PASS IT ON: canary islands to the uk

a sidetracks and detours publication

5^th October 2025

written by

 Norman Warwick

CONTENTS

Island Life by Norman Warwick

ANTONIO CORUJO TEJERA: ARTIST

´turned music and dance into a life mission´.

He was a key figure in the preservation of the island’s cultural traditions, soLanzarote mourns the passing of Antonio Corujo Tejera,

(right) Lanzarote’s favourite son and an essential figure in the island’s cultural and musical history.

I first learned the sad news from a report on Lancelot Digitas Born in San Bartolomé in 1933, Antonio Corujo dedicated his life to folklore, preserving oral tradition, and passing on a legacy deeply rooted in Lanzarote’s identity. Heir to a family of singers and dancers linked to the Rancho de Pascua in San Bartolomé, he knew from childhood how to turn music and dance into a life mission. His voice, his unmistakable style, and his commitment were instrumental in keeping alive some of the most unique expressions of the island’s cultural heritage.

The Lanzarote Council named him a Favourite Son of the island, a distinction he received in a moving ceremony held at the end of 2024. Antonio Corujo‘s influence transcends stages and eras: from his contribution to the Rancho de Pascua to the dissemination of the verses of Víctor Fernández, El Salinero, through his participation in historic folk groups, international performances, and recordings that today form part of the Canarian cultural heritage.

Corujo married María del Carmen García Martín, known as Maquita, in 1958. He had two daughters and three sons, all of whom followed their father’s musical path: Domingo, Antonio, Juan Manuel, Carmen, and María del Carmen Corujo García. We should also  extend his condolences to his friends and all those who found inspiration in him.

President Oswaldo Betancort, on behalf of the Corporation, expressed his condolences for the loss of the folklorist from San Bartolomé, a key figure in the preservation of Lanzarote’s musical and cultural traditions. “Today, Lanzarote loses one of its greatest cultural icons. His life was a testament to the love for the island, for its folklore, and for the collective memory of our people. With him, a unique voice passes away, but the flame of the traditions he knew how to preserve and bequeath to future generations remains alive,”  Betancort commented.

rest in peace logo

With the loss of Antonio Corujo, Lanzarote says goodbye to a unique figure in its cultural identity.

island life

CONCERT POSTPONED.

Tonin Cojero quartet

report ty Norman Warwick

I feel very privileged to have already seen half a dozen concerts by Tonin Corujo; some with and some without his now established quartet. I was due to see him again with his three musical colleagues last Friday night, 26^th September at the wonderful and somehow historic Timple Museum in the centre of Teguise. (you can find articles about the venue in our archive of more than 1,500 articles)

The concert, of course, was postponed due to the circumstances detaile4d in the piece above, but I´m sure the hearts of all ticket holders go out to Tonin at this time.

A Canarian timple player with an eclectic style, Tonin Corujo, has for many years been making roots music with a universal projection.

His work, writing, composing, recording and performing, is conceived as a musical tribute to his land and his people, through a successful fusion of avant-garde music, jazz and elements of the Canarian musical identity. I liken what he does as being in the same high calibre as the work of bluegrass afficienado, Bela Flak.

Tonin´s compositions wander through spaces and people, recalling figures such as César Manrique, Jesús Soto, and Leandro Perdomo. They also feature magical Lanzarotan places, such as Famara, Mancha Blanca, or ancestral elements like the Gofio, to which he also dedicated one of his songs.

Their music, filled with hypnotic melodies, provokes sensations that transport the listener to the magical spaces to which they allude.

The secret to creating shows filled with complicity and unique proposals lies in their great ability to create participatory teams.

Its musicians, virtuosos and versatile multi-instrumentalists of eclectic style, offer a concert of incredible dimensions that range from the most absolute calm to the most active and unbridled atmospheres.

Toñín Corujo offers a sensational musical offering. Drawing on tradition, yet open to the musical reality of the entire planet, the timple player offers contemporary art made from the heart.

Toñín Corujo is one of the most renowned composers and performers of the timple.

The Canarian musician was born in  1960  in Arrecife, Lanzarote, to a family of musicians. His surname is one of the most important in the Canary Islands’ folk music scene.

In 1975  Corujo  joined the group Awañac, helping to revive the verses of Víctor Fernández Gopar.

In 1987,   he traveled from Paris with the Guitar Consort to Czechoslovakia, giving concerts in Kladno and Prague. Also in Paris, he had the opportunity to share experiences with Juan Carlos Pérez and Domingo Rodríguez, and to take classes with Michelle Ponce and Roland Dyens.

