Rare chance to catch virtuoso pair in action
ROOTS WITH ALAN NICHOL
THE virtuoso combination of bass and piano leads the charge on this week’s roots music scene. The sublime talents of Cameroon-born bassist Richard Bona, and Cubanborn pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, will light up Sage Gateshead’s Hall 2 on Monday night.
Both men are now based in the USA, albeit on opposite coasts, but the geographical divide is as nothing when the two musicians can communicate so effectively through their instruments.
Richard Bona is capable of getting a tune out of virtually any instrument he hears. Born in rural Cameroon, Bona was playing music from an unfeasibly early age and, at one early stage, actually fashioned a guitar using the recycled brake cables from an old bicycle. Those early musical excursions did not include jazz – he played the local dance music such as bikutsi and makossa. That is until the owner of a club in which he performed introduced him to a record by Jaco Pastorius (virtuoso bassist with the jazz fusion band Weather Report) and then everything changed for Bona.
One Los Angeles Times critic later commented on Bona’s learning experience when he said: “Imagine an artist with Jaco Pastorius’s virtuosity, George Benson’s vocal fluidity, Joao Gilberto’s sense of song and harmony, all mixed up with African culture. Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you Richard Bona!”
Bona later replaced the iconic Pastorius in Joe Zawinul’s band and he has played with African stars from Mano Dibango and Salif Keita to Pat Metheny, plus Harry Belafonte (as his music director), Chaka Khan, Bobby McFerrin and others.
Alfredo Rodriguez was born in Havana in 1985, a child prodigy and son of a popular TV entertainer/ singer also called Alfredo Rodriguez. Alfredo Junior studied classical piano during the day (at the two foremost music institutions in Cuba) while playing popular music in his father’s orchestra at night.
Then, 20 years after his birth, he was introduced to Quincey Jones after an appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Shortly after that, with the help of Jones, he relocated to the USA, where he has been compared to Keith Jarrett for his melodic invention.
The combination of two masterful talents is a real scoop for Sage Gateshead – it is the only UK show aside from London’s Union Chapel.
The same Quayside venue also has eclectic Welsh musician Gruff Rhys on Tuesday night (Hall 2). Over the years Rhys has worked in a range of styles, from folk to electro-pop, and collaborated with Super Furry Animals, funksters De La Soul, Gorillaz and even formed a small jazz combo a few years ago for the film score of Set Fire to the Stars (about Dylan Thomas).
Wednesday brings the Unthanks back to home turf and Sage Gateshead with their latest project – The Emily Bronte Song Cycle. The words darkly and passionate could apply to the work of both the Unthanks and the second youngest of the Bronte brood.
The music was originally recorded at the Bronte Parsonage at Haworth in West Yorkshire, “out on the wiley, windy moors”.
Thursday night at Sage Gateshead offers the chance to catch some emerging country music talent when a programme called Introducing Nashville showcases live performances from Danielle Bradbery, Rachel Wammack, Travis Denning and Jake Morrell. Nashville may sprout talented musicians like mushrooms, but this is a chance to catch four of them early in their career.
Across at the Cluny 2 on Thursday, London Americana quintet Curse of Lono get the chance to promote their most recent album, 4am And Counting, which made several chart entries on release. The record is a
collection of the band’s more rootsbased material from their first two albums.
It presents pared-back versions of the material which, in original form, sat between harmony-strong Americana and gothic-rock.
“We wanted to capture the vibe we get when we’re jamming late at night,” explained frontman Felix Bechtolsheimer. “So we booked a couple of days in the studio, invited a few friends down and pressed record.
“Toe Rag Studios is an incredible place. There are no computers. There’s no technology to tempt you. We just played everything completely live like we do when we’re messing around in our rehearsal room, so what you hear is exactly what was played.”
The resultant recordings conjured images of a Cowboy Junkies meets Rolling Stones (Beggars Banquet era) collision.
Opening the show is singer-songwriter John Murry from Tupelo, Mississippi. Now resident in Ireland, he boasts a number of criticallyregarded albums, The Graceless Age (produced by Cowboy Junkies’ Michael Timmins) and the followup, A Short History of Decay.
Both records were selected in “best of” lists by the likes of Mojo, Uncut and other influential journals, and even elicited “masterpiece” comments from some of them.
The night before that attractive double-header, there is a show in the same Cluny 2 room by Grammynominated Canadian singer/songwriter, Rose Cousins. Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she has released eight albums over the last 17 years and has won Canadian Folk Music Awards and Juno Awards in roots/ folk fields.
Wednesday night in Durham Old Cinema Laundrette brings a welcome return to the region for Christine Collister, who on this occasion is in the company of Australian acoustic guitarist, Michael Fix. He was at one time mentored by the peerless (and tireless) guitar-maestro Tommy Emmanuel ,when based in Sydney.
Collister’s voice has been a classy presence on the roots music scene since the 1980s and it is pleasing to hear that it is pitched once again alongside a top-quality guitarist.
Finally, West Country band Port Erin play a gig at Bobiks (upstairs at the Punch Bowl pub in Jesmond) tomorrow night. They were last up in these parts in the company of Nick Harper for his Lies Lies Lies tour a couple of years ago. For this visit they have Durham-based Girl From Winter Jargon opening the show.