Be My Guest: Will Rathbone reviews Kasai Masai!

October 18, 2010 Daniel Harding 1 Comment

An occasional series featuring guest posts and contributions: this week, Drama student and saxophonist Will Rathbone reviews Kasai Masai’s lunchtime concert.

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Kasai Masai are a 5-piece band based in London and led by Nickens Nkoso. Named after a region in Congo, their sound is a very authentic African one, full of infectious rhythms and driving guitar hooks.

Playing at the Gulbenkien Theatre as part of the Lunchtime Concert series last Monday, they opened their set with “Esale”, a piece with a gentle Bossa Nova feel to it, and it immediately had the audience tapping and nodding along. Throughout the set, as I looked around the auditorium, everyone was bobbing their head, caught up in the effortless groove that the band had. Nickens’ voice is a powerful one, at one point during the song he held a very long note, leaning away from the microphone so as not to deafen us; such was the power he could get from his voice.

They continued with “Omela”, a song about a boy who gets lost in the forest but meets a bear who helps him to get home. This song was more upbeat and featured a catchy chorus. Every member of the band was continually moving the beat, the bass and drums pushing, the djembe a constant pulse. It showed the life in their songs, with Kawele Mutimanwa’s beautifully clean guitar sound throwing out riff after riff while the tenor sax floated solos over it all.

With both “Jambo” and “Muana Muke”, the audience got involved. We were given a vocal line to sing and encouraged to clap along and join the music. I’m often not a fan of rhythmic clapping from an audience, as it can often drift in and out of time, however here, such was the strength of the groove, and the tightness of the band, that the claps stayed in time, and the audience sang.

“We call this music, happy music”, said Nickens. I couldn’t put it better myself. Watching him dance for the finale, everyone was grinning. A really great show.

Sponsors of the Lunchtime Concert series

Was It Good For You ?

Was It Good For You: Keri Sherman.

October 15, 2010 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

Continuing the series profiling former musical students at the University of Kent. This week, Keri Sherman.

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When were you at Kent ?

Autumn 2003 – Spring 2006

What subject did you study ?

Law & Business Administration

What occupation are you now engaged in ?

I am currently a Barrister in The Bahamas.

If music is not your profession, do you participate in any musical experiences now ?

Yes, I rejoined the Bahamas National Youth Choir {a touring Choir and the official national choir of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas} in the Fall of 2008. In addition to performing with the Choir as a chorister and soloist, I have begun freelancing, as it were, as a classical soloist in New Providence. As a freelancer I have had the opportunity to sing for the past two years at the Lyford Cay International Golf Tournament.

How were you involved in music whilst at Kent ?

I received private voice lessons from Sophie Meikle, who is amongst other things a musical assistant at the University, from January of 2004 – 2005. At Sophie’s urging I joined the University Chorus in the fall of 2005 and took part in the Christmas concert at the Canterbury Cathedral. With the University Chorus Itackled singing in Hebrew for the first time when we performed Leonard Bernstein’s work, the Chichester Psalms in the spring of 2006.

What did you gain from your University music experience, and has this helped you in any way since leaving Kent ?

My University music experience made me comfortable as a performer and gave me confidence in my ability as a soloist. And it goes without saying but I received invaluable training and advice from Sophie which has helped me to blossom a musician.

What was your most memorable musical experience at Kent ?

I would say my first performance as a soloist at a student concert in Keynes I believe. I trembled like a leaf through most of the song “Caro Mio Ben”, but I got through it and it was an exhilarating experience!

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If you’re an alumnus and would like to be featured, get in touch via the Music Department website: we’d love to hear from you!

Arts and the Consumer, Notes on Music

Cutting it: definitive recordings ?

October 11, 2010 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

A post on music blog Classical Iconoclast entitled ‘Mahler for Morons’ posed the question a while back – is there such a thing as a definitive recording of a Mahler symphony ? This set me thinking: can there ever be a definite recording of any classical piece ?

Scholarship and performance practice are ever-changing, and what seemed appropriate sixty or seventy years ago may no longer be seen as such.

Composers who conduct their own works, like Stravinsky or Britten, might be thought to create an authoritative recording by virtue of the fact that they are realising their own compositions. Stravinsky made several recordings, but each is different from the other: even composers, it seems, change their minds about their own pieces.

The portamento-riddled orchestral recordings at the start of the twentieth century now seem dreadful; tastes in the expressive nature of orchestral playing have changed. Even the instruments of the orchestra evolve; the change from gut- to steel-strung instruments offering broader possibilities. Tempi have become faster; the funereal Furtwangler has been replaced by the white-knuckle ride of Gardiner or Norrington.