In 1998  Tonin directed the recording of “Rancho de Pascua de San Bartolomé” and participated in Artenara’s first album.

In 2004  he  released his first album as a leader: “Arrecife”.

 He participated in the Womad Canarias in 2005 where he shared the stage with Salif Keita, The Wailers, Carmen París, Yasmin Levy or Trilok Gurtu, Amadou & Mariam, The Bays, Cristóbal Repetto, Kanda Bongo Man, and others.

In  2006  he participated as a performer, composer and arranger in the Tewiza project.

In  2007  he presented “Salt and Sand”, a carefully produced recording by Andreas Prittwitz and featuring José Antonio Ramos, Ángel Crespo, Javier Saiz, David San José, Antonio Toledo, Fernando Anguita, Diego Galaz and Mariano Díaz.

He gave concerts at the Expo Zaragoza  2008 .

In  2011 , Toñín Corujo brought together the most important figures in the Canary Islands music scene to record “El Salinero,” based on the verses of Víctor Fernández Gopar and performed by his father, Antonio Corujo.

In  2011  he also published “Lanzarote Music”.

photo Since Saturday, June 15,  2013 , the “Toñin Corujo Quartet” has been offering a concert every Saturday at Noches de Jameos with Carlos Perez on saxophone, Yarel Hernández on guitar, Israel Curbelo on piano and percussion, and Toñin Corujo himself on timple. The live recording of “Una Noche en Jameos del Agua” was held in 2015 .

2016  presented the show “Dawn Of A Game” at the “Jameos del Agua Auditorium”

2018  included the Universo Colorao show at the Jameos del Agua Auditorium.

With the “Toñin Corujo Quartet” he travels to Berlin every year, where they perform in various venues and in the city’s famous jazz clubs.

The promoters of  the concert scheduled for last Friday have promised this is a postponement rather than a a cancellation and assured us that we will all be contacted as soon as new date is confirmed.

So,….. even at such a sad time there is still much to look forward to.

HOT BISCUITS & JAZZ

handed down by

STEVE BEWICK from the mix-cloud

Everything about the Hot Biscuits project somehow seems to have re-energised itself over the last three months. There has been a slight increase in its co-presenters and contributors, giving bright new thoughts, but there remain Steve and Gary Heywood Everett digging and loosening, without disturbing the  roots of  of the jazz the programme first became known for. There is, though, a fresh tone added to the music still being delivered on the jazz scene throughout the UK.

Steve contacted me yesterday saying  that ´during this week´s Hot Biscuits, Jazz-on-line offer an insight into John-Paul Muir‘s recent release Home Grown, a lively sound explored by colleague Gary Heywood-Everett.

Also to be found in the show is a selection of new singles as we dip into the blues scene with one Dave Speight who is not convinced his new girlfriend is 5` 7″

Michael Roach and daughter Sadie Roach re-join in a number called, Take This Hammer. Step aside your speakers for that one.

Julia Titus was not always Ma Bessie Productions. Listen into this one from her solo CD of earlier days, Celebration.

Hoang Minh Chau is forever surprising us and does so again with a first and beautiful ballad, Love Echoes.

Our jazz fusion fix comes this week from Granada, Espanola and David Margam.

Concluding the show, we are back with the blues and a new single, `That Thing Called Love.` from a lively, Debbie Bond.

The presenters,  researchers and performers are working hard to  maintain Hot Biscuits fine reputation for old jazz and recordings and today´s live jazz in the UK , today have their fingers firmly on the jazz pulse.

Give them a round of applause when you tune in to listen to this week´s programme at www.mixcloud.com/stevebewick/ 24/07 for a great show!

JAZZ AT PROGRESS:

CHRIS BRISCOE & HIS PROFILES QUARTET

10^TH October 2025

Friday 10 October 2025 | Progress Theatre, Reading (details below) | 7:30pm | £20.00 (£18.00 concessions, £10 under 16) plus maximum 5% booking fee | Bar at all gigs from 7:00pm. Drinks may be taken into the auditorium.

Chris Biscoe saxes and alto clarinet
Alcyona Mick piano
Larry Bartley bass
Winston Clifford drums
 

Chris Biscoe (right) writes: “Jazz has always been a music about people and places, the connections, the routes (and roots) between, the meetings and the getting away.

