sidetracks & detours present PASS IT ON # 67 weekly supplement Sunday 15 9 2024

sidetracks & detours

present

PASS IT ON # 67

weekly supplement Sunday 15 9 2024

Hear The Call

COME FOLLOW YOUR ART

by Akela

Welcome, come follow your art and we´ll cross some borders, from live music to recorded music, from jazz to country to folk and Americana and Spanish folk lore. We have our regular writers, Peter Pearson, Steve Bewick and the relative newbie, Joseph Aloysius. There are your weekly jazz listings too. Basically we have gathered together all the arts-related items that last week we hadn´t been able to cram into our daily not for profit blogs full of circa 1,200 free to read items. Nevertheless, we posted our blog, Sidetracks & Detours throughout the week, even including a story about the runners and riders at The Golden Gate Field horse-racing track in the USA. There have been hints and allegations of all sorts of chicanery there for years, and the day after we filed our report Peter Pearson messages us to say the venue had been closed own the following day !? We also looked back on the successes and failures of the late Elliot Smith´s songwriting and recording career. We flew back to Lanzarote to attend the very elegant and very eclectic Tourism Awards to those musicians and artists so associated with the island that they contribute to tourist figures. We had to be in the States on Wednesday to collect some special singer-writer albums we had ordered. Of course, the next day we were back to the UK to visit Song Town, a very special site for all aspring and inspiring song-writers.

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CONTENTS

1 Blyton, Kipling, Carter, Carver etc: AUTHORS WHO CHANGE LIVES a new series by Norman Warwick

2 BOBBY CHARLTON´S LEGACY reviewed by I Love Manchester newsletter

3 Live Jazzat Progress Friday 27 September 2024 STEVE WATERMAN Latin Jazz Quartet previewed by Jazz in Reading Newsletter

4 Jazz On Air HOT BISCUITS plated by Steve Bewick

5 Live Music THANK YOU, EVERYONE from Manchester Music Festival

6 Live Music RAISING PROFILE interview by Music In Portsmouth

7 Live Music Monday 23rd September QUATUOR ÉBÈNE FILM concert and post-concert Friends party

8 Music On Air: and in the archives PICADILLY RADIO TO BE ARCHIVED review by I Love Manchester newsletter

9 Reader´s Perspective: All Points Forward IMMEDIATE FAMILY- Session Musicians after The Wrecking Crew by Peter Pearson

10 Island Insights OLGA CERPA AND MESTISAY by Crusoe

CONTENTS

l AUTHORS WHO CHANGE LIVES

Blyton, Kipling, Carter, Carver etc

a new series by Norman Warwick

When I was five years old my Godmother, Auntie Jennifer Bird sent me a birthday present of the first couple of titles in The Famous Five series, by the today somewhat maligned Enid Blyton. I couldn´t have articulated it at the time but these books were my first adventure novels, a grown up world away from the Sooty and Sweep stories I had been reading. These weren´t as soppy as  the  fairy stories I had been reading until then. It would be another fifty years before I ´discovered´ Angela Carter and her works that re-invented fairy tales to reveal their true, and often gruesome identities. In my pre-teen years, though, I followed The Famous Five, Julian, Dick, Annie and George(ina) and their dog Timmy. We had some wonderful adventures, from Treasure Island and back to Kirren Island, We went to Billycock Hill and Finniston Farm and so many other incredible places.

When I was eleven years old my Godmother, Auntie Jennifer Bird sent me a leather bound copy of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.
Throughout my teens she sent me Christmas and birthday presents of other Kipling classics, and for my eighteenth birthday she sent me my final birthday present, a book of Kipling´s poetry.

It was for grown up men, and if there had to be time to put away all childish things, I knew the time was then.

But I had fifty years to wait for Angela Carter, and another five for the poetry and short stories of Raymond Carver.

There has been some fine literature in between, of course. Joseph Aloysius has already written in his Literature column in PASS IT ON  about my introduction to John Steinbeck via The Pearl and in this new series A Pile of Books we will take a look at authors who have made me think, made me change my mind.

At the foot of, but not at the bottom, of that high pile of books were the Enid Blytons and the Kiplings that were presents from an aunt I barely knew. Then there were the Steinbeck´s with a long hiatus between my adolescent schoolboy days to my late nights with a cigar and whiskey days-Hemingway crept in there somehow, as did John Hilton as did Annie Proux and Michaal Ondaatje. There would be still a while to go until I opened the pages of Angela Carter and Raymond Carver.

Come and join my in my search for good reading. It will probably be a bumpy road stepping down sidetracks and diverting via detours but we are bound to meet some very exciting authors and their characters along the way.

2 I Love Manchester

BOBBY CHARLTON´S LEGACY

reviewed by newsletter

The first time I ever saw Bobby Charlton play football was on my eleventh birthday when my dad took me to see Manchester United play West Bromwich Albion.  I recognised all my heroes as they ran out of the tunnel. Although Bobby Charlton´s name was most familiar to me, it  was home debutant, former and future Manchester City player too, Denis Law who scored a sensational header  and took my breath away. 

Looking back, I think, through my teens and even into some form of maturity I thought that Bobby was something of a cry baby. He was certainly in tears after he  had helped England to beat Germany in the 1966 World Cup, and again at Wembley two years later when he scored two goals to help win the (then) European Cup for manager Sir Matt Busby. Of course, when I later read the extraordinary book, The Flowers Of Manchester I realised the traumas he had been through. And even through that sublime five years or so period of Best, Law and Charlton it was the latter who would have me purring at the perfection of his touch, the precision of a pass and the power of his shots.

