WOMAD 2016 - The CoffeeBar Kid Interviews Nancy Mike from the Jerry Cans

The CoffeeBar Kid talks with Nancy Mike from the Jerry Cans.

Nunavut is one of the iciest, arctic most remote places on earth. It's the largest, northernmost, newest and least populous territory in Canada.
The local lifestyle, firmly fixed in Inuit traditions and ways of life, rely on remote grocery runs and imports from nearby cities.
Among the various prohibition laws, wandering youth and daily struggle to preserve their native culture, one little folk band from Iqaluit, Nunavut's largest city, is making a whole lot of racket.
The Jerry Cans are described as part folk, part country, part reggae and part Celtic, with a unique Inuit point of difference – duet throat singing. They are one of the more 'exotic' acts to play at WOMAD in March.
Most of their music The Jerry Cans' music is written and sung entirely in Inuktitut.  "For me, Inuktitut is my mother tongue," says Mike. "I find that writing and singing in Inuktitut, it's much easier for me to express myself, to express what we're trying to say – the stories we're telling."

"It's a combination of square dancing and folk dancing," explains Nancy Mike, the band's resident throat singer and accordion player.  "When the Scottish whalers and Missionaries came in the early 1900's, they brought with them their own traditions."
"For me, Inuktitut is my mother tongue," says Mike. "I find that writing and singing in Inuktitut, it's much easier for me to express myself, to express what we're trying to say – the stories we're telling."
Mike, who helped teach partner and fellow band member Andrew Morrison how to read, write and speak in Inuktitut, believes preservation is paramount for younger Inuit generations.
"Audiences can expect to have fun. That's the goal here – to get people up and dancing. When people hear our sound, they're interested. They hear lyrics in Inuktitut and say 'wow, what is that, what do you call that?' they're curious," says Mike.

Having visited New Zealand twice before, The Jerry Cans resonate with our little part of the world, just as WOMAD audiences will no doubt resonate with theirs. "We visited Rotorua, beautiful. very special.  Hot.  Geysers and hot water all the time.  Magic.  Mind,  to be anywhere where it's out of the snow all year is special."

The Jerry Cans are set to perform at the WOMAD Festival 2016, Friday 18 - 20 March, New Plymouth.

www.womad.co.nz

Dave Brubeck dies - age 92

Catch the Coffeebar Kid's tribute on-air tonight from 7.30pm NZ time.
For millions of Jazz Lovers who came of age in the 1950s, Dave Brubeck was jazz. His performances on college campuses, Top 40 radio play, his role as a jazz ambassador for the U.S., his picture on the cover of Time magazine — all made him one of the most recognized and recognizable musicians of the era.

He died Wednesday morning, the day before his 92nd birthday, in Norwalk, Connecticut of heart failure.

Read about the Story of "Take Five" here.

Brubeck's start in music was like the jazz he played: unorthodox. He never learned to read sheet music growing up. He refused classical training. And he developed his chops playing in a military band for Gen. George Patton's Third Army. In the '50s he formed a quartet with saxophone player Paul Desmond that broke into the Top 40 with "Blue Rondo à la Turk."

That song is in 9/8 time — a radical departure from the 4/4 rhythm that Brubeck says Americans were comfortable with at the time. Audiences weren't the only ones taken aback by his music. In interviews that aired on NPR's Jazz Profiles series, Brubeck and Desmond said their musical styles often clashed.

"I was very wild harmonically in those days," said Brubeck. "And the first chord I hit scared Desmond to the point where he thought I was stark raving mad."
"Well," said Desmond, "I was trying to play some sort of melodic chorus, and he would be in 15 different keys on an out-of-tune piano, and there were occasions where I was totally desperate about the situation."
Nevertheless, the two collaborated for decades. In 1959, a song that Desmond wrote earned the quartet its greatest success.
"Take 5" was named after the song's 5/4 time signature.
It appeared on the album Time Out with other tunes that jumped back and forth between different rhythms. The president of Columbia Records was excited that the album was so different from anything else on his label.
But Brubeck said the marketing department was not. "They said, 'You've broken all the rules — the unwritten laws of Columbia Records. You have all originals on this album. Also, you want to use a painting on the cover, and people can't dance to this.' "
Radio stations in Chicago and Detroit disagreed, playing "Take 5" repeatedly.
Brubeck saw the fruits of that exposure firsthand. "In Detroit," he said, "that whole ballroom was dancing in 5/4 — you know, where they throw couples up in the air and between their legs and over their shoulders."

The song climbed to No. 25 on Billboard's Hot 100. College students across the country were dancing to it. In fact, Brubeck made his name playing colleges in the early '50s. One of his early successes was his recording Jazz Goes to College.
After the original Dave Brubeck quartet broke up in the '60s, he came out with an album composed of music he once thought was too structured. In 1968, Brubeck collaborated with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on a religious piece called The Light in the Wilderness.
Jazz critic Nat Hentoff says he was blown away by Brubeck's transformation from jazz player to classical composer. "He's a much underrated composer. I heard a concerto — it was a religious work, and it was so powerful that it brought me to tears."
Later, Brubeck joined the Catholic Church. He became fascinated with composing religious fugues, operas and symphonies. That's not to say Brubeck stopped touring with his jazz groups — some of which included his sons.
Even after bouts of serious illness that forced him into a wheelchair, Brubeck seemed transformed as he sat at the piano — striking the keys with an energy he never seemed to lose. He played hundreds of gigs around the world almost till the end of his life.
Hentoff says Brubeck's professional longevity will be his legacy. "Professional musicians eventually may say, 'OK, we figured out some changes in rhythms that influenced us to think about.' But the main point is the vitality that keeps going. I always called jazz the life force and, my goodness, Mr. Brubeck exemplifies that."

The CoffeeBar Kid is back

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Back and refreshed the CoffeeBar Kid is back and raring to go. This week we have blues/alt country artists Mercury Crow in the studio and with guitars in hand. Check out their new single "Kiss Me or Kill Me" sounding like early Stones or Black Crowes they are all swamp rock and down home blues.

See their website: http://www.mercurycrowe.com/