sidetracks & detours present PASS IT ON # 73 weekly Supplement Sunday 27 10 2024

sidetracks & detours

present

PASS IT ON # 73

weekly Supplement Sunday 27 10 2024

Hear The Call

COME FOLLOW YOUR ART

by Akela

Inspirational figures in my life include school-teacher Noel Drury who fuelled my burning passion for literature, and in later life included figures like Beate Miellemeir, a German Art Officer for Rochdale who made art part of the everyday conversation. I thought that Rochdale was unique in those halcyon ninteen nineties when artists were available to visit schools and mentor and enthuse children towards the arts. Wonderful arts interventions covered our landscapes, like Anthony Gormley´s on the Crosby sands we walked and  talked of literature and laughter and love. Somehow, though, towns like Rochdale fell into neglect. Song was replaced by the sound of silence, tolerance became troubled by poverty until it erupted into a frenzy that seems to hardly have lessened for two dedades now. I know of many old friends, Eileen Earnshaw, Steve Cooke, Seamus Kelly and others who have never wavered in their faith in what the arts can deliver into communities like Rochdale, and I see the same faith writ large here on Lanzarote. The poet, Mercedes Minguela, and the artist Claudie are hard working, talented people who not only create their own poetry and artwork but also create events and communities on Lanzarote who will notice it, and benefit from it. So, come follow you art.

CONTENTS

1 ) A PLACE FOR POETRY Poetry Readings by The Poet In The Rain

2 ) I Love Manchester: RED ELLEN:People’s History Museum exhibition 9^th Nov previewed by newsletter

I love Manchester HERE YOU COME AGAIN Dolly Parton musical 29^th Oct to 2^nd Nov

3 ) Island Insight SURF´S UP: weather permitting by Carusoe

4 ) Live Jazz Sunday 3 November  LEE GIBSON (vocalist) preview by Jazz In Reading

MICHAEL JOHN ROSS TRIO featuring Talisha Kerrer SUN 3 11 24

ACANTHA LANG Sunday 17 11 24

5 ) Jazz On Air HOT BISCUITS served by Steve Bewick

6 ) Reader´s Perspective: all points forward The Roots of Nashville ENTER THE SINGER-SONGWRITERS by Peter Pearson, our Americana writer.

7) THE LANCASHRE SOCIETY: Autum Concert Parties by Michael Higgins

1 ) A PLACE FOR POETRY

Poetry Readings

by The Poet In The Rain

Two of the sidetracks & detours contributors have made appearancers at poetry readings recently. In the UK the arts-historianMichael Higgins was reading his  poem ‘Readin’ mi Book’ at Oswaldtwistle library recently with the Lancashire Society. He was apparently bathed in a strange white light, and the heating was cranked up as well-hence him carrying his waistcoat.

Photo by fellow poet Susan Osborne

Over here on Lanzarote Norman Warwick, our music correspondent, was reading at the island´s central library in Arrecife. Norman read his poem Where Imagination Begins, wrapped up inside So Have I by American songwriter Richard Dobson.

This was a special event produced by Mercedes Minguela, a leading poet on the island, who has invited sidetracks & detours to become part of the planning party for a special multi-lingual outdoor event, perhaps before the end of the year. No doubt Norman will be letting sidetracks & detours have further details as plans develop. Meanwhile, he was the only reader in English at an event featuring several published poets as special guests. With readings from the floor as well there were more than a dozen contributions from indigenous Lanzarotans.Accurately, and faithfully, translating poetry from one language to another is, in itself, a fine art.

In week commencing 4^th November we shall examine that more closely when reviewing the event described above. 

Photos by Dutton The Button

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2 ) I Love Manchester: RED ELLEN:

People’s History Museum exhibition 9^th Nov

previewed by newsletter

This November, the People’s History Museum (PHM)  is shining a spotlight on one of the North’s most indomitable figures, Ellen Wilkinson.

Known as “Red Ellen,” Wilkinson’s (right) legacy as a champion of social justice, a fiery parliamentarian and an indefatigable advocate for the working class is being celebrated in a special event on Saturday, 9th November.

The event will feature talks, exhibits and a special pop up display.

You can find out more about Red Ellen, and why she is deserving of this tribute, in sidetracks & detours  week commencing 4^th November.