He broke all sorts of records for appearances and scoring for both Manchester United and England. His playing retirement took him eventually to a role as a director of the club and its greatest advocate and ambassador.

And now, those he worked closely with throughout those years, have supported what will be a lasting legacy of a graceful and gracious player.

The Manchester United and Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation have launched a community football project – Sir Bobby’s Street Reds – as a lasting legacy to the former Manchester United and England footballer.

Sir Bobby’s Street Reds is a brand new free football club run by the Manchester United Foundation.

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Alex Stepney attended the celebratory event to launch the new project in Sir Bobby’s name at Manchester Academy in Moss Side.

The initiative, funded by the Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation, will run on a weekly basis by Manchester United Foundation coaches.

Last week’s launch event saw over 50 young people from all different backgrounds come together to take part in a football tournament.

The children were later presented with trophies and gifted footballs, as a touching tribute to Sir Bobby’s belief that ‘the greatest gift a child could receive is a ball.’

Delighted to attend the event as a former teammate and friend of Sir Bobby, Alex Stepney said: “This is an endorsement of what Sir Bobby did for his entire career; even when he was playing, he was all about helping kids, and he later had his own soccer schools.

“Now, with the Manchester United Foundation arranging these sessions, it would mean so much to him.

“When I joined Manchester United with the great Sir Matt Busby and Jimmy Murphy, you became part of a family, there was so much respect there, and that is what these kids are learning about, through Manchester United Foundation and Street Reds.

An advocate for inspiring courage and resilience in youth, Sir Bobby’s legacy lives on in the charity work of The Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation, whose work focuses on improving the lives of those affected by war and conflict.

The partnership between the two charities has been on-going for many years and the funding from Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation means that children from the Moss Side area – many of whom are refugee children – have a safe and inclusive space to play the game they love.

Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation Chair, Stephen Cross, explained the decision behind the funding. “Sir Bobby’s Street Reds goes back to the core concept of Sir Bobby’s vision many years ago in creating the Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools.

“We believe that Sir Bobby would be immensely proud to see this reincarnation of his concept, which is now pointed towards helping victims of conflict. It is a very natural intersection of the elements, and we are delighted to team up with Manchester United Foundation to bring this to a reality.”

Sir Bobby is remembered not only for his on-field exploits but his off-field charity commitments.

The location of the sessions at Manchester Academy, where more than 70 nationalities are represented, is a poignant one – as Sir Bobby and his wife, Lady Norma, visited to launch the Foundation’s partnership with the school in 2016.

Chief Executive of Manchester United Foundation, John Shiels, said: “Sir Bobby would have been in his element launching this Street Reds session, which now proudly carries his name.

“His love of the game, and the benefits that it could provide in helping young people grow physically, mentally, and socially, is the simple concept that he took to all corners of the globe through his soccer school.

“Now, being able to offer a safe space to children through this Street Reds session, where the young people can come together and play football in his adopted home of Manchester, would have made him so proud.”

Street Reds is a free evening football provision ran by Manchester United Foundation with 23 sites across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Funded by the Premier League (PL Kicks), the sessions give 8–18-year-olds an opportunity to gain new skills and qualifications while bringing community cohesion to areas of high deprivation.

3 Live Jazz at Progress Friday 27 September 2024

STEVE WATERMAN Latin Jazz Quartet

previewed by Jazz in Reading Newsletter

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Steve Waterman Latin Jazz Quartet

For a couple of decades, Steve Waterman has been regarded as one of Britain’s finest and most versatile trumpet and flugelhorn player, winning awards as the Number One on several occasions. He began his career while studying at Trinity College of Music, and since then has worked regularly on the British, European and International jazz scene. His Latin jazz credentials are of the highest quality including being a favourite and regular participant at the Havana Jazz Festival, to which he was first invited in 2002 to perform in the Chucho Valdes Band, alongside some of the greatest Cuban instrumentalists.

He has played at the top London venues with several UK based Latin bands. He formed his own Latin piano quartet in 2019 which plays the precise core rhythms from Brazil, Cuba and Dominican Republic and compositions by Jobin, Puente, Mendez and others, but also revitalises some more familiar American Songbook classics playing them using the same Latin core rhythms.

John Donaldson is a gifted pianist and composer who began playing jazz gigs at the Cambridge Modern Jazz Club’s resident trio along with Chucho Merchan and Nic France. He won the prize for best soloist at the San Sebastian International Jazz Competition in 1980 moving to California in 1982 where he stayed for eleven years working with most of the well known West Coast bands. He returned to London in 1993 where he continues to work with all the big names on the British jazz scene. Along side him is Rob Stratham on bass who teaches bass at BIMM Music Institute in London, and Buster Birch is an award winning drummer who studied at the top schools in London and New York. He is also a jazz educator, author, promoter and broadcaster.

4 Jazz On Air

HOT BISCUITS

plated by Steve Bewick

From jazz beginnings to alt-folk and electronica, Stuart McCallum is one of the most vital and creative musicians of his generation. He can be heard on our mix-xloud broadcast from Monday 16^th September.

He is an in-demand guitarist, composer, producer and educator, Stuart’s current projects include:

The Breath – signed to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, the duo of Stuart and vocalist Rioghnach Connolly was nominated for Best Act at the BBC Folk Awards.

Solitude – a series of solo acoustic guitar albums released on Edition Records.

