area in between. The tables were brightly clothed and decorated and each seated around ten people. All other seats, of steps, park benches and boulder like stones were taken too, Not surprisingly, as they were serving free drinks and food, the bar tents were doing a roaring trade. There were long queues of couples and families in national costume at the service points behind the arena,
The tables filled up and no one looked aghast at these two cheeky English people taking two first come first served chairs at one of the round tables. From there we looked Down the plaza to ´loyal friends and front row dancers´ as the late John Stewart called them in his song, The Last Hurrah.
Toddlers were entranced by the stage lights as parents and grandparents were entranced by the sunset. All new arrivals into the arena were invariably engulfed in hugs and smothered in kisses as is the Spanish way.
The dances here (right) always remind me of Cajun dance moves and there was quite a bit of whirling and swirling around the relatively small dance floor, — or concreted ground as we would think of it in England.
The band (left) on stage was a six piece, occasionally seven piece, band that delivered up tempo feel good sounds, in Spanish, The music was whizzed along by some castanet like clackers and a fine accordion player, with support on lead guitar and bass. The voices were expressive and excelled not only in the ´rock´ songs but also on the folk-lorish ballads sometimes delivered.
This was the first staged concert of the night and much as we would have loved to see the second we had to head a way back home for the Masterchef programme. The four finalists were in Istanbul, learning about Turkish cuisine and its fusions with other continents and countries. It all looked fantastic and according to the two main presenters, it tasted fantastic too.
Michelin Star it may have been, but the little Spanish tapas in plastic boxes matched it for sure, and all washed down with a can of non-alcoholic.
THE BANDA MUNICIPAL DE YAIZA
by Norman Warwick
Comfortable with a grand name and playing in pride of place in the busiest part of Playa Blanca, this ensemble was, of course, the real reason we had left night´s concerts rather early. A ten a.m. start down near the town roundabout that is now adorned by Cintia Machin´s wonderful fishing boat arts intervention, was about five minutes away when we arrived. Of course, this being a day of National celebration, governmental change and a bank holiday´, that five minutes stretchéd to twenty. That was no worry, though; The Daily Mail had arrived early at the nearby Spar, and the delay gave me time to read it from cover to cover missing out only the circa sixty two pages about Phil Sackedfield and Holly Whocares. I was also slowed down slightly by trying to read the paper one-handed whilst enjoying a Magnum iced lolly with the other.
There were politicians and television cameras in close proximity and interviews were taking place with all sorts of politicians in National dress.
The band (Left) struck up to coincide with raising of The canary Island , which even to we who are residents here of only seven or eight years somehow felt important and provided a hair on the back the neck moment. though, A vigourous and melodic and anthemic piece seemed perfectly selected.
The ensemble playing was all from the same page and sounded mighty fine but a couple of soloists also stepped forward and delivered impressively.
A good guide to the quality of the performance was that people walking into the vicinity stayed to listen rather hurrying on to wherever they had been heading.,
There were other musical performces along Calle Limones that took place throughout the afternoon, that similarly attracted wide attention and seemed to be well received by residents and tourists alike.
NEWS FROM LANZAROTE ART GALLERY
Shared by Norman Warwick
Discover curated artworks. Curating doesn’t mean to choose “nice things”; curating is a way to help read a work of art, both aesthetically and in its poetics. Here on Art Space our Collectors and Readers can pick excellent art pieces by following their heart, mind and, maybe, some good pieces of advice and good investments for the future.
Art Space, edited, by Ladrón de Guevara, presents the section of curated works, in which you can discover in depth, the artistic universe of outstanding creators of Lanzarote Art Gallery.
Eduardo Farina is the owner and manager of the Lanzarote Art Gallery in Costa Teguise, which boasts not only a prime location, excellent space and perfect lighting but also an excellent web site that offers comprehensive and sensible advice on all aspects of art appreciation ans collection. Both live And virtual spaces are complemented by a regular newsletter serivece to media and patrons.
Phot0 work.This week´s newsletter invites us to look particularly at the work of Begona Lafuente and includes pieces on works of her such as Camuflaje, Life Is Beautiful and Resurgir.
Photo artist Also recommended is Fabio Hurtado who works the past that looks to the future, according to Josep M. Cadena. The art critic suggests that he pictorial universe of Fabio Hurtado is set in the United States of America in the twenties and thirties of the last century, with scenes and characters that refer us both to the canvases of Edward Hopper and Tamara de Lempicka and in the films The Great Gatsby and Bonnie & Clyde. The women wear cloche hats and short bob cut hair, dress with modernity and elegance and exhibit independence. The presence of means of transport – car, train, airplane, ocean liner – supports the futurist Marinetti’s claim that a racing car can be more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace. The animals bring the virtues and characteristics that are their own, so the dog expresses fidelity and the peacock symbolizes glamour. If we pay attention to playing the paintings we will hear clearly jazz, the music that reigned in the Cotton Club.
Photo artist.You can also discover contemporary artworks by Carlos Parra, browse recent artworks and buy online. Categories: Spaniards contemporary artists. You can even buy the latest works by Carlos Parra at Art Space. Also, you might like to explore Parra´s and buy original artworks or high-end prints., so check out his Gopali Silencio series of works.
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