Dunedin Double - The Chills Tuesday 9 March/ The Verlaines 10 March - both at Shed 6. Part of the NZ Festival of the Arts.

Festival.co.nz

By the second week of the Festival the focus changes from the classicals to the classics with the next two nights reserved for the 'Dunedin Double', featuring individual concerts by the Chills and the Verlaines.  These are two bands from the original Flying Nun EP that pretty much kicked off the label's career, their own and, as legend will have it, the 'Dunedin Sound'.  First up are Martin Phillips' crew. "It's pretty odd playing to a seated crowd", he notes, looking around at the room of well heeled mature punter, wearing their pearls, jeans and velvet jackets.  If ever there was a Mastermind topic, it would be on The Chill's lineup, a list longer than the passenger list of the Queen Mary.  But tonight there was some stability with crazy-as drummer Todd Knudson and bassist James Dickinson (who both joined in the early 2000's) and more recent recruits violist/keyboardist Erica Scully and keyboardist Oli Wilson.

Photo fro the Festival Facebook page

Over the years, The Chills have 'suffered' from a mixed level of professionalism on stage and in the studio but tonight's performance was an exceptionally tight. Almost clinical delivery, save for the deranged antics of Knudson behind the kit, reminding us of Jack Black's exaggerated rock star performances in 'School of Rock'. 

Phillips, himself, now 53 and slightly greying, was looking in pretty good shape.  Sharply dressed, but still keeping to his customary black, he was chilled and relaxed on stage.  Signs of his condition (Stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver) and his shy edginess have been all shucked away as he quipped with the band and engaged is a little audience banter.  It was good to be back in the birth town. 

The set was always going to be a crowd pleaser, a mix of oldies and newbies from a huge repertoire.  Phillips is and always has been a prolific songwriter.  However, with the exception of one or two flourishes nearly everything has that same psychedelic, jangly continuity to it - from the latest release 'Silver Bullets' reaching way back to 'Kalaedescope World'. 

It was good to hear the new stuff sit so comfortably with the rest.  "Silver Bullets", "Eazy Peazy" and "Warm Waveform" in particular work well played live.  An updated version of "Pink Frost" May have been polished up but the core tune still stands up well.

Groove at the Festival : The ACB with Honora Lee - By Kate De Goldi, Adapted and Directed by Jane Waddell

Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand’s most loved authors, popular with both adults and children. Quirky humour, playfulness and intergenerational love are at the heart of this adaptation of her 2012 novel, The ACB with Honora Lee.

A charming exploration of kindness, patience and acceptance, it follows the relationship between young Perry and her eccentric Gran, Honora Lee, who’s losing her memory. 
As more and more words slip from Gran’s grasp, Perry furiously gathers them up, turning them into an illustrated and disorderly alphabet book, which becomes a gift of love to her grandmother.

This is director Jane Waddell's delicate but unpretentious interpretation of Kate De Goldi's short novel of inter-generational love and acceptance.   It's the story of Perry (Lauren Gibson), a young precocious ‘only child’ who's well-meaning helicopter parents, Mum (Amy Tarleton), an over-bearing psychologist,- and Dad (Nick Dunbar), a typical corporate worker bee, are too focussed on professional solutions for teaching their child and raising her skill standards, not realising that the best opportunities lay right under their nose.   Like many of us, they dismiss elderly parents as cantankerous and superfluous.  So they’re somewhat surprised when Perry insists on spending time with her gran (Ginette MacDonald) instead of taking tennis lessons.  Gran, aka Honora Lee, an ex-teacher and private tutor is becoming utterly eccentric as her mid breaks down.  But to Perry, this is an education unlike none other.  Honora holds fast to her 'old school' tools like 'rote-learning' and quick phrases - ''I' before 'e', except after 'c' or 'pie' in 'piece'.  MacDonald, best known to the outside world as ‘Lyn of Tawa’, is superb as the grumpy, disorderly Honora, and utterly believable, too.  She dollops her empathy subtly, avoiding the heavy handed trowel.  A relationship, which seems all too one sided, ensues between Gran and Perry, who scrambles to scoop up words, like dead bees, and capture them in a book of illustrations before Honora loses them forever.  "What's 'A' for?", Perry asks.  " 'A' is for 'Anything!' ",Honora replies, illustrating De Goldi's love of words.  Throughout the play, this gentle humour emerges and bubbles to the surface. 