Music for Imaginary Film – a series of cinematic-inspired albums co-written with Mark Slater

Richard Spaven – co-writing and performing with the well known UK drummer

Research – Stuart’s research interests are practice-based approaches to contemporary music performance, composition and production. He completed his musical composition doctorate, ‘Making Music In The Real World, in 2020.

Education – Stuart is Deputy Head of Popular Music at the Royal Northern College of Music

Stuart rose to prominence writing for and playing with the Cinematic Orchestra, on their Ma Fleur and Live at the Albert Hall albums, as well as on their award winning Disney soundtrack, The Crimson Wing.

Stuart’s varied career has involved collaborations with electronic artists such as Jordan Rakei, James Zoo, JP Cooper and Bjork percussionist Manu Delago; performances with UK jazz greats John Surman and Kenny Wheeler; recordings with American jazz stars Ari Hoenig, Ira Coleman and Dan Weisz;  and performances with prominent folk artists, such as Danny Thompson and Michael McGoldrick.

Stuart features on this Hot Biscuits presentation with live gig recordings from a recent performance in Manchester.

We have put him in good capany in the broadcast as you will acknowledge when you also hear  Bob Crosby & Orchestra with Cow, Cow Blues. and Fats Waller with, Dina (mite).

Ken Colyer Society are recommended for a re-mastered Walking With The King.`

There is also modern jazz from Mike Westbrook´s  Band of Bands and Ant Law with Brigitte Beraha.

Concluding the show for your pleasure will Ross Lorraine with More From The Heart.`

Follow our link at  www.mixcloud.com/stevebewick/  24/07.

And when you like what you hear from that link please PASS IT ON to thers.

Thanks.

Steve

5 Live Music

THANK YOU, EVERYONE

from Manchester Music Festival Newsletter

Thank you for making this summer a truly remarkable celebration of our 50th Anniversary. Your enthusiasm and passion for live music have fueled every performance, and we are so fortunate to have your unwavering support.

Our Gala was a tremendous success, thanks to the generosity of all our donors and the incrediblñe efforts of our Gala Committee, staff and volunteeerrs. It was a night to remember in beautiful surroundings, with good food, good friends and a great band that had almost everyone on the dance floor.

The funds we raised help to ensure another season of beautiful music brought to us by Phil Setzer but we couldn´t have done it without you.

Thank you for believing in our mission and helping us bring world class music to our community.

As we look ahead we also want to share the news that our Executive Director, Jenny Lin, will be leaving us soon to take a position of music director of the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, where she will be responsible for programming and program development.

Jenny says It has been an honor to serve this wonderful community and to work with such talented individuals. I am deeply grateful for all the support and collaboration during my time here. I am confident that the organization, especially under the leadership of Artistic Director Phil Setzer, will continue to thrive and grow in the years to come.”

The Board wants to express its gratitude for all that Jenny has done for MMF since she joined us.  She has been such a crucial part of our success this season and will leave us in a much better shape than she found us.  We will miss her.  Our excellent Festival Manager, Robin Pomerance, will be available in the interim should you need assistance.

Please enjoy video highlights from Season 50, which you can find on line, and look for an announcement of our Season 51 programming very soon! Continue the journey with Manchester Music Festival in 2025 where we intertwine the beauty of music and the power of words. MMF Season 51, “Music and Word,” will explore the profound connection between literature and melody, showcasing compositions inspired by stories, poems, and literary works.

 Thank you once again from all of us at Manchester Music Festival. We look forward to many more incredible seasons together!

6 Live Music RAISING PROFILES

of Music in Portsmoth

David McVitie interviewed by David Green

David Green, the Portsmouth-based poet and prolific reviewer on concerts, interviews Andrew McVitie, pianist and promoter of the

Menuhin Room series of concerts

David: Hi, Andrew, you’ve been a busy man in recent years, creating the Menuhin Room Series of concerts and also chairing Portsmouth Music Festival for 2023-24. What is the future for these projects?

Andrew: The Menuhin Room series has been a great opportunity to establish a local community of like-minded music lovers who like to meet occasionally on a Saturday lunchtime to enjoy some quite extraordinary musical performances. Over the last two years we have been very lucky to welcome some awesome talent to our little stage – and of course, to hear these fine musicians perform on the wonderful Model D Steinway piano that features so prominently in all of our recitals. The series has also spawned a regular performance club for local pianists and other instrumentalists who meet regularly to test their performances amongst their peers. We still need to grow our audience to sustain the range and quality of programming that we aspire to offer and/or to attract more sponsorship – but the enthusiasm and willingness to do this remains!

I have had to step down as Chair of Portsmouth Music Festival due to other commitments but am delighted that this goes from strength to strength. During my time as Chair we were able to re-establish some of our sections at the Menuhin Room and to re-connect with the City of Portsmouth. The Festival has also re-branded itself as the Portsmouth Festival of Performing Arts which reflects the wide range of performing opportunities available. Please do look out for the Festival’s 2025 syllabus which is now available 

David: You are, of course, not only an impresario but a musician yourself, so a bit like Portsmouth’s C21st answer to Handel in London in the C18th!!! I very much enjoyed your Philip Glass and Farewell to Stromness which has led me to think of you as a meditative musician. I might have got you wrong, though. What did you play in the Menuhin Room on 14 September?

Andrew: David – you have a real gift for words – but I really don’t think that “impresario” fits the bill on this occasion. It somehow evokes camel coats and cigars which doesn’t quite match with my style profile. I also think impresarios occasionally make a little a bit of money! I do however, quietly enjoy bringing people together, both musicians and audience, and take satisfaction when things go well.

