João Vasco and Eduardo Jordão at the Crawford

Cork Orchestral Society presents… João Vasco (piano) and Eduardo Jordão (piano) 1:10pm August 16th 2007 Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork There was a teensy mix-up with the programme and the first piece was left off so we were all under the impression that the concert opened with the Military Marche and were all clapping in between movements. This is all a preamble to say that if the notes here seem a bit confused, they are no more so than I was when my programme ended and the concert continued. It did help that I knew a couple of the pieces beforehand but that left me with a whole lot of untangling of the pieces which went before and, frankly, it was beyond me until some light was shed by the COS. I will therefore not be what you might call detailed in my feelings on the interpretation of the individual pieces. Instead this will be more an overall impression. At a piano gig or recital, you generally find yourself either able to see the hands or see the face(s). There are pros and cons to both views. This time I could see their faces and, believe you me, I felt a little bit sorry, throughout the performance, for those who could not. They were entertainment alone. I mean, forget the gorgeously expressed and controlled playing. There was a fabulous rapport between these two young men and there were lovely comedic touches, especially in Satie’s La Belle Excentrique (I’m pretty sure). They were fun to watch and pretty damn near flawless in their performance. I do hope these two come back for a repeat in the not too distant future. Programme: Mozart , W. A. Sonata in D Major K.381 Schubert, F. Military Marche op. 51 no1 & Characteristic March op. 121 no1 Satie, E. Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire & Parade & La Belle Excentrique Can Can Grande Mondain Benjamin, A. Jamaican Rumba “Zez” Confrey Dizzy Fingers Joplin, S. Stoptime Rag Lamb, J. Champagne Rag Encore - Oh Danny Boy

Pete Courtney (with Rebecca Collins)

Cork Music Collective presents Pete Courtney (Rebecca Collins – support) Upstairs at The Roundy Thursday, 16th August, 9:30pm A quick note on Ms Collins – she is a little gem. A real song crafter and what a voice! Husky and soaring, singing songs of love, loss and temptation, I could see her making a killing in Nashville, making cowboys cry into their beers. And now to Mr Courtney. It is a pity that the gig wasn’t better attended. One, it’s always good to see a large appreciative audience, rather than a smaller one, and, two, because the smaller the audience, the more likely it is to be filled with friends & family. This does not really allow for an accurate gauging of the gig as this kind of crowd is going to be more pre-disposed to showing appreciation for what’s going on on-stage than an other audience. In addition, a small crowd of general well-wishers can result in a gig which is more of a cosy in-joke than anything else. It is to this that I am putting down the 3 minutes during which Mr Courtney stood on stage doing nothing more than tuning a hand-held radio in and out of stations. Maybe this is his thing and I missed the joke. Maybe. Overall, I found the sound to be too dense and layered. There was one moment where he left the stage and, sitting on a bar stool, did a cover of a John Martyn song and it was beautiful. Simple, clear, lovely. Then it was back to the stage and the layering and the noise over which his voice was sometimes hard to hear. I don’t think I got a good view of Mr Courtney – he has a good voice and certainly can play. Why was it then that I could not get the image out of my head of him playing to crowds outside Covent Garden as part of street theatre? The Nashville comment wasn’t a joke, by the way. Seriously! You’re young, pretty, have a good, good voice and can write one hell of a love song – Nashville Ho!

Hadasha live at The Roundy

Cork Music Collective presents: Hadasha 9pm, 26th July, Upstairs at The Roundy Tonight’s CMC Presents gig in the Roundy was Hadasha, playing from John Zorn’s work, Masada. Hadasha are a relatively new group, having played together only once before this. However, that must have been some gig as half the crowd here tonight was made up of audience members from that earlier gig. Two gigs and already they have groupies – not bad! The start was simple enough – a 3-note bass riff under wandering guitar, which changed imperceptibly to be a simple guitar riff under the bass. It took a little time for it to ripple through the crowd that the gig had started but by the time the kaleidoscope of sound, which was the second number, took off, so did the gig and the crowd was hooked. And a liquid sax solo leads into rocking kosher funk. Masada or The Masada Book is a group of over 200 songs, which started as a group written for the soundtrack of the film Thieve’s Quartet. To quote Zorn himself, and to give you some sort of handle on what was being played here tonight, “The idea with Masada is to produce a sort of radical Jewish music, a new Jewish music which is not the traditional one in a different arrangement, but music for the Jews of today.” The result is what this reviewer can only describe as a snake charmer at a Jewish wedding. Work with me here. It’s swirling, hypnotic, throbbing, languid… These are snake charmers with rhythm, with a backbeat you can dance to, albeit a swirling, swaying dance, but you will applaud at the end. Hell, if you’re anything like last night’s crowd, you’ll be a’whoopin’ and a’hollerin’ too. Like any good wedding, this gig starts off sedate and gets noisier and stroppier as it progresses but unlike a good wedding, it retains a structure and coherency. It’s different, I’ll grant them that. It’s also good. Really good. They will be playing the Tiki Lounge and the Jazz Festival in the not too dim and distant future. Check these guys out! Hadasha: Gary Baus (saxaphone) Andrea Bonino (guitar) Matteo Salafrica (bass) Tomas Gall (drums)