I Love Manchester:

HERE YOU COME AGAIN

Dolly Parton musical 29^th Oct to 2^nd Nov

For the first time ever, all of Dolly Parton’s biggest hits can be experienced together in a rollicking and joyous new musical, fully authorised by Dolly herself!

Packed with the iconic songs Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, I Will Always Love You, Here You Come Again and more, this lively and touching new musical tells the story of a diehard fan whose imagined version of international icon Dolly Parton gets him through trying times. With her wit, humour and charm, Dolly teaches him a whole lot about life, love and how to pull yourself up by your bootstraps…even if your bootstraps don’t have rhinestones! This is one musical that is sure to make you smile.

After several successful runs across the United States, Here You Come Again was originally written by two-time Emmy award-winning comedy and songwriter Bruce Vilanch with Gabriel Barre (who also directs) and writer and actor Tricia Paoluccio, and has now been adapted by acclaimed British  laywright Jonathan Harvey (Gimme, imme, Gimme and Coronation Street.)

3 ) Island Insight

SURF´S UP: weather permitting

by Carusoe

This year, the annual Lanzarote surfing competition will feature 64 riders, 32 in the surfing category and 32 in bodyboarding.

The waiting period for the Quemao Class has already begun with the activation of the Orange Alert.

Lanzarote and La Santa are preparing for a unique event and for this reason they are waiting to see when the Green Alert will be declared to find out the dates of this emblematic competition.

4 ) Live Jazz Sunday 3 November 

Lee Gibson (vocalist)
&  the Pangbourne Jazz Club rhythm section:
Jim Pollard (piano)

Terry Hutchins (guitar)
Rob Levy (double bass)

Brian Greene (drums)

Preview by Jazz In Reading newsletter

‘World-class British jazz singers are a rare breed at the moment, but Lee Gibson is certainly one of them. She continues to go from strength to strength, both on record and in person. While Cassandra Wilson leads the female vocal field in America, Lee Gibson has comparable status in Britain.’

(Manchester Evening News) 

Lee Gibson is a ‘jazz vocal sensation’

 (The Independent).

A nationally and internationally acclaimed singer who has delighted critics and fans alike with her wonderful voice, innate sense of swing and dynamic stage presence.
‘She is that rarity, a swinging singer who has also reached the highest standards of musicianship.’

 (Time Out). 

‘Subtle…sensuous…joyful…musical’

 (The Stage).

A superb, charismatic performer with a reputation for excellence that pulls in the crowds, her live appearances regularly set venue attendance records. ‘Soaring, meticulous vocals….the perfect jazz voice, truly playing it like an instrument’

(Blackpool Evening Gazette).

Lee Gibson has featured in over 1,000 broadcasts on BBC Radio including ‘live’ broadcasts with the BBC Big Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra on ‘Friday Night is Music Night’.

Lee has appeared at The Barbican, The Purcell Room, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Fairfields Hall, Ronnie Scotts, seven seasons at Pizza on the Park, the 606 Club, The Spice of Life and at all the major jazz venues throughout the UK and Europe. Festival appearances in the UK and Ireland include Appleby, Ealing, London, Birmingham, Wigan, Marlborough, Edinburgh, Dundee, Newbury, Bude, Derry, Cork, Preston, Swanage, the Isle of Man, Dartmouth and Swansea.  In 2016, Lee appeared at festivals in Llandeilo and Abergavenny.

In addition to being one of the UK’s premier jazz performers, her talent continues to be recognised internationally. Lee has performed at festivals in France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Holland, Sydney, South Africa and represented the UK at the Latvian Jazz Festival in Riga.

As well as working with her own trio and quartet, Lee is a highly respected and accomplished big band singer. In Europe she has recorded and starred with The Netherlands Metropole Orchestra in Holland (‘Night Songs’ released by Koch Jazz), The UMO Jazz Orchestra in Finland, The WDR Band and The Francy Boland Band in Germany and the marvellous Danish Radio Band (conducted by the late great Thad Jones) in Denmark.

Lee accompanied the multi award winning Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra at the opening night concert of the IAJE conference in Toronto and also appeared at festivals at Topeka and Palm Springs and at The Orleans Casino in Las Vegas with the Ken Peplowski Big Band. Lee has a long association with leading UK jazz independent record label Spotlite Records which has seen the release of three solo albums ‘Songs of Time and Place’, ‘Linger Awhile’ and ‘Here’s to Love’. All have received universal critical acclaim.