Goodness – a meditative player? Well, the previous concert repertoire which you refer to was certainly part of a programme designed to explore wellbeing as a response to musical performance. I think we called it “Piano Spectrum” and was a collaboration with my friend and colleague Helen Morris. I certainly do believe that you don’t always need a fistful of notes or a huge sonata to help promote personal wellbeing in a busy world.  Last year, Radio 3 ran a wonderful series called Ultimate Calm presented by Olafur Arnalds which made this point very well indeed – I don’t know if it is still available on catch-up.

On 14 September I will be performing music by Scarlatti, Chopin, Beethoven, and Cyril Scott. The last piece – Lotus Land by Cyril Scott is very meditative!

David: It’s nearly two years now since the Gala concert that launched that series. My only problem with them is writing about them and saying how great they are, one by one, only to find that I somehow need to say that certain of them are even better. Thus, I couldn’t possibly ask you to pick one favourite but could you narrow it down to a short list of three highlights in the performances we’ve had so far?

Andrew: I’m glad you have enjoyed the programmes, David, and would like to thank you for taking an interest. Your informative reviews, along with the invaluable Music in Portsmouth website run by Simon O’Hea do such a lot to help promote the local music scene. Regarding memorable performances, I hate having to choose favourites – it’s so personal and subjective. However, what I would say is that some pianists have the musical mastery to produces sounds on the piano that are uniquely expressive. Somehow, they have a command of dynamic range and musical expression that makes them stand out. We have definitely enjoyed such performances at the Menuhin Room.   

David: I understand that Music wasn’t what you studied at university. It was English at Exeter, wasn’t it? Congratulations on that. Exeter interviewed me and decided against inviting me for the following three years. Was it any good there? Who are your favourite writers? Is there any crossover between literature and music for you?

Andrew: Well – missing out on Exeter doesn’t seem to have worked out too badly for you, David. I missed out on a couple of University choices too. I think we all find our way in the end. That said, Exeter was a wonderful experience. I come from a very privileged generation as we didn’t have to pay for our tuition! Not only that, we were allowed – and encouraged – to study subjects that didn’t necessarily lead to a “good job”. The tutors were amazing, eccentric, drunk (just occasionally), and completely inspiring. We were also able to debate, disagree, and explore ideas without fear or censure – and all still remain friends afterwards. In my younger years I was infatuated by the likes of DH Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Virginia Woolf, and Sylvia Plath. I struggled with James Joyce, Dickens, and the Metaphysicals! In some ways, reading too much and being forced to analyse it put me off reading for a number of years.  As DH Lawrence said: “if you cut a thing up, of course it will smell”. I don’t think there is much crossover between literature and music. Music is there to express the things that words cannot.

David: I’m sometimes very underwhelmed when reading or hearing about which pop music some ‘classical’ musicians like best. I’m sure you can do better than them. Don’t be afraid to say Abba or Cliff Richard, they are absolutely fine by me. Tell it like it T-I-IS.

Andrew: LOL – as they say! Well, I am very happy to put ABBA in the frame. They are exceptional writers and performers who understand the detail of what is required to produce first class material and performance. Their ninth album “Voyage” published in 2021 with the band members all in their 70s was a tribute to their achievement and skill. Others that I admire are David Bowie (for innovation and re-invention), Madonna (for composition and performance), Karen Carpenter (for uniqueness in vocal expression), and Freddie Mercury (for the show).    

David: You are hosting a dinner party – who, from history or anywhere else, would you invite?

Andrew: Oh my God. I hate these type of questions. Err…OK – here’s my list: Queen Elizabeth 2^nd, Queen Elizabeth 1^st, Leonardo da Vinci, Miss Jean Brodie, Katie Price. Please don’t ask for any explanations!

David: And what music would play, either yourself, on records or by politely asking Alexa?

Andrew: I refuse to interact with Alexa and she is banned from my house, although I do suspect that she is secretly listening to me though my iPhone. Oh dear, your question forces me back to the “meditative” musician question as whale music does feature quite a lot – Apple Music does a good “wellbeing” compilation – along with quite a lot of baroque music for clarity, clearness, and motivation.

David: What performance, book or anything else are you most looking forward to?

Andrew: I am a supporter of Chichester Festival Theatre and always look forward to their productions. Sadly, I missed their production of “Oliver” this year but they have done some incredible work over the years and we are very lucky to have them on our doorstep.  I am just about to start reading “Conversations with Friends” by Sally Rooney. I have no idea if I will enjoy it but I always look forward to a new book whatever it is.

David: And, quick fire,

Andrew: Red or white? RED
Shakespeare or Bach? SHAKESPEARE
Film or novel? NOVEL
Menuhin Room or Albert Hall? MENUHIN ROOM – OF COURSE!

David: Me, too. Thanks for doing that, and this.

7 Live Music Monday 23rd September

QUATUOR ÉBÈNE FILM, concert and post-concert Friends party

preview by Oxford Music Festival Newsletter

Welcome to a series of emails we are sending in the lead-up to the Festival, taking you through each day of events and reminding you of the wonderful artists, lectures, receptions and dinners we have lined up this year. After a year in the planning, we can’t wait to share it all with you.