 

"Equally important, the festivals have also allowed many different audiences to gain an insight into cultures other than their own through the enjoyment of music. Music is a universal language, it draws people together and proves, as well as anything, the stupidity of racism." Peter Gabriel

 

 

 

Only 3 weeks til' WOMAD!

Groove will be featuring a special show on 16 March 7.00 PM
featuring music, interviews and info on the festival - stay tuned

 

A little about the festival : WOMAD - World of Music, Arts and Dance the internationally established festival, which brings together artists from all over the globe. The central aim of the WOMAD festival is to celebrate the world's many forms of music, arts and dance.

At the WOMAD campsite 2015 Photo Tim Gruar

As an organisation, WOMAD now works in many different ways, but their aims are always the same - at festivals, performance events, through recorded releases and through educational projects, they aim to excite, to inform, and to create awareness of the worth and potential of a multicultural society.

Peter Gabriel was one of WOMAD's co-founders: "Pure enthusiasm for music from around the world led us to the idea of WOMAD in 1980 and thus to the first WOMAD festival in 1982. The festivals have always been wonderful and unique occasions and have succeeded in introducing an international audience to many talented artists."

2008   Image: Taranaki Newspapers Ltd

WOMAD festivals are family-oriented, diverse and active musical events; sometimes offering as many as seven stages within the festival site. Since the first festival in the UK in 1982, WOMAD has held more than 160 festivals, creating events in twenty-seven countries and islands all over the world, including: Abu Dhabi, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, UK, and the United States of America.

WOMAD has presented more than one thousand artists at their festivals, bringing the expression of more than 100 different countries to a live audience of over one million people.

Estere - New Plymouth WOMAD 2015 Photo Tim Gruar

WOMAD New Zealand 2014 was the 10th anniversary for WOMAD held at the stunning New Plymouth site in Taranaki. Prior to shifting to New Plymouth WOMAD NZ occurred twice in Auckland, but now takes pride of place at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth.

This year the line up is spectacular St Germain, De La Soul, Calexico, Tami Neilson, Thomas Oliver, Katchafire, Louis Baker, Hazmat Modine, Tiny Ruins, The Jerry Cans, Ester Rada and a whole host more - for the full story go to www.womad.co.nz

 

McKenzie interviewing Estere last year

 

 

 

 

Tickets at https://tickets.womad.co.nz/event/view/womad2016

Review: World Premiere: 'No Man's Land' - Composed by John Psathas. With Filmakers Jasmine Millet/Mathew Knight

 

"A Hugely inspiring piece - Dazzling!"

 

To date a fair amount of Great War commemorative project shave focussed on the ANZAC experience.  But John Psathas' work, No Man's Land, is initially different an considerably more inclusive of the participation and scale of the event.  Back in January John told me that it was the intention of himself and his co-collaborators to capture many different cultural perspectives and stories.  "80% of the world's population was involved in WWI. There are so many everyday stories from other ethnicities: Turkish, Polish, Armenian, Russian, Belgian, Greek, Indian.  So we decided to move away from 'Euro-centric' stories...chose places that aren't as well covered, like Poland, for example - so ravaged by the war.  We filmed on the Ukraine border; on the Somme, Passchendaele, Belgium."


John Psathas

I was astounded at how far across the globe the war reached, touching not only Kiwis or Americans and Aussie's but Africans, Indians and Chinese as well.  Photos in tonight's show portray Chinese work forces in Congee Hats, for example. 

The technical scale of the production tonight was also quite astounding.  A small deft orchestra of drums, zither, strings, guitar and keys surrounded by a massive screen and a series of seven pod screens that fade in and out distant individual musicians like ghosts to play alongside the live and present crew.  They in turn play alongside a montage of drummers, keyboardists, guitarists, a bagpiper and many more who have been filmed individually or together on the battle field sites of Europe and in India and Turkey.  Editing is so seamless, between the co-ordination of the stage musicians and those on film that it's almost impossible to differentiate between recorded and live.