Voices change too, singing styles fall in and out of favour – the thick, fruity tones of Joan Sutherland, the ethereal purity of Emma Kirkby or the light-footed coloratura of Cecilia Bartoli all moving in and out of favour.

The drive for authenticity or an historically-informed approach sees the forces used in Renaissance and Baroque music especially being condensed; one-to-a-part choruses in the Bach Passion settings or Tallis masses, single-player performances of Baroque concerti. The drive for historically-informed performance has reached its tendrils even into early twentieth-century works by Elgar – it’s a monster that looms ever closer on the tail of contemporary music.

It seems unlikely, then, that there can ever be a definitve edition or an authoritative recording of a classical work; as scholarship moves forward, as performance practice changes and attitudes towards playing styles evolve, realisations of pieces also change.

Perhaps, though, that’s a good thing.

Keeping It Real: reviews.

Dispatches from the front-line: Open Day

October 9, 2010 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

It’s 9am; here we are, present and correct, the ‘Making Music’ stand is ready, resources are lined up, computer is plugged in, linked up and ready to go: another University Open Day is here.

Armed with coffee and an assortment of confectionery courtesy of the Director of Music’s penchant for chocolate, we’ll be talking to visitors about the musical opportunities on offer at Kent and the Music Scholarships scheme. If you’re an instrumentalist or singer and want to carry on with your music-making, continue with music lessons, and have fun making music as part of a University community, then you’re in the right place!

We’ll be keeping you up-dated throughout the day as to how it’s going.

11am; at least fifteen visitors to the stand so far this morning, coming from Devon, Surrey, Cambridge, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire and Colchester; singers, pianists, a clarinettist, a jazz sax-player, a couple of kit-drummers, a trumpeter and a cellist. 2011 is looking very good already!

11.30am: a couple of improvising jazz sax-players have just come to the stand, leading to great conversations about Sonny Stitt and David Sanborn; plus a kit-drummer into Prog Rock prompting a chat about Muse, Avenged Sevenfold, Pink Floyd and Genesis (early Genesis, that is) and the whole prog Canterbury scene. A new ProgRock Soc next year, anyone ?

1pm: the last hour or so has seen a sudden rush of visitors, now over thirty-three have come to the table; so far, the prize for Longest Distance Travelled Today goes to a pianist from Luxembourg; recently we’ve seen people from Devon, Dorset, Bicester, Norwich, Coventry, Reading and Suffolk. We interrupt this news up-date for luncheon: back shortly.

(2pm: A bit of a lunchtime lull meant I could read further depressing news over on Tom Service’s classical music blog in The Guardian about funding cuts: hot on the heels of announcements about cuts in Scotland and the Netherlands comes news about wage-cuts to members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. With funding cuts looming here in the UK, the outlook is rather gloomy: I shouldn’t have bothered, it’s getting more depressing by the week.)

3pm: visitors from Herts, Surrey, Leicester, Wiltshire and Suffolk. A fair few from Norwich, too: perhaps they should have had a shuttle-bus to bring them all ? A lot of enquiries about opportunities for jazz, from a number of improvising saxophonists; excellent. And at least three double-bass players as well: excellent again.

3.45pm: we’ve had over fifty visitors now, including a guitarist, a cellist, flautist, and a bag-pipe player. No, you read that last one correctly, and no, I didn’t make it up. ‘Twill be a rich and varied musical community next year, potentially. The last few visitors are looming towards the desk, so I’m signing off: safe return journeys to all those who’ve come to Kent today, we look forward to seeing you in 2011. I’m now going to go and buy some throat-sweets…

Was It Good For You ?

Was It Good For You: Mick Norman.

October 8, 2010 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

Continuing the series profiling musical alumni of the University of Kent. This week, Mick Norman.

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When were you at Kent ?

I started my studies at Kent in 2004 and graduated in 2007 but I’m still here…albeit as a member of staff!

What subject did you study ?

Law

What occupation are you now engaged in ?

I am currently working as the Faculty Learning Technologist for Social Sciences at the University of Kent…which in English means that I support Schools at the University using technology to enhance learning and teaching in the classroom and online. It’s a complete departure from my degree but I absolutely love it!

If music is not your profession, do you participate in any musical experiences now ?

I’m currently a member of the University Symphony Orchestra, playing second violin, as well as performing with the University Camerata (Chamber Orchestra) and I occasionally play for local choirs when they require an orchestra.

I also play electric violin in my band, Belleville (http://www.bellevillemusic.co.uk), and for my Church worship band.

