Apparently it's Bank Holiday... still exhausted from the festival exertions... so here's some vocal tracks for a chill out day and a guitar solo version of a traditional song... First up – Ariadne in a recent comment name-checked the Jim Kweskin Jug Band when Maria Muldaur was with them way back when. The class of her voice shines through from this early recording - not sure about the band – to my ears a kind of thinking man or woman's Mungo Jerry, which is no doubt unfair, but I am allergic slightly to clanking banjos – cue the old musician's joke about the definition of a gentleman (yet again...). But it's a brave take on the Peggy Lee hit from a young Muldaur.
Another singer from the folk revival – the English Shirley Collins, a personal favourite for long years now. A fascinating character who travelled in America as a young woman with Alan Lomax. From Hastings, a town I used to know well when I lived in London, she has a frail voice, singing from the tradition but subtly innovative (see her record with Davey Graham - 'Folk Routes, New Routes'). The recordings she made with her sister Dolly were a remarkable series – Dolly's arranging skills building a platform of almost chamber music ambiance for her voice to soar over – delicately, because she isn't a bravura singer. She recorded 'Banks of the Bann' with the Albion Country Band (one of my favourite songs, incidentally) – it is usually sung by a man but one of the interesting things about traditional music is the way the story can channel through the singer in an almost Brechtian way which provides a distance where gender is irrelevant. You can hear the Sussex countryside in Shirley's voice... (This album is not available at the moment – looked for it but no dice...)
I love the melody of 'Banks of the Bann' as much as the words – here's a version by the acoustic guitar wizz Martin Simpson that eloquently brings out the sadness and regret of the song.
Jump-cut to Lambert Hendricks and Ross, not so well known now but in their day a formidable jazz vocal trio, experts in the art of 'vocalese'. a form of vocal jazz where lyrics were put to famous solos. Initiated in the forties by Eddie Jefferson, King Pleasure and Babs Gonzalez, when LHR came together in the fifties they took the art to new heights. Hendricks displayed a great skill in writing clever lyrics that fitted the tortuous contours of the jazz mprovised line. They recorded their classic album 'Sing a song of Basie' in 1957 – the idea was to duplicate all the section parts of the Basie Band with lyrics set to the classic recorded solos. The original choir apparently proved unwieldy and not up to the mark – so they multi-trcked all the parts over a rhythm section. At the time this was revolutionary... I saw Lambert Hendricks and Yolande Bevan (who had replaced the Scottish-born Annie Ross) at the end of the group's career – with the Count Basie band in the early sixties. They were incredible, bouncing effortlessly off the solid swing of Basie's orchestra. Here's the swinging blues that featured as a vehicle for Joe Williams in his tenure with Basie – 'Everyday.' Listen to multi-tracked Ross especially, imitating brass flares and rips. Cool... Plus the bouncing 'It's Sand, Man.' Oo shooby doo...
The McGarrigle Sisters have been so good for so long... here's a heart-breakingly wonderful song form their first album 'Talk to me of Mendocino,' one of those songs that plays off the vast space of the U.S.A. -Olson's Sublime again - sadness and expectation in the possibilities of movement:
And it's on to South Bend, Indiana
Flat out on the western plain.
Rise up over the rockies and down on into California
Out to where but the rocks again
And let the sun set on the ocean.
I will watch it from the shore.
Let the sun rise over the redwoods.
I'll rise with it till I rise no more...
I heard this Judee Sill track in the sixties - never had the album but I was always haunted by this song. She died tragically in the early seventies and there seems to be a lot of mystery attached to her life and career. This is a live recording I (ahem) acquired from somewhere – quality isn't brilliant but gives the essence of her style. I love her voice... More info here...
And then... a track from a recently purchased album. A couple of months ago Bruno very kindly put me onto the cd by Donna McKevitt - Translucence – her settings of Derek Jarman's words, scored for three female voices (Soprano, mezzo and contralto), counter tenor, viola and cello, simply blew me away and I had to go out and buy it immediately. 'I walk in this garden' is sublime, sad and haunting. If you buy one cd this year – this should be it...
One of the best singers to have come out of the English traditional scene was Nic Jones, whose career was cut tragically short by a car crash (although he survived, he ceased playing). 'Flandyke Shore' displays all of his outstanding qualities -fluid guitar and an ear for a simple but effective arrangement. And his voice - unforced, no awful 'traditionalisms' but honest and very English. A man who could right inside a song - and a massive influence still, despite the hiatus of twenty years or more...
To go out on... 'As I roved out' by the rather wonderful Bob Copper of the Copper Family, keepers of the traditional flame down in Rottingdean. And the whole gang singing with a tender gusto on 'The Banks of Sweet Primroses.' In one of those blogging synchronicities, Bob Copper, who died a couple of years ago, discovered Shirley Collins in the fifties. This is the real thing, a channel that reaches back into a lost England... brings out the country boy in me... As I walked out one midsummer's morning...
Maria Muldaur/Jim Kweskin
I'm a Woman
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Shirley Collins (and the Albion Country Band).
Banks of the Bann
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Martin Simpson
Banks of the Bann
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Lambert Hendricks and Ross
Everyday
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It's Sand, Man
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McGarrigles
Talk to me of Mendocino
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Judee Sill
Jesus was a crossmaker
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Donna McKevitt
I walk in this garden
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Nic Jones
The Flandyke Shore
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The Copper Family
As I walked out
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Banks of Sweet Primroses
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6 comments:
I'm starting with the McGarrigle today. This is really lovely. I like the harmonies of it. Beautiful, very beautiful. Which sister is singing at the beginning?
I only ask because it is different to the higher voice of the harmony. I think I actually prefer the higher one. She is lovely.
Back to the Maria Muldaur. An interesting take on this song. It is very sensual. Especially on the chorus. She's got a huge range and that fluttery thing she does on the chorus is very clever. Wish I could do that.
I walk in this garden- this is very beautiful and very poignant too. For reasons to do with the music, but also due to her treatment of the subject matter/words. Very powerful. I like the part: 'My shaking hand cannot express the fury.'
Banks of the Bann - this one I really had a sob to.
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