“When I recorded some of the repertoire from my band Mingus Moves I realised how many of Charles Mingus’ compositions are dedications to musicians, friends and family, lovers and political enemies, not forgetting one toilet-trained cat. The CD was Profiles of Mingus, and this became the working name for the band

.“The Profiles Quartet draws on this tradition, expanding it to include compositions by other jazz greats, and something of the travel which is so significant a part of the life of working musicians.

‘Tunes for the quartet include Thelonious Monk’s Jackie-ing (written for his niece Jackie Smith) and Monk’s Dream, Eric Dolphy’s Miss Ann and his portrait of Monk, Hat and Beard. Teenies’ Blues, another family dedication, was written by Oliver Nelson for his little sister. It’s impossible to leave out Charles Mingus, who is represented by Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (for Lester Young), Pussy Cat Dues (that bemused looking cat perched on a Manhattan apartment toilet seat), and Fables of Faubus, the great satirical composition ‘dedicated’ to Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas.

“Migration and travel appear too, with Billy Strayhorn’s Take The A Train, and Goin’ to Chicago, not the familiar blues but Mike Westbrook’s multi-faceted composition.”

Chris Biscoe came to prominence in the late 1970’s, with Mike Westbrook’s Brass Band. He has toured and recorded extensively in the USA and France, and in the UK. Chris is a founder member of Way Out West, the west London jazz collective which has presented over 800 concerts since 2004. Chris Biscoe crosses musical boundaries in his playing, from ‘cool’ on baritone sax with Allison Neale, post bop with Tony Kofi, contemporary jazz with Liam Noble, through to free and improv jazz with various bands.

Alcyona Mick is a pianist working at the forefront of the London Jazz scene… Recently nominated for a Parliamentary Jazz Instrumentalist Award, she is a member of the London Jazz Orchestra and many other UK bands. She has toured and performed worldwide. As a composer she has a Master’s in Composing music for film from the National Film and Television school. She has written and produced music for many independent short films, documentaries, animation and silent cinema. She won an award for Best Soundtrack at the Anima Mundi International Festival, Brazil.

‘World class ingenuity’   the Guardian

‘Alcyona Mick is an unusual powerhouse of a talent’ – MOJO

Larry Bartley is a bassist and composer who has been a staple of the London and international jazz scene as a side man and as a leader.

“Excellent bassist – with a distinctive Mingus-like drive to his propulsive bass lines.” Time Out

“Larry taps into a vast pool of different types of music to create a unique project that deserves to be applauded.” Jean Toussaint – Drummer

“You can understand why Bartley is so much in demand on the London jazz scene.” BBC

Drummer Winston Clifford is a powerhouse behind the kit for a wide variety of great bands, led by the likes of Gwilym Simcock, Monty Alexander, Stanley Turrentine, Benny Golson and Courtney Pine.

A master of a huge array of drum techniques, Clifford is constantly inventive, immersed in a stream of consciousness yet with ears wide open to hints, suggestions and prompts from his playing partners. He regularly plays around the kit with his bare hands for softer timbres, another card to play in the constant search for dynamic expression and imaginative phrasing.

Jazz at Progress thanks Hickie’s Music Store of Reading and Tiverton for the hire of the piano which will be used at this event.

Get into the festive spirit with Baked A La Ska as they celebrate the release of their Christmas album Ska of Wonder. They’ll be delivering seasonal ska treats such as “When You Wish Upon A Ska”, “Walking In The Air”, “We Three Kings” “Harmonica for Christmas” and many more!   Baked A La Ska are the “heavy heavy sound” of Manchester. Since 2008, they have been serving up the sweetest of good party vibes, vintage ska sounds and an eccentric platter of covers. Baked A La Ska performed at our Festival this year and it was one of the highlights, which is why we’ve invited them back. So if you missed out earlier this year don’t miss out now. Saturday 20th December, 8pm (doors open 7.15pm) at St Mary’s Centre, Clitheroe.  Book before the end of October to avoid all booking fees. Tickets £22, Members £18 and U16s £10. U16s must be accompanied.

ROCHDALE MUSIC SOCIETY @ Bamford

LOUIS VICTOR BAK: pianist

review by GRAHAM MARSHALL

Here’s my Review of the recent Rochdale Music Society‘s concert, the first of the Season 2025-26 concerts being held on Sunday afternoons in St. Michael’s, Bamford.

