FAB Club Guest Night
27thOctober 2005
review by Liz Montgomery
The good news was that it was the warmest October evening in over 30 years – the bad news was that the M25 had thrown one of its periodic tantrums and half our artistes – and our compere, the lovely John Barden – had prolonged and frustrating journeys to get to us.
Fortunately for us they all persisted – and we were treated to over 2 hours of breathtaking and entrancing world class music in our little piece of Thurrock .
Zoox opened each of the sessions. Only formed in April 2005, this trio of classically trained and gifted musicians,
Linda Game, Becky Menday and Jo May, brought us a series of beautiful and engaging pieces, some modern, some traditional and some composed by themselves. The combination of instruments they each play – various strings, wind and percussion – is itself unusual. They use them to create rich and emotive textures. Have you ever heard a contra-bassoon playing against a fiddle, backed by north African style drumming? They create truly magical combinations of sounds that held us all in their spell.
On top of this, they are really nice people, and so modest about their performances. And they SMILE when they are playing – so they are clearly enjoying the whole thing too.
Running through the pieces they played just emphasizes how extraordinary this trio are (is?)
#1 – “Coffee” – a French Canadian piece, with a strong traditional feel, weaving together the fiddle and the soprano sax. Linda later told me that this, and their closing piece comes from The Portland Collection, which seems like something worth investigating. I looked this up on the web and it is a collection of contra dance pieces from Ireland Scotland North America . This set the pace as it showed off their musical skills in an understated but immediately engaging way.
#2 “Two Fat Ladies” – We were told this was originally written by Jo on the glockenspiel. This number actually led off with the soprano sax, and was full of contrasts and humour, (but no glockenspiel!) and had the tightest end I think I have ever heard in a number!
#3 “Glen Arm” (Steaphan Hannigan) /”Saoirse” (Gerry Diver) -
This was the first time Zoox had performed this to an audience. I think this was my favourite, but I’m a bit of a softie for anything with a Gaelic feel to it. It started off with the bass whistle (I think) and fiddle creating eerie, wistful Celtic sounds, and gradually folded in complex drum beats. The piece had great dynamics and was very soulful.
#4 “Gravel Walk”/”John Nees” – A change in pace from the previous number, and the first outing of the contrabassoon in the evening (is this really a folk club?). This instrument is truly extraordinary, creating a reedy rumbly bass sound, and looks very medieval. This piece started off with an almost central African feel (it made me think of elephants in the jungle for some reason) then switched to lighter and complex passages with whistle and violin, as ever intertwined with the creative percussion work of Jo May.
#5 “The Bread Machine” – Opening the second half of the set, this piece started with a solo lead from Linda on mandolin, breaking into a very north African riff with Jo’s percussion and Becky on that contrabassoon again. Written by Linda, this was complex and lilting, and really showed of the counter point work that is central to their style.
#6 “Dragging the Bow” – Linda told us that she used to play this for a Lancashire clog dancer. This was a great bit of syncopated fun, with more than passing nods to Stephan Grapelli. I felt they really enjoyed playing this, although I suspect it’s a lot harder to play than they made it look.
#7 “Wind that shakes the Barley” – A traditional Irish tune given the Zoox treatment. Rather than using a traditional Irish drum (which they had with them), the back beat was provided on a tabla like instrument. The overall effect between fiddle, soprano sax and whistle, was sweet and light.
#8 “Catharsis” (Amy Cann) – Oh, the last number, what a shame. This was another French Canadian fiddle tune, with soprano sax and more fascinating drumming. The opening section was mournful and slow, full of autumn leaves and mists, then moved upbeat with lots of interesting drums and a brilliant slide at one point. And another of their incredibly tight finishes. I must go and learn about contra dancing.
We were all delighted to hear that they have agreed to come back and play for us as headline act on the last Thursday in April 2006
Paul Downes , our lead artiste for the evening, provided us with more brilliant entertainment. We were very lucky he made in on the day, as the previous Saturday he had had a nasty motorcycle accident – “blame the cat’s eye” – resulting in badly bruised ribs. It was the first time he had played or sung since then, and during his two sets he discovered other bits that hurt which he had not realised were damaged.
Like Zoox, Paul has a tremendous musical heritage. His musical liaisons include Show of Hands, Phil Beer, The (legendary) Arizona Smoke Revue, Pete Seeger and the Joyce Gang.