Part of the project's scope was to find stories of everyday people,  affected by the Great War. Women's stories, for example, are represented by series of singers - Ariana Tikau (NZ); Oum (Morroco/France); Meeta Pandit (India); Hungarian Márta Sebestyén (who sung in the "The English Patient") and Jolanta Kossakowska (Poland).  "All from very different cultures but singing this continuous song, handing it over to each other as we move across a No Man's Land...singing to their beloved across the distance...from all the sweethearts, mothers, sisters who were left behind across the world - sometimes forever."  This comes in their song and in a short clip of children walking across Waikanae beach, interspersed with another clip of SerjTankin singing on the top of a Turkish beach head, somewhere near the ANZAC cove.  It's amazing how similar the terrain is.

Sebestyén features prominently in the show, playing violin and singing, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes screaming or echoing the voices on the screens.  Meeta Pandit sits on her left, playing a lap steel harp, with beautiful harmonies entwining with the many layers of sound.. 

Psathas's music builds on swirling and chanting chorus with the same attack and release method used successfully by club land DJ's - especially those from the Ministry of Sound and Renaissance school popular in the 1990's from Brixton to Ibiza.  He might be classically trained but that's only the start of his platform - more a guide to how things work.  Moreover, his Mediterranean background and his collaborations with Tankin provide the strongest themes to his compositions.  Sure, it's world music, but centred and focussed.  My friend thought it sounded a little like Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons or Danny Elfman but to put a finger on the exact reference points would simply do a disservice.

The footage, by Jasmine Millett is stunning.  Many walk-throughs of the original tunnels, some still in tact, interspersed with photos of the events that happened.  And an interesting after shot of each: before - a ravaged wasteland' and now - dense, greenery and creepers, slowly reclaiming the devastation and repairing the scars from 100 year's earlier.

On the whole, this work was dazzling.  To have met John and seen his vision made live was a real privileged and I totally got in to it.  My friend needed a little coaxing and more info.  Perhaps a title or two? Or a hidden sign or other clues to help us along.  And what an opportunity to bring in new voices and sounds.  But that's a minor point.  The real shame is that this is only a one off.  Hopefully crowds at WOMAD and The Auckland Festival will also appreciate this as much as tonight's audience did.  We were all on our feet, at the end, wiping back tears and smiling from ear to ear. 

Listen to the Coffeebar Kid interview with John Psathas. 

Visit the festival site:  http://www.festival.co.nz/2016/events/no-mans-land/

Visit the 'No Man's Land' Site:  http://www.nomanslandproject.org/

At the Festival: 'Chalk About' - Curious Seed - At The Hannah Playhouse 1 March 2016

Reviewed by the CoffeeBar Kid

As soon as I got home I was asked to describe the show I'd just seen, Curious Seed's production of Chalk About, from Scotland and on currently on during at the Hannah Playhouse.  The best 'elevator description' I can come up with is that it's a show of dance - with talking and drawing.  Before starting proper the cast, Christine Devaney and Neils Weijer, invite the young members of the audience on to the stage, really just a huge blackboard, to draw chalk outlines.  This segues into the opening 'piece', a frantic, and chaotic explaination of the results from a children's survey about what what makes good theatre.  The answers are predictable, and quirky - Elsa from 'Frozen' must appear; there must be dinosaurs, explosions, the Queen, super heros and a list too long to go into here.  That leads into a quick animated sequence demonstrating in dance and 'text' what a play featuring all this would look like - very funny - and a statement: "we won't be doing this!"  No, indeed.  Instead the show unravels to reveal set pieces about the performer's life stories, family trees and other things.  Relationships, really. Devaney Tells us about herself and growing up in Scotland, in which both illustrate with unique and creative choreography.  Weijer then joins in With his version, told entirely in a Scandinavian language and cleverly translated through pictures in chalk on the floor.  This technique is very clever, showing how it's possible to get across a message even when languages bar us. 

There are many other clever moments, the use of LifeSize paper dolls, balloon and blow up clouds, all adding a sense of fun and imagination to a show that' sloth for kids and adults.  Devaney and Weijer, work exceptionally well together.  Their rapport is hand in glove perfect and it shows.  A quick survey and eavesdrop told me that, on the whole the punters appreciated all this, although a little befuddled.  The younger ones remembered specifics, especially the giggly moments.  For them moments matter.  It was a good night for those. 

Chalk About is on at Hannah Playhouse until March 6.