How were you involved in music whilst at Kent ?

As well as playing for the University Symphony Orchestra and Camerata, I was also awarded a bursary which allowed me to continue having lessons with some excellent teachers. In my final year I was the Concert Assistant for the lunchtime concerts.

I was also part of the Music Society committee for the duration of my studies, as joint Social Secretary for one year and Publicity Officer for my final year. This involved helping to organise many musical events, including the Cathedral concerts and the first ever (and subsequent) ArtsFest!

What did you gain from your University music experience, and has this helped you in any way since leaving Kent ?

The wide range musical opportunities at Kent mean that music can become such a huge part of your life and your University experience as a whole. Without the musical activities I took part in, my University experience would have been very different one so I think the most important thing I gained from my University music experience is an amazing three years at Kent that I will look back on with fond memories for the rest of my life.

Has my University music experience helped me since leaving Kent? Well, you could say that I haven’t really left, but in the spirit of the question I would say that my University music experience helps me every single day. In fact, I have so many examples that I’m going to write a separate post for the Music Matters blog!

What was your most memorable musical experience at Kent ?

I’m going to cheat and claim two most memorable moments, my first being Verdi’s Requiem in Canterbury Cathedral which was an amazing experience and one I’ll never forget: Full Symphony Orchestra, off-stage trumpets high up in the organ loft, 200+ chorus and a bass drum taller than me! The second is watching the fireworks display over the Cathedral with friends after the Prom concert at ArtsFest and then sitting on the grass between Rutherford and Eliot until the early hours of the morning.

What would you say to current musical students at the University ?

Get involved in everything you can! You’ll make some great friends along the way and have memories you’ll be looking back on for years to come.

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If you’re an alumnus and would like to be featured, get in touch via the Music Department website: we’d love to hear from you!

Notes on Music, Now Hear This!

Percussion Play: Ionisation

October 5, 2010 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

Varèse’s Ionisation.

Pierre Boulez conducting the Ensemble InterContemporain.

Playing around with different kinds of pitch (fixed, variable or indefinite) and rhythm, Ionisation was the first piece written for percussion ensemble alone. Nicholas Slonimsky, who conducted the premiere in 1933, talks about the composer in an archived recorded interview here from 1973. He describes Varèse as ”a huge, French desert.”

It definitely gets funky at around the 2-minute mark.

Notes on Music

Silent Night: Cage for Christmas no.1 ?

October 1, 2010 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

As reported in The Guardian yesterday, efforts are already underway to fix this year’s Christmas no.1: although this time, it’s a piece with a difference.

A campaign on Facebook is attempting to drive John Cage’s notorious 4′ 33″ to the top seasonal spot this December, in order to confound the usual hopes of chart-topping crooning from the Simon Cowell X-Factor stable.

I’m up for it: who’s with me ?

Jazz Booth, Now Hear This!

Neglected Masterpieces: Manu Katche’s ‘Neighbourhood’

September 29, 2010 Daniel Harding 1 Comment

Very few albums, in my opinion, match Kind of Blue, Miles Davis’ legendary 1959 recording. But I think I have finally found one.

Drummer-turned-leader Manu Katché’s Neighbourhood displays a quite awe-inspiring line-up of jazz legends (a factor so significant that the album cover is simply a list of players on the recording, which shows you the stature afforded the musicians); trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, saxophonist Jan Garbarek, with pianist Marcin Wasilewski and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz from Stanko’s own quartet, not to mention Katché himself.

Katché is a masterful and versatile dummer, having played alongside pop icons Peter Gabriel and Sting as well as being a colossus amonst jazz drummers – previous credits include Garbarek’s I Took Up The Runes, also for ECM. Neighbourhood is his debut recording as leader for the label, and has something of the timeless quality that made Kind of Blue so special: delicate, sparse textures that allow the music room to breathe, colourful harmonies that are leisurely in their exploration of the potential of modality and the twelve-bar blues. The indebtedness to Davis’s album is perhaps most obvious on Miles Away which employs a similar bass-line and 6/8 rhythmic feel to All Blues.

Here’s a video for ‘Number One’ from the album:

There’s a simplicity about the music on the album that speaks of great profundity; as the leader and the drummer, Katché is completely alive to every nuance offered by Wasilewski’s delicate artistry, Garbarek’s plangent melodic lines and Stanko’s lyricism. There’s a relaxed funkiness to ‘Take Off And Land’ that still manages to generate a compelling rhythmic drive.

Not many albums can stand next to Kind of Blue: but this one, perhaps, just might.

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