But we had the unadulterated Paul Downes. A real treat – a stunning acoustic guitarist and a velvet pure voice, even with sore ribs (soothed with a little of mine hosts good ale – purely medicinal). And his stories, jokes and links between numbers add to the whole experience, too.
He took us on a rollercoaster of songs, instrumentals, modern and traditional compositions, bringing together contrasting styles effortlessly.
#1 “A Long Way to Go”. Warming up gently, Paul encouraged us to join in the chorus. But we were a bit wimpy on this – shame on you audience. The arrangement for the song was beautiful, and with amazingly delicate and complex fingering. A very impressive number to open with.
#2 “Driving at the Moon” Claiming this instrumental would help him drive the accident demons out, this number had a great story behind it. Written 4-5 years ago he had been struggling with a name even when he was on the way to the first performance of the tune. As he commented, songs often suggest their titles easily as they have words – but for instrumental pieces it’s harder. He had been on his way to Gillingham , and driving down the M26 eastbound, on February 7, he and other motorists were surprised by a lunar eclipse taking place in front of them. “I was surrounded by about 5 rear end collisions…” So the title created itself. A great acoustic piece with sensitive use of harmonics – in the best modern British style.
#3 “Peggy and the Soldier” – This is a great traditional English folk song (if a rather non PC nowadays as it centres on wife beating and insubordination), and Paul has put a great modern arrangement to it, moving the piece on.
#4 “Exile” [Steve Knightley] - Paul mixes modern and traditional folk and acoustic numbers seamlessly. This is an old Show of Hands number, which came out of collaboration with a Chilean band.
A haunting and nostalgic piece, written then for the Chileans in exile from their home as a result of the Pinochet regime, but which could equally apply to any exile today..
#5 “The Glory of Love” [Mick Ryan] Moving up pace this was the only unaccompanied number Paul performed, and had us all laughing. A saucy song about husbands, wives and fecundity, in the best tradition. What a great voice!
#6 “Tomorrow if not today” [Ian Chesterman] – Did you know that the original bass player from the Strawbs has a brother who now lives in Chester Road Cyprus
#7 “There but for fortune” [Phil Ochs] – Rounding off the first set, Paul moved further into the protest music repertoire. Protest music is seeing a great revival. Paul suggested that shortly we will be watching “The Three Tenors sing the Billy Bragg Songbook”…and we’ll be able to buy the CD of Golden Protest Hits Vol 8. Setting such seditious thoughts aside, the audience joined in the chorus (and some of the verses) of this great song, powerfully performed.
#8 “Minuet in G” [Fernando Sor] – The second part of Pauls performance started with a surprise. A classical piece played on steel strings and with a thumb pick? John Williams eat your heart out – this was a tremendous performance worthy of the classicists.
#9 “Black is the colour” [Traditional] – Next we had a wonderful version of this traditional Scottish tune, although Paul revealed he had been challenged on this origin when touring in the US Appalachians … More fabulous picking, and an emotional and evocative performance. No problem getting us to sing along to this one. Hard to pick a favourite for the evening out of Pauls two sets, but this was probably my fave, by a whisker.
#10 “Angie”[Davey Graham}/”Cocaine Lil” - A great, and irreverent, adaptation of the instrumental Angie by flipping into “Cocaine ‘Lil”. We were all singing along now!
#11 “Ballad of Cursed Anna” [Jonathan Kelly] – Requested by Claudine, this revisits the classic European folk fables about youth and the betrayal of age. A great story song, and another haunting arrangement.
#12 “The Moth” – This is a love song – of sorts. We were all engrossed in this piece with its poetic words, and the revelation that the “flame” the moth was drawn to was a woman two timing her husband.
#13 “The coming rains” [Bruce Cockburn]– Already its 11 o’clock . Just one more number unless we can get him to do an encore. We were treated to more amazing guitar technique, and despite the ribs and (now) sore arms and hands, his voice is just getting better and better. This is set in Mozambique
#14 “Come and be a soldier” [Mick Ryan] – A rousing end to the evening, supposedly a recruiting song played on the mandolin, with possibly the longest and most complicated chorus to remember. We had just about remembered it when the last one was different – and very challenging!
What a brilliant evening. So much great music. The next guest night will find this a very tough session to live up to.
I’m off to Paul Downes website to buy a CD or two… and hopefully Zoox will have one out soon too.
Liz Montgomery