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

Festival Show. The Coffee Bar Kid interviews Michele Amas and Amy Tarleton from the show The ACB With Honora Lee

Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand’s most loved authors, popular with both adults and children. Quirky humour, playfulness and intergenerational love are at the heart of this adaptation of her 2012 novel, The ACB with Honora Lee.
A charming exploration of kindness, patience and acceptance, it follows the relationship between young Perry and her eccentric Gran, Honora Lee, who’s losing her memory.
As more and more words slip from Gran’s grasp, Perry furiously gathers them up, turning them into an illustrated and disorderly alphabet book, which becomes a gift of love to her grandmother.

The Kid talks with actresses Michele Amas and Amy Tarleton about the show.

For more info go t: http://www.festival.co.nz/2016/events/acb-honora-lee/

Plenty of book reviews on the Coffeebar Kid's Pages

Check out the Kid's review of Gregory Kan's new poetry book "This Paper Boat' and many others :  http://adventuresofthecoffeebarkid.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/this-paper-boat-gregory-kan-auckland.html

Groove Features WOMAD Music

Groove will be featuring music from WOMAD 2016.  Here's our playlist:

47  Soul - Intro To Shamstep

47SOUL is an electro-mijwez, shamstep, choubi band.
The members are rooted in Bilad Al-Sham, spanning the divides from Amman to the Galilee, the Golan Heights to Ramallah. This new sound of 47SOUL has rapidly amassed fans in the Middle East and Europe by blasting the electric Arabic debka sound through underground music scenes.
Overcoming physical and logistical challenges, they came together to play electronic Palestinian street music. 47SOUL writes and performs to speak about freedom of movement, whether that’s sparking new dance styles or singing about breaking down border check points. For the past 2 years the band has based itself between Jordan and the UK, to spread their new wave of Arabic music.
Their sound is rooted in Arabic Dabke, the celebration dance music from the Bilad Al-Sham area; the name for the land that spans Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan. 47SOUL hypes it up with analog synthesizers, drum machines, epic guitar lines, and tripped-out English and Arabic verses from the four singers. The electronic and urban influence in their music takes them far out of the ‘world music’ context and places them in the genre of a new generation of international electronic/hip hop acts that are reinventing the old for the future. This new sound of 47SOUL is called ShamStep.

Calexico - Cumbia De Donde

Calexico is a Tucson, Arizona-based Americana, Tex-Mex, indie rock band. The band's two main members, Joey Burns and John Convertino, first played together in Los Angeles as part of the group Giant Sand. They have recorded a number of albums on Quarterstick Records, while their 2005 EP In the Reins recorded with Iron & Wine has reached the Billboard 200 album charts. Their musical style is influenced by traditional Latin sounds of mariachi, conjunto, cumbia, tejano, as well as country, jazz, and post-rock. The band has been described by some as "desert noir",  and is named for the border town of Calexico, California.
 

 

Diego el Cigala - Cancion De Las Simples Cosas

Diego El Cigala is, quite simply, the most exciting and innovative flamenco singer in the world today. Passionate, profound, and immensely proud of his Spanish gypsy heritage, El Cigala has been called “the Sinatra of flamenco.” His earthy and exultant and richly emotive voice marks him as one of the great singers of the last century. He is also one of those rare crossover artists who has stayed true to his musical heritage yet achieved name recognition with mainstream audiences around the world.

Born into a family of flamenco musicians, El Cigala began his solo career in 1997. A mere four years later he was at the Latin Grammys, his Corren Tiempos de Alegríanominated for Best Flamenco CD. That was just the beginning of much bigger things to come, as a small initial collaboration on that CD between El Cigala and legendary Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés led in 2003 to a duo CD, Lágrimas Negras (Black Tears), that became one of the most astonishing breakthroughs in the realm of world music. Aside from winning El Cigala his first Latin Grammy (he now has three), Lágrimas became a huge global hit thanks to a combination of killer live shows, rave reviews, and ecstatic word of mouth. This groundbreaking disc, with its fusion of gypsy fire and complex Cuban rhythms, sold more than a million copies worldwide. Aside from winning numerous awards, the CD was fawned over by Britain’s BBC Radio and hailed “record of the year” by the New York Times.
This was unprecedented success for a flamenco singer – and it was to prove just the beginning. El Cigala won his second Latin Grammy in 2006 for Picasso en mis ojos(Picasso in my eyes), which also became a bestseller. Then in 2010 El Cigala travelled to Argentina, land of the tango, to immerse himself in that country’s powerful musical traditions. After merging his own band with two of Argentina’s tango masters – bandoneonist Néstor Marconi and guitarist Juanjo Dominguez – the results were, once again, musical magic. Cigala & Tango won a Latin Grammy for Best Tango, and went on to generate fantastic sales, great reviews, and a sold-out tour that played to more than 160,000 awed fans.