Her many film and television credits include ‘Victor Victoria’, ‘Privates on Parade’, ‘The Great Muppet Movie’, ‘An American Tail’, ‘Willow’, ‘Yentl’, ‘The Two Ronnies’, ‘The Morecambe and Wise Show’, ‘Only Fools and Horses’, ‘Barrymore’, ‘The Benny Hill Show’ and 7 Royal Variety Shows. 

‘As far as I am concerned there can never be too much Lee Gibson…she lights up any song with her musicality.’(The Observer)

‘She is, without doubt, the best jazz singer this country has produced in the last 40 years.’ (Digby Fairweather)

Live Jazz In Reading Sunday 3 November

Michael John Ross Trio featuring Talisha Kerrer

Bishop’s Court Farm

Dorchester on Thames OX10 7HP

preview by Jazz In Reading newsletter

‘A hugely impressive live music spectacular.’ Sunday Times

‘It’s a testament to Michael John Ross’ immense talent that he can play such a dazzling array of styles with huge sensitivity and musicality.’ Guitarist Magazine

Michael John Ross cut his teeth on London’s funk and Acid Jazz scene before establishing himself as one of the most versatile and virtuosic guitar players in the world through his work with an illustrious line of legends including Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason and Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green.

He co-wrote, produced and performed the acclaimed stage show, Seven Decades – The Story Of The Electric Guitar, which was described by the Sunday Times as ‘a hugely impressive live music spectacular’ and became the first ever live performance of its kind to be commissioned by the V&A.

Together with singer, Talisha Karrer, Ross and his band will be playing a potent cocktail of rock and roll, soul and blues classics that goes from Jimi Hendrix all the way through to Led Zeppelin.

Drinks will be available to purchase on the evening.

ACANTHA LANG Sunday 17 November

Bishop’s Court Farm

Dorchester on Thames OX10 7HP

preview by Jazz In Reading newsletter

“Acantha Lang is brilliant….an independent artist destined for world domination.”

Craig Charles – BBC 6 Music

“I absolutely love Acantha’s sweet, soulful voice.” Jools Holland

Born in New Orleans, Southern soul songstress Acantha Lang was raised on a heady diet of Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples, Al Green and Bill Withers. Having established herself in New York, she relocated to London and became one of the most talked about artists to emerge in years.

After making her U.S television debut singing live on the prestigious CBS Sunday Morning show, she performed at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, as well as a string of major venues throughout Europe. She quickly built up a fiercely loyal fan-base on both sides of the pond after the recent release of her critically acclaimed debut album, Beautiful Dreams, which reached the top of The Official Jazz & Blues Albums Chart and has amassed over 2.5 million streams on Spotify.

For this special Snug Sessions show, Acantha and her drum-tight band will be playing songs from her debut LP alongside some of her favourite soul and funk classics.

Drinks will be available to purchase on the evening.

5 ) Jazz On Air

HOT BISCUITS

served by Steve Bewick

hello, this is Steve Bewick just letting you know some of the goodies we have on HOT BISCUITS  jazz programme this week.

Linda Jennings Quartet with Robin Dewhurst, John Sandham and Ric Weedon will provide tracks from a live set in South Manchester.

Joining them in my Jazz broadcast are Flanders and Swann with a song about the weather.

Meanwhile Larry Goldings complains that Everything Happens To Me and Allen Toussaint has the  Brick Yard Blues.

The Mark Saunders, Hyelim Kim and John Edwards Trio are `Sensitive To Light` but Marion Montgomery, with Dudley Moore, simply suggests, `Close Your Eyes.`

I will close the show with Neneh Cherry singing about `Broken Politics.` (a title that might feel very appropriate by the end of the week! If this sounds good. Pass it on please find the link below and listen in and PASS IT ON  tour like-minded, jazz loving friends www.mixcloud.com/stevebewick/ 24/07

6 ) Reader´s Perspective: all points forward

The Roots of Nashville

ENTER THE SINGER-SONGWRITERS

by Peter Pearson, our Americana writer.

In 1966, Nashville was well-established as a songwriter’s town, but not yet the haven for the singer songwriter it would become. It was more like Tin Pan Alley, New York, where songwriters wrote songs for recording artists to record. As the Nashville Sound, the musicianship of The Nashville A Team and the Music Row community became known across the country, word started to reach non country musicians that this was the place to record.