Rochdale Music Society’s CONCERT SERIES 2025-26 began on Sunday 21 September with a spectacular programme of mainly French piano music played in the parish church of St. Michael, Bamford, by the French pianist, Louis-Victor Bak (right) , now resident in London after studying first in Lyon and more recently at The Royal College of Music.

He began with the set of the three pieces that make up Book 2 of Debussy’s ‘Images’. These explore the wide range of tonal effects which can be achieved by the performer’s keyboard control, and offer the listener musical ‘imagery’ to evoke sights and sounds beyond the black and white of the keyboard itself, ‘impressionism’, as it began to be described. Louis-Victor’s accomplished technique manifested itself immediately as he began to play No. 1, “Cloches à travers les feuilles” (Bells sounding through the leaves, and his fine artistry continued through No.2 , “Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut” (And the moon descends on the temple that once was), and No. 3, “Poissons d’or” (lit. Gold Fish). The musical imagery was vivid.

The concert continued with a finely presented account of one of Chopin’s late works, the ‘Polonaise-Fantasie Op. 61’, which illustrates the depth of the composer’s personal exploration of musical sounds and the abundant inventiveness with which he had become able to exploit the discoveries he had made over the years. Hence its fantastic structure filled with intense feeling, which Louis-Victor showed he understood and was more than capable of conveying to a receptive and attentive audience.

The Chopin was followed by the Austrian composer Alban Berg’s single movement ‘Sonata Op. 1’. This was the only non-French music in this concert, but it fitted into the programme very well, since it complements the technical freedom of Latin ‘impressionism’ with the more constrained technique of contemporary Teutonic ‘expressionism’ and reveals a warmth of artistic feeling and aesthetic aspiration common to all great music. Louis-Victor brought to his performance an obvious appreciation of this, with resounding success: an ‘ear-opener’ for those who had not heard this mind of music before! To end the first half of the concert the audience was treated to two of the six Concert Studies written in the 1880s by the female composer, Cecile Chaminade: No. 5 ‘Impromptu’ and No.4 ‘Appassionato’. Louis-Victor has become a champion of Chaminade’s music, and these two examples of music which concentrates on particular aspects of pianistic technique show why he is to be encouraged to continue to do so. The flowing melodies and charming pirouettes which soar about the flowing accompaniment in the Impromptu, along with the need for firm wrists and flexible fingers to cope with the demands of the Appassionato, make rich artistic sense as well as calling for the highest degree of techincal accomplishment.

The second half of the concert began with the ‘Valses nobles et sentimentales’ of Ravel, another very colourful ‘impressionist’ work presenting a succession of contrasting ‘noble’ and ‘sentimental’ waltzes in a way that only Ravel could conjure up to fill a quarter of an hour with seriously heart warming music. Executed with full attention to the intricate detail demanded of the performer, this provided the last part of a musical thread which had run through the programme to link Debussy with Henri Dutilleux, who died in 2013 in his nineties, and whose Sonata for piano Op. 1 featured as the climax of the whole concert. The first movement ‘Allegro con moto’ begins with an engaging and expansive tune from which emerges another, contrasting melody which leads into a sound world that brings together in a creative dialogue musical ideas which have something in common with what Stravinsky and Prokofiev were exploring at the time but could only be taken up and developed by a twentieth century French composer. The second, much shorter, movement is a ‘Lied’ ( German for Song) and seems to drag its feet in a somewhat melancholy, German fashion suited, I think, to the 1940s decade in which it was written..The last movement is a ‘Chorale et variations’ (Choral and Variations). It starts with an imposing Choral that suggests a four-part Choir and sounds carillon-like with sonorities that are created by the overlapping of low and high sustained notes. Four variations follow without no breaks. They illustrate the composer’s creativity. Several passages are of brilliant toccota like character, others are ethereal and shadowy, and the final moments recall the opening Choral but end in a resolved though strangely (?) subdued fashion. Louis-Victor’s brilliant and spellbinding account of this Sonata’s musical thought processes brought a well-deserved accolade of applause from the audience.

The next concert is on 19 October, when the classical and flamenco Guitarist, Galina Vale, will be performing music from all over the Latin world. More details on www.rochdalemusicsociety.org

On Sunday 7^th December we preview a brand new series of articles called Songwriters & Invisible Angels to be published quarterly over the next two and a half years. Peter Pearson and Norman Warwick have each selected twelve of their own favourite artists. We will list all the selections in our December issue, as well as a preface by Norman Warwick that explains how a song can be construed as an invisible angel, citing Jackson Brown´s For a Dancer.

See you in December