El Cigala’s newest recording, 2013’s Romance de la luna Tucuman, offers a fresh take on the Argentinean tango tradition. Notable for the contributions of Mexico’s famed electric guitarist Diego Garcia, known as “The Twanguero” for his embrace of cowboy, Hawaiian, and surf music, Tucuman went on to triumph at the 2013 Latin Grammys, winning El Cigala a third Grammy, his second for Best Tango. It is this landmark CD that will be the focus for El Cigala’s upcoming tours through the United States, Europe, Australia, and South America.

 

Edmar Castaleda trio - Sabroson

Not unlike other exceptional musicians who have transformed their lives through art, Castañeda’s journey has humble, inspiring beginnings. The son of a musician and a mother who nurtured Edmar’s obvious natural talents, he embraced the noble folkloric traditions of his native Colombia. The joropo dance classes he attended with his sister were a masterclass in movement, accompanied by the harp. In the mid-1990s, he moved to New York, and studied jazz trumpet, before returning to the harp. Today, on stages all over the world, it is remarkable how Edmar’s body engulfs his Colombian harp as he crafts almost unbelievable feats of cross- rhythms, layered with chordal nuances to rival even the most celebrated flamenco guitarists, and an incredible blend of musical influences.

"His music draws on the traditional joropo music of the grasslands he absorbed early, as well as tango, Brazilian and flamenco guitar, West African kora and virtuoso jazz pianists like Art Tatum. That's a fascinating mix, but his technique is the real astonishment. Castañeda juggles lead, rhythm and bass lines, using a variety of hard and soft string attacks to keep those voices distinct — all without giving up the groove." - NPR Music

"The Colombian plays the harp like hardly anyone else on earth. His hands, seemingly powered by two different people, produce a totally unique, symphonic fullness of sound, a rapid-fire of chords, balance of melodic figures and drive, served with euphoric Latin American rhythms, and the improvisatory freedom of a trained jazz musician...captivating virtuosity, but in no way only virtuosity for its own sake." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

"Mr. Castañeda strummed, plucked, rubbed, jabbed and pounded on his cobalt blue Llanera harp as he conjured different shaped notes, harmonic textures and steady bass rhythms from the instrument's 34 strings. About the only thing he didn't do was light it on fire." - Wall St Journal

Edmar Castaneda was born in 1978, in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. Since his move to the United States in 1994, he has taken New York and the world stage by storm with his virtuosic command of the harp - revolutionizing the way audiences and critics alike consider the instrument. A master of beautifully complex timing, lush colors and dynamic spirit, Edmar has been called “almost a world unto himself” -The New York Times.

Ester Rada - Nanu Ney

Rada is currently working on her debut album, after releasing her acclaimed first self-written and composed solo EP "Life Happens", which was produced by Israeli producers Kuti (Kutiman/Thru-You) and Sabbo (Soulico), at the beginning of 2013.
She gained worldwide popularity on a tour across Europe, the United States and Canada. She has recently performed at the Glastonbury Festival. She performed at the opening act of Alicia Keys' concert in Israel. Her music video "Life Happens" has been broadcast on MTV France, East Europe, and Israel, as well as on VH1 UK. Rada credits Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin as her musical influences, alongside Eryka Badu, Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott.

 

Hazmat Modine - Up & Rise

Hazmat Modine is a blues/folk/world /jazz musical group from New York. "Hazmat" is a portmanteau of "hazardous material", and "Modine" is the name of a company that manufactures commercial heaters but may be used to refer to the heater itself.
 

John Grant - Grey Tickles, Black Pressure

John Grant is an American singer-songwriter. Formerly associated with the Denver-based alternative rock band The Czars in the 1990s and early 2000s, he launched a career as a solo artist in 2010.