As always, we have FREE tickets for 8-25’s through the CAVATINA Scheme. They are on a first-come-first-serve basis through the Tickets Oxford website

We can now announce exciting news about this year´s festival

‘4’ – a film about Quatuor Ébène – takes viewers along on the quartet’s tour of Italy, gradually drawing them into the ambivalent interactions that have come to characterise the four musicians’ long-standing relationship. Bolzano, Perugia, Florence and Siena, Salzburg and Berlin, form the involuntary backdrop to a piece about relationships and the antagonism between ambition and reality.

Daniel Kutschinski’s remarkable documentary lays bare the intense highs and lows of life as a string quartet – ‘a marriage for four’ as it has often been called. No part of the Ébène’s touring life is off limits, and this backstage portrait is as complex and emotionally fraught as the music itself.

Due to popularity in 2019, this film is being presented twice, once on
Sunday 22nd September at 6pm
and a later date in the week to be announced.

We are also delighted to welcome one of the world’s great string quartets, the Quatuor Ébène, to this year’s festival, where they will also lead masterclasses for young ensembles. They pay tribute to “these enchanted isles” in Britten’s brilliant and precocious portraits of three schoolfriends, and in Thomas Adès’ idyllic O Albion, with its homage to Elgar’s Nimrod (and behind that masterpiece, late Beethoven). Haydn’s glorious ‘Sunrise’ almost anticipates late Beethoven in its moving adagio, alongside one of Haydn’s most exhilarating finales. Finally Beethoven himself contributes his wild, epic, and “forever contemporary” Great Fugue.

Haydn ‘Sunrise’ quartet op.76 no.4 | Britten Three divertimenti | Adès O Albion, from Arcadiana op.12 | Beethoven Grosse Fuge op.133

This concert is generously supported by James Malcomson.

8 Music On Air: and in the archives

PICADILLY RADIO TO BE ARCHIVED

review by I Love Manchester newsletter

An iconic piece of Manchester’s musical jigsaw is set to be immortalised thanks to a huge grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Piccadilly Radio, a real staple of everyday Manchester life back in the day, has received a £99,000 grant to digitise their immense archive of music and journalism.

The station launched the careers of many well-known broadcasters, including Chris Evans, Timmy Mallett, Gary Davies, Mark Radcliffe, Andy Crane, Steve Penk, and Andy Peebles.

The archive, which consists of reel-to-reel tapes stored at Manchester Central Library, has been safely kept for years but is now in urgent need of digitisation due to the degradation of the tapes and the obsolescence of the format.

The project will bring Piccadilly Radio’s rich history to a new generation of fans, with 300 curated clips and memorabilia to be made available on the Manchester Digital Music Archive (MDMA).

Tony Ingham, Former Producer at Piccadilly Radio, said:  “It was very important that the legacy of Piccadilly Radio be preserved. As someone who worked at the station for many years, it played a massive part of people’s everyday lives in the 70s and 80s and the fact that its cultural significance and magical memories will be accessible for them, and future generations is fantastic.

I know that former colleagues who worked at the station are delighted and grateful to the Library and the National Lottery Heritage Fund for recognising the importance of the archive.”

This initiative will allow a wider audience to explore the station’s legacy, from its launch in 1974 to its eventual closure in 1988.

The lottery funding has been supplemented by contributions from Manchester Libraries Trust and former Piccadilly Radio staff members, ensuring the project is well-supported.

A newly appointed project manager will oversee the initiative, aiming to preserve the station’s legacy for future generations.

As part of the project, journalism students from the University of Salford will produce podcasts featuring interviews with former Piccadilly Radio staff, presenters, and listeners.

These podcasts will highlight the significance of the station in the city’s broadcasting history and offer a nostalgic look back at its influence.

Young radio enthusiasts will also benefit from the project through a collaboration with the Manchester Hip Hop Archive.

Over a three-month period, workshops will educate young people on podcast production techniques, using the station’s soul and hip-hop shows as inspiration.

Additionally, older generations will be engaged through reminiscence sessions and skills workshops.

The digitisation process will also involve the community.

Sixty volunteers will be trained to help make the archive more accessible by adding search terms and information to the catalogue, enabling people to access the archives from home or at the library.

Members of the public will be encouraged to contribute any tapes they may have recorded from Piccadilly Radio that are not already in the archives.

To celebrate the preservation of the station’s history, Manchester Central Library will host a six-month exhibition next year, showcasing the archives and offering behind-the-scenes tours for participants, volunteers, and listeners.

Brendan O’Shea, Chair of Manchester Libraries Trust, said: “Manchester Libraries Trust is delighted to have helped secure funding for the digitisation of Piccadilly Radio archives. Piccadilly Radio is an important part of the history of Manchester.

´Digitising the content´, he says, ´will provide future generations with a vital insight into a time of significant social and economic change in Manchester´.

The digitisation project is set to be completed by December 2025, securing Piccadilly Radio’s place in Manchester’s history for many years to come.

Helen Featherstone, Director of England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:  “Local radio holds a special place in the hearts of many people in the North of England, so it is fantastic news, that thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to support the Manchester Central Library to ensure that its Piccadilly Radio collection is preserved for years to come. This investment will mean that more people can learn about our rich musical heritage, gain new skills in podcast production and cataloguing and hopefully inspire future broadcasters.”

9 Reader´s Perspective: All Points Forward

IMMEDIATE FAMILY- Session Musicians

after The Wrecking Crew by Peter Pearson

The Wrecking Crew collective studio musicians were most in demand in the 1960’s and early 70’s. It was a time when AM radio was dominant and the 45, vinyl single reigned supreme. The album format was still in its infancy and there was a rush to get the latest pop single on the airwaves and into the hands of the record buying public.