Between 1966 and 1972 Bob Dylan, (left) Leonard Cohen and Neil Young came to Nashville to record and Nashville became a music mecca for artists outside the country music genre. Nashville A Teamer, Charlie McCoy remarked “That´s when the floodgates opened”.

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In 1966 Bob Dylan recorded Blonde on Blonde in Nashville Columbia Studio A (former Quonset Hut) Music Row. Dylan was looking for a new sound and was not making much progress in New York. His Producer Bob Johnston, who had recently moved from Nashville to New York and knew many of the Nashville A Team, encouraged him to record in Nashville. Having recently become friends with Johnny Cash, Dylan was open to persuasion. McCoy (right) says he was used as bait. Producer Johnson was particular friends with multi instrumentalist Charlie McCoy and McCoy was due to visit New York City on holiday. When he arrived Johnson invited him to a Dylan session recording. After introductions Dylan invited McCoy to sit in. Just grab a guitar he said. Whilst not his strongest instrument, McCoy made a good impression and following further problems in New York and with gentle coaxing from Johnson, Dylan travelled to Nashville to record the album.

The studio was not immediately right. Dylan tore down the sound baffles separating musicians to create an improved playing environment for the band. The normal three hour sessions were interrupted by long breaks whilst Dylan worked on lyrics and arrangements. When Blonde on Blonde was released in June 1966 there was a sea change in the perception of Nashville. It sent a message around the folk-rock world that this was the place to go to make records. Dylan went on to record Nashville Skyline and John Wesley Harding in Nashville but Blonde on Blonde was the catalyst that suddenly catapulted Nashville from Tin Pan Alley into a recording location on a par with New York and L.A.

But not everybody in town was happy about the change. Music publishers were decididly glum because these visitors were coming into Nashville with their own songs and deals and ready to go.

In 1969 Bob Johnson brought Leonard Cohen to Nashville Columbia Studio A to record his album Songs From A Room. Johnson immediately put a band together which included a then unknown Charlie Daniels (later to become an Outlaw Country musician) Daniels later toured with Cohen, playing fiddle. Cohen (left) returned in 1971 to record his epic album Songs of Love and Hate.

In 1971 Neil Young came to Nashville for a performance on the Johnny Cash Show. Recording engineer Elliot Mazer (right) was working at Quadrafonic Sound Studio in Nashville, just off Music Row. The studio had been recently set up by session musicians David Briggs and Norbert Putmam (more on them and the studio in a later article). Their goal was to focus on artists outside the Nashville country norm. Mazer invited Young for a meal to tell him more about it. After dinner Neil said, ‘Hey, aren’t you the guys who have that Area Code 615 band? That was great! He asked if he could come down to Quad and do some work. All he needed was a small group of players, just bass, drums, and steel. Area Code 615 was a band put together by Briggs and Putman and other Nashville session players with a view to recording an album of country tinged rhythm and blues. They released two such albums.

After a few quick phone calls Mazer was only able to get drummer Kenny Buttrey from 615 but found steel guitarist Ben Keith and bassist Tim Drummond on short notice. They convened that night and recorded some basic tracks, including the classic “Old Man”. Over the next three days more tracks were recorded and, since James Taylor and Linda Rondstat were also in town for the Johnny Cash Show, they were recruited to provide harmony vocals. Young named the band “The Stray Gators”. (below right)

Young would play each song on an acoustic guitar and then the band would discuss the arrangements, usually nailing a song very quickly once they began playing. The quick recording style kept the recording budget exceedingly low for the time.

Harvest, released in 1972, went on to become that year’s best selling album and the track Heart of Gold  a number one single. It became one of the albums defining the singer songwriter of the 70’s.

Whilst Nashville was the country music leader there was a thriving R&B scene in Nashville nightlife. Indeed in 1962 Jimi Hendrix played there for a time, even attracting the likes of Chet Atkins to view his guitar skills.

Blonde on Blonde marked the start of genre diversification on Music Row and over the years other important artists set up shop in the city’s studios. Artists such as Simon and Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, The Beatles recorded at the former Quonset Hut-Columbia Studio A. Joan Baez, Jimmy Buffett, Dan Fogelberg recorded at Quadrafonic. When Bob Dylan recorded Nashville Skyline in 1969 in Nashville Columbia Studio A, John Stewart was recording his masterpiece, California Bloodlines, just across the street, using the same session musicians. The floodgates well and truly opened.