St Germain-  Real Blues

St Germain is the stage name of Ludovic Navarre, a French musician. His style has been described as being a combination of house and nu jazz music. 
Navarre's album Boulevard was released in July 1995 and has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. His United States debut, Tourist, was released in 2000 and sold 300,000 copies in the USA and 4 million copies worldwide.  Bob Marley, Toots & the Maytals, Miles Davis and Kool and the Gang are among Ludovic's early influences. He composed his first work under the name of Sub System with friend Guy Rabiller. He has released EPs under a number of aliases, among them Deepside, LN'S, Modus Vivendi, Nuages and Soofle.

St Germain is not associated with the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Café compilation series, though his song "Deep in It" is featured on its "Volume 1".
His song "Rose Rouge" was featured in the official movie trailer for Joss Whedon's 2013 Much Ado About Nothing.

His eponymous album, released on 9 October 2015, was recorded with the participation of African musicians, the album features traditional Malian instruments such as kora, balafon and n’goni, that mingle with electric guitars, pianos, saxophones and electronic loops. The first single, “Real Blues”, sets the voice of Lightnin’ Hopkins to the beat of wild, fiery drums and percussion.
The original single sleeve is decorated with a 3D mask conceived by Urban Art creator Gregos, known for his smiling and frowning faces stuck on walls throughout Paris and Europe.
St Germain is included in the line-up for Coachella 2016

To check out more : www.womad.co.nz

WOMAD 2016 - coffeebar breaks

All this month Groove will be playing bar breaks from the CoffeeBar Kid - featuring music and info about some of the artist coming to WOMAD 2016. 

So far we've done segments on John Grant, St Germain, Ester Rada, Spiro, Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, Tami Neilson, Louis Baker, Orange Blossom, Hazmat Modine.  But we'll be makin' more - so keep listening. 

Listen up to hear more - click open the player or look for us in the TuneIn Radio App (android or ITunes) Search for 'Groove 107.7FM'

www.womad.co.nz

St Germain goes down under

 

 

 

 

WOMAD 2016 HAZMAT MODINE - WADE SCHUMAN IV

The CoffeeBar Kid talks to Wade Schuman, harmonica player and founder of Hazmat Modine, the most exciting, original, explosive band you'll ever see! They're a maverick blues/folk/world fusion/jazz band from New York, founded in the late 1990s. Drawing from the rich soil of American music of the 1920s and 30s, right through to the 50s and 60s and blending elements of early blues, hokum jugband, swing, Klezmer, New Orleans R&B and Jamaican rocksteady, the band is fronted by two harmonicas which use call and response, harmony, melody and syncopated interweaving rhythms. The band includes tuba, guitar and percussion, claviola and Hawaaian steel guitar. Hazmat Modine’s sounds reflects musical influences ranging from avant-garde jazz to rockabilly and Western swing, to Middle Eastern, African and Hawaiian musical styles.

Of their unusual name, lead singer Wade Schuman says “HAZMAT is an American English word for Hazardous Materials, AKA dangerous materials, you see it on the sides of trucks or special trashcans. MODINE is the brand name for an industrial forced air heater unit, the kind that hangs down in garages and artists’ lofts … the company is in Muncie Indiana … they are both American words, but the sound of them together is rather exotic. People often think HAZMAT is Turkish. I thought Modine sounded a bit like a 1950s rock n roll band.” He also says this is an appropriate name for the band since they "blow a lot of hot air," including harmonicas, tubas and saxophones.

 

Click to read more

It's Festival Time. The Kid interviews Composer John Psathas

New Zealand has never witnessed a multi-layered world music collaboration like this before. John Psathas is no stranger to large-scale works but this is his most ambitious project yet.
Featuring 150 musicians from more than 20 countries, including Serj Tankian (Lebanon/Armenia/USA), Meeta Pandit (India) and Márta Sebestyén (Hungary), No Man’s Land brings together the descendants of opposing forces in World War I and reunites them in friendship and musical solidarity on the sites where their grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought a century ago.

Director Jasmine Millet and cinematographer Mathew Knight’s film of this epic global orchestra – playing a Psathas composition that leaps musical genres as it does borders, from folk to jazz to rock to classical – will be seen and heard in tandem with a select group of musicians performing live on stage.

The CoffeeBar Kid had a chat to John about the project

Check out the link here:

https://youtu.be/tSBM9laJxUM