Recording studios were like a factory production line, geared to producing the next hit single.

But by the end of the 60’s things were starting to change. The higher fidelity of FM radio gained ascendency and a new breed of recording artists started to emerge. Their mission was to create an album of material from which a number of singles could be released. It was not one or two strong songs and eight or nine fillers but a whole album of songs which listeners could enjoy as a complete listening experience. Songs much longer than three minutes started to become acceptable on FM radio.

Songwriters like Carole King, (shown right with Danny Kortchmar), Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka and many more who had been beavering away in the New York Brill Building churning out hit singles for other artists to record, decided to record their own songs. The era of the singer songwriter was dawning. In Los Angeles many of these musicians gathered as a community in Laurel Canyon. They performed their songs down the road at Doug Weston’s Troubador night club.

Their music had a distinct acoustic feel to it, tended to be story telling in nature, and called for producers and instrumentalists with an affinity to recording it. At the same time self-contained bands like the Eagles, Chicago, the Doobie Brothers and Fleetwood Mac started to become popular.

New record producers entered the industry. One such was Peter Asher, brother of actress Jane. He was a former member of the English pop duo, Peter and Gordon and future manager of James Taylor and Linda Rondstat. Another was Lou Adler, producer of Carole King’s 1972 Grammy winning album, Tapestry.

These new artists began taking their time in composing songs and issuing albums. No more cutting an album in a day. In the studio they insisted on playing their own instruments and hiring their chosen hired hands to tour the albums with them. The more successful artists were able to have these conditions written into their recording contracts. 

Technology was changing. It was no longer necessary to record with a complete ensemble live in the studio. In the face of all this, record labels and producers no longer saw the need to have the same group of session players play on all sessions in their chosen studios. It was left to the artists and producers to pick and choose their studio players.

All these factors conspired to signal the demise of the Wrecking Crew, the players we introduced in last week´s article in PASS IT ON 66 on Sunday (7th September, in an article that is now available in our easy to negotiate of more than 1,200 free to read articles).

By the mid 1970’s their members, in response to less call for their services, drifted into other spheres. Some went into TV and film soundtrack work. Carol Kaye and others went into teaching. Hal Blaine having been wiped out by a divorce settlement, itself rooted in his long hours spent away from home in the studio, even took short term work as a security guard, before returning to the music business. Into the places of the Crew stepped new session musicians who would not be anonymous but would tour and record as hired hands with singers and augment the ranks of super groups on major tours.

Denny Tedesco, film maker of the film The Wrecking Crew, and son of Crew guitarist Tommy Tedesco, chronicles the work of these new session men/back up instrumentalists and their employers in his follow up documentary, Immediate Family.

Interviewed about the film Denny says – “Looking at my father’s logs, I can see when the transition came. Artists began to make real money with lengthier, more sophisticated tours. The relationship my father had with the artists was different. They weren’t hanging out after the session. It changed when the session guys started to go out on the road with the artists for months at a time. They became families”.

Touring the album became a profitable activity and was supported by the record labels. Producers, engineers and recording studio owners all bought into the age of what is now termed classic rock or AOR-album oriented rock- in FM radio terms.

The documentary film, Immediate Family, centres on the sidemen typical of that era who, now turned 70, tour themselves as a group calling themselves by that name.

Also known as The Section, the group comprises – guitarists Danny (Kootch) Kortchmar, Robert (Waddy) Wachtel, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel. Other musicians associated with the group include multi-instrumentalist David Lindley and keyboardist Craig Doerge. They are best known for both studio and stage work in support of some of the best-selling singer-songwriters and solo singers of the 1970’s. Their frequent appearances on the records of artists signed to Asylum Records made them the label’s de facto house band.

These sidemen were not anonymous. Producer and artist manager, Peter Asher, insisted that their names received full credits in the album liner notes and they were there backing the artists in concert. A spin-off from receiving album credit was that their names popped up so frequently on hit albums that other artists and producers came calling for their services.

Peter Asher knew that would be the case and it typified his musician centred mentality to record production and artist management.

They appeared together and individually on such albums as Carole King’s best selling/record breaking, 1972 Album of the Year, Tapestry; James Taylor’s 1970 hit album, Sweet Baby James, albums by Linda Ronstadt, Crosby & Nash, John Stewart, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon and virtually every singer songwriter of that era you care to name. They also performed as the back-up band on their tours.

Kortchmar was a boyhood pal of James Taylor and joined his band The Flying Machine. Subsequently he linked up with Carole King on 1971’s Tapestry and reunited with James Taylor on his breakthrough album Sweet Baby James. His work with them led to him becoming one of the top LA session guitarists of the 70’s. Later he collaborated with Eagle, Don Henley, on his solo albums.

Wachtel after forming his own band, went into session work in 1970. He has performed on albums by Jackson Browne, Linda Rondstat, Fleetwod Mac, John Stewart, Carole King and many more.

Leyland Sklar is classically trained. In his youth he played in the bass string section of an orchestra. He then played in a variety of bands playing a wide variety of music. One such band, Group Therapy, obtained a recording contract in 1967 but were deemed too inexperienced to play their instruments in the recording studio.

Enter The Wrecking Crew to take their place.

Sklar said he was intimidated by the skill of these players and didn’t believe he could do what they did, but three and a half years later he was working with them every day when he started doing TV soundtrack sessions.

After working with James Taylor he became a member of his back up band and subsequently performed on albums and tours by a host of singer songwriters. Phil Collins sings his praises.