Today whilst Music Row itself might no longer be the epicentre of Americana, country, folk and bluegrass recordings Nashville remains the place to record, with a wealth of studios and music venues.

Billy Strings, the bluegrass sensation, recorded most of his latest album at the Nashville Sound Emporium, a modern reincarnation of Cowboy Jack Clement’s recording studio set up in 1964 near Music Row.

7 ) The Lancashire Society

Autumn Concert Parties.     

By Michael Higgins

The Lancashire Society are an ad hoc assembly of disparate musicians, singers, reciters and poets formed to broadcast the heritage of the historic county of Lancashire, whose boundaries and ethos had been eroded by the 1974 local government reforms. Also the ongoing attempt at bureaucratic ‘regionalism’ instituted around the same time directly challenged local loyalties and heritage. Lancashire includes not only Manchester, Warrington and Liverpool, but Barrow in Furness, Ulverston and Hawkshead at the far end of Lake Windermere and at only some six hundred years old is actually one of the newer shires of England. Its symbol is the Red Rose, a romantic relic attributed to the 15th century Wars of the Roses, fought between the houses of Lancaster and York, county towns of Lancashire and neighbouring Yorkshire.

We recently performed at Barnoldswick, part of historic Yorkshire, where we adapted to local sentiment. Our town crier, Tony Blagrove dressed in his splendid scarlet coat, tricorn hat, buckled shoes and ringing his handbell, reminded the audience at Barnoldswick Library that they were inhabitants of the old regions or ‘wapentakes’ of Yorkshire.  In a tribute to Yorkshire I sang FW Moorman’s splendid Yorkshire dialect lyric ‘Wharfedale Lullaby’ as an acknowledgement to this White Rose border town. But I was far outshadowed by our MC and chairman, Sid Calderbank, singing and reciting with musician/singer Mark Dowding.  With  our party were splendid clog dancer Alex Fisher, Musicians Robin Madge and  Ed McGurk (part of the trio, Caffrey, McGurk and Madge), Fiddler Julie  Proctor, and fellow poets Susan Osborne and Sally James.  Barnoldswick Library was a splendid venue.

Our latest library event was later in October at Oswaldtwistle Library, another splendid venue with bookshelves on wheels which the staff removed to make room to lay out chairs for our very appreciative audience. Again Sid Calderbank officiated and town crier Tony again started us off and finished the event with a call for loyalty to the Duke of Lancaster, King Charles III.  Illness and domestic emergencies thinned our ranks a bit but only slightly and Poets Susan Osborne, and Sally James entertained the audience with witty poems about risqué  mail order catalogues and well watered park trees on the neighbourhood dog walking path.  Alex once more showed off her fabulous clog steps, demonstrating the historical development of the craft from the eighteenth century to the early 1900s music hall competitions. Again Robin Madge and Ed McGurk accompanied their own singing while Robin and Anne Rawcliffe rounded off the show with Morris dance tunes played on their concertinas. In the local patois we and the audience seemed to ‘have a reet good do’.

On 3 November we are at Bancroft Mill outside Barnoldswick for another general audience concert party and that will be the end of our Autumn season.  So far so good ee ba gum tha knows.

The volunteer writers for our daily Monday to Friday, not-for-profit blog of arts-related news  will be out from dawn to dusk following sidetracks and detours of arts-related news.  They will be visiting The Camel House that became a Concert Hall to hear The Ikaro String Quartet play Coldplay. We know we can be sure our team will also explore how Coldplay have left their somewhat Marmite early days to become much loved writer and performers.You can take it as read that one of our writers will compile some sort of list of great pop songs that, to at least some degree, has been borrowed from the classical catalogues of the past. Another writer will bring you his review of the Ikaro and concert, and surely at least a couple of writers will return with a couple of books for our ever lengthening bookshelf. So there will be plenty to read next week, but those readers who might require even more, they can browse our  easy to navigate archives of over  1,200 or so  free to read articles. We will take next Saturday off to watch the football, but be sure our next PASS IT ON edition will be published next Sunday 3rd of November. We´ll see you round the corner.