Russ Kunkel was, in the words of Peter Asher, stolen from John Stewart (who was not best pleased) to record with James Taylor on his 1970 Sweet Baby James album. He then became one of the session men in producer/manager Peter Asher’s stable of artists.

Peter Asher did provide some compensation to John Stewart by producing John’s second solo album-Willard. Asher had been impressed with Stewart’s California Bloodlines album and had attended rehearsals for it when poaching Kunkel. Agreeing to produce Willard, he assembled a cast of James Taylor, Carole King, Danny Kortchmar, Kunkel and Bryan Garofalo (bassist from Stewart’s own band ) to support Stewart’s vocals. Asher´s habit was to cut basic tracks with live players. In spite of the stellar cast it did not receive the critical acclaim or sales of his previous album, California Bloodlines, cut in Nashville with the Nashville A-Team.

In 1972 Kunkel played on Willis Alan Ramsey’s self titled legendary sole album. Thereafter he became the go to drummer for a whole host of artists, effectively, with Jim Keltner, following in the lineage of Hal Blaine. 

This group of sidemen, under the banner Immediate Family, tour the USA playing the songs of some of the artists with whom they toured and recorded. They have even released a couple of albums.

Nowadays home studios are the norm for major artists. They are much less expensive than the studios of the days of the Wrecking Crew.

With digital and streaming the money is less in recording than it is in touring, or at least it was until post-pandemic and all the economic and political upheavals since.

There is still a demand for tours by the Classic Bands and artists of the 70’s and 80’s.The Eagles, Jackson Browne, America, Fleetwod Mac, Steely Dan all continue to do well from touring. In the meantime Disco, Punk, Glam Rock and Grunge have come and gone.

l

10 Island Insights

OLGA CERPA AND MESTISAY

by Crusoe

We knew that  on the stroke of 9.00 pm Olga Cerpa and Mestisay were due to give the closing live performance of Festival of The Virgin de los Remedios, and that we would need to be there pretty early to acquire seats. The matter was further complicated by the timing of the preceding event.

Scheduled for 8.00 pm, just an hour before Olga and the guys were due to take to the stage, there was a poetry reading to be held in the close-by Casa de Culture, in the courtyard behind the stage.

Yaiza municipality had been keen for poetry to be included on the wide agenda of what is really a patronal festival. So they invited two great local writers and poets: Jaime Quesada and Manuel Concepción, protagonists of the poetic ‘Mano a mano’ event on September 7^th.

The reading began at 8.00 pm as advertised and was a masterpiece of timed oratory, with even a little choreography evident as the two poets and their interviewer made frequent movements out of their on-stage armchairs to the podium to make their points. They were of course excellent poets and the rhyming schemes were so carefully crafted and deliberately emphasised that even we who do not speak enough Spanish to have fully captured the ´meaning´ of this poetry, specially written for the occasion, were in no doubt that these poets were making gentle jibes at one another.

Their work was presenting poetry as a story narrative, telling the story of Los Remedios whilst at the same time pointing out poetry´s importance and obligation as a reliable narrator. It was all good fun and held a full-house audience of around 150 in utter silence apart from appreciative applause at the end of each reading.

I have always marvelled at how well Lanzarote fits arts and entertainment into even its most sacred celebrations, and that was certainly the case again tonight.

All the ladies in the audience looked colourful and glamorous in what I call ´nonchalant chic´ and the men, whilst not suited and booted, were nevertheless appropriately attired in ´smart casual´.

We now had a five minute stroll to bring us to the square in which the stage had been erected.

It was a town square, packed and totally devoted to the charisma and artistic personality of Olga Cerpa and the band, who offer sounds and songs from the Canary Islands, although they also made the leap to other continents giving inspirations that are the heritage of art, and art is universal.

The square felt very Canarian with the musical tribute of the artists, eight in total, as there are eight Canary Islands, to César Manrique, or the followers that Olga Cerpa came down to perform next to her audience, expressing her feelings, “I got goosebumps,” many agreed after those intense emotions, but those who enjoyed the performance could also feel themselves on a corner of Havana, in the colourful neighbourhood of La Perla in San Juan, Puerto Rico or in the streets of Cape Verde close to embracing the sea.

Yaiza boarded the Mestisay boat captained by Manuel González, creator of the group in the early eighties, musical director and composer of many of its hits, and the Yaiza audience would enjoy the intercontinental journey where the coplas, the sun, the décimas, the cumbia and the Canarian airs came together on the same deck of cultural expression where there are no classes, where creation and joy triumph as a consequence of that absence.

We wandered across the courtyard and as we approached the arena in front of the stage we saw that 798 seats were already occupied of the original 800 that had been laid out in anticipation of a good-sized audience for the free-till-full concert. We jumped on those last two seats in a rush, as if we were playing a very competitive game of musical chairs. Within a minute or so we were sitting comfortably and with no sense of shame or guilt, as another 500 seats were immediately being laid out by stewards behind us.

The soft lighting hanging in the trees and the brighter lights from the coco cola stands and the crepe bars out on the car park lent all sorts of shadows and silhouettes, as people queued for food before the concert began.

Olga´s band, the seven piece Mestisay took to their floor spots, picked up their instruments and played her on to the floor to stand centre stage, and the audience erupted.

We saw Olga and this line up perform in 2019 (five years ago !) at the Cesar Manrique Festival in Arrecife and had been incredibly impressed.

In those few minutes the audience seemed to have increased exponentially to a total of over a 1,000 people and many had congregated in front of the stage as Olga commenced her first song, an obvious fans-favourite that immediately had loyal friends and front row dancers singing and clapping along.

Her voice can be soft and girlish as well as lived-in and mature. She is an energetic stage performer, and an empathetic communicator with her audience. She sings romantic songs with a passion, and sings popular songs with obvious pleasure.

She is also funny and generous with her musicians.

The seven piece band consisted of three stringed instruments, percussion, brass and wind instruments, as well as the ´trumpeto´ played by the gentleman who seemed to be unobtrusively directing this mini orchestra. In fact, so full was the sound, it could have been a full symphony orchestra. It was, of course fusion music of the very best kind, a wonderful non-hierarchical merging of sounds picked up by travelling musicians with an ear for what works well together.

It was neither rock nor folk-lore but was simply well-arranged music brilliantly delivered. Instruments came between vocal verses playing together blending Canarian music with influences from Africa and Europe, sometimes even carrying echoes of songs like Dancing On The Ceiling by Lionel Richie.

Olga and the band crammed over twenty songs into this show that also boasted a superb filmic backdrop with photographs old and new of important people and places throughout The Canary Islands. Most of the women in the audience danced and shimmied but that was great because as the song says, You´ve Got To Dance Like Nobody´s Watching.

Olga Cerpa and Mestisay were brought back for a number of encores, but scheduled to start at 11.00 pm there was a DJ led Throng Of Blowtown (Studio 54) style event that we thought we were probably about seventy five years too old for.

So we set off home (12 miles south to Playa Blanca) and then realised that, of course, all the roads through town were still closed. We had to drive at slightly slower than walking pace along unlit sidetracks and detours searching for diversion signs that would enable us to wind our way, snake-like, to join the LZ 2, at a point about 12 miles north ! Still, we then made swift progress back home on the motorway, and our five cats were waiting for us on the patio when we arrived home, asking ´what time do you call this?´

As we sat with Clinger, Little Black Cat, Rollover, Stray and Pretty But Thick on our knees on our garden furniture, we spoke to them of poetry and music and arts, and religion and families and politics and why life here on Lanzarote so much appeals. But sometimes when our Spanish cats want us to be quiet they just pretend they can´t speak English.

So Dee and I chatted between ourselves of the twenty or so  songs we had heard, including Graciosera, Décimas de Lisboa, Son del Perola and Rosa de los vientos, and a repertoire that sums up the last five albums by Olga Cerpa and Mestisay. Voice, strings, wind instruments, leather and harpsichord harmonized in a spectacular concert.

It has been five years since we had last seen a concert by this ensemble, at The Cesar Manrique Festival in 2019, and we hope we won´t have to wait as long to see them again

As I sat down to write this review the following morning an e-mail pinged in from our friends at Lancelot Digitas, a major news stream on the island. I was delighted to read that they, too, were full of praise for the concert (and, indeed, the festival as a whole).

The artists are packing their bags to travel to Colombia, land of cumbia, a genre with indigenous, African and European roots, which Mestisay performed in Yaiza, as is its rich musical production. The audience stood up and said goodbye to the group invited by the Yaiza City Council to participate in the Fiestas de los Remedios.

The piece in Lancelot Digitas, published the morning after the concert was a prime reference point for this article.

Look out for a comprehensive on Olga and Mestisay in Sidetracksd & Detours on 23^rd September.

George Strait debuted the first release from his 31st album, Cowboys And Dreamers, with “MIA Down in MIA” one day before his 72nd birthday (5/18). Cowboys And Dreamers was set for release on September 6, 2024. 

The King of Country Music said in a statement, “I’m dedicating this record to my longtime manager and friend Erv Woolsey and my longtime fiddle player and friend Gene Elders (a player on four of these tracks), who we lost on the same day, March 20, 2024, as well as my longtime friend and road manager Tom Foote, who we lost on April 29, 2024.” 

He added, “I will never forget all of the good times we had together. May they rest in peace with our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Written by Adam Craig and Dean Dillon and produced by Strait with Chuck Ainlay, “MIA Down in MIA” features the Texas native’s Ace in the Hole Band and is one of the songs that features the late Elder.

The follow-up to Honky Tonk Time Machine, Strait’s 27th No. 1 Billboard Country album, Cowboys And Dreamers, will feature 13 new songs, including “Honky Tonk Hall Of Fame” featuring Chris Stapleton, which the pair debuted during a sold-out show at Lucas Oil Stadium on May 4, and his own rendition of Waylon Jennings’ “Waymore’s Blues.”

He performed during the Summer, showcasing the album.

Our reporters will be keeping their ears close to the ground when they set out down the sidetracks and detours tomorrow, Monday, 16th September, and the invisible angels, as we call our senior and more elderly journalists, will light their paths from the skies. Whilst sitting at my editor´s desk today I heard our volunteer writers laughing and joking in the corridors about finding a place where everybody knows their name. Cheers to that. I heard one of them speaking of an article on a third generation music legacy and another saying that on Wednesday he would be heading over to Jazz Junction, where the world revolves and the music evolves. On Thursday all the team will be enjoying a walk through the trees, listening to the new release, Woodland, by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and have promised to seek out a biography of Gillian, which they will donate to that bigger bookshelf we keep building. On Saturday we take a day off for the football and all that but we promises to let you have your free copy of PASS IT ON next Sunday morning 22nd September.

Thanks for reading. We´ll see you round the corner.