The News Review:
- Ray Davies really gets us going at Byron blues festival
- Cachao Mambo’s Inventor Dies at 89
- These songs are our songs
- Free the music
- Review: Bluesfest NZ
- Miserable Exuberance From a Yin and Yang
- Hush Sound amplifies audience muffles fresh lyrics in Blues
Ray Davies really gets us going at Byron blues festival
NEWS.com.au – Mar 24, 2008
But Davies has been a renaissance man on record with his two recent solo albums and he included new material that shows his writing skills are as powerful as ever such as Working Man’s Cafe and After the Fall. For The Tourist – written about his near-death experience when he was shot in New rleans a few years ago – he donned his reversible jacket featuring the Stars and Stripes on one side and the Union Jack on the other. Davies was accompanied by a super-tight four-piece band with the tough lead guitar and ’60s organ sounds that suit his music so well. The crowd was already fired up but they went nuts for Lola one of the best concert singalong tunes of them all. Even after a hits-packed set he had plenty in store in the encore. Davies was a different kind of songwriter a sharp social observer who noted things happening on the street and created songs that were universally loved. Because in our imagination the streets of his town were the streets of our town too… The song was All Day and All of the Night. Then since it was a blues festival the band launched into a bluesy boogie that was a teasing intro to You Really Got Me. But Davies assured the crowd they weren’t about to mess it up ripped into high gear and delivered one of the greatest rock songs of them all with all the passion and intensity it deserved. Even 44 years after its release it sounded as vital as ever. The notable exception from the set was Waterloo Sunset but hearing Davies in such superb form no one was complaining. Stars need guitarsWHAT’S a blues and roots festival without guitars?In the Mojo tent Xavier Rudd Keith Urban and John Butler led the way on the opening night.
Cachao Mambo’s Inventor Dies at 89
New York Times – Mar 24, 2008
Cachao as he was universally known transformed the rhythm of Cuban music when he and his brother the pianist and cellist restes López extended and accelerated the final section of the stately Cuban danzón into the mambo. “My brother and I would say to each other ‘Mambea mambea ahí’ which meant to add swing to that part” he said in a 2006 interview with The Miami Herald. The springy mambo bass lines Cachao created in the late 1930’s — simultaneously driving and playful — became a foundation of modern Cuban music of the salsa that grew out of it and also of Latin-influenced rock ’n’ roll and rhythm-and-blues. For much of the 20th century Cachao’s innovations set the world dancing. In the late 1950’s he brought another breakthrough to Latin music with descargas: late-night Havana jam sessions that merged Afro-Cuban rhythms Cuban songs and the convolutions of jazz. The mixture of propulsion and exploration in those recordings has influenced salsa and jazz musicians ever since. Cachao’s 80-year performing career dated back to the silent movie era… The springy mambo bass lines Cachao created in the late 1930’s — simultaneously driving and playful — became a foundation of modern Cuban music of the salsa that grew out of it and also of Latin-influenced rock ’n’ roll and rhythm-and-blues. For much of the 20th century Cachao’s innovations set the world dancing. In the late 1950’s he brought another breakthrough to Latin music with descargas: late-night Havana jam sessions that merged Afro-Cuban rhythms Cuban songs and the convolutions of jazz. The mixture of propulsion and exploration in those recordings has influenced salsa and jazz musicians ever since. Cachao’s 80-year performing career dated back to the silent movie era. Born in Havana in 1918 he came from a family of musicians and studied classical music. He began his public career at 8 years old playing bongos in a children’s group.
These songs are our songs
Sacramento Bee – Mar 24, 2008
He acknowledges that he’s been “defined” by what he did at Woodstock in 1969 – something about that cheer and the “ne two three what are we fighting for?” lyric to “Fixin’ To Die Rag” – and is seen as a political type who spreads his views as he travels around the country. “But I don’t see myself as that” McDonald says. “Protest is part of it but I do lots of different kinds of music – spiritual dance rock ‘n’ roll blues. “And some of the subjects I’m interested in – like the military family (McDonald spent three years in the U. Navy in the early 1960s and has devoted much time to issues involving Vietnam War veterans) – are not fashionable in the progressive community or the right. “As for Guthrie McDonald points out that “he was in the merchant marine during the Second World War and was torpedoed three times.
Free the music
International Herald Tribune – Mar 24, 2008
law would mean that everything as far back as the early 1920s would have to be licensed. The implications for Europe are clear: no more 1950s classical gems on Naxos; no more old jazz blues French chansons or Cuban salsa on specialist labels like Timeless Classics Document Frog Frémeaux and JSP. Everything from Paderewski to Edith Piaf will be back under lock and key. Given the tiny profit margins that specialist producers routinely work with the bureaucratic hassles of clearing copyright on obscure vintage recordings simply won't be worth the additional effort and expense. McCreevy claims that there will be a use-it-or-lose-it provision in the new EU legislation forcing extended-copyright owners who do not publish back-catalogue items to allow artists to switch labels. This is fine for living artists but there is no indication of how this will guarantee third-party access to music by dead artists… Given the tiny profit margins that specialist producers routinely work with the bureaucratic hassles of clearing copyright on obscure vintage recordings simply won't be worth the additional effort and expense. McCreevy claims that there will be a use-it-or-lose-it provision in the new EU legislation forcing extended-copyright owners who do not publish back-catalogue items to allow artists to switch labels. This is fine for living artists but there is no indication of how this will guarantee third-party access to music by dead artists.
Review: Bluesfest NZ
New Zealand Herald – Mar 24, 2008
Well basking in the music at least – the festival title rather misrepresented the broad artist line-up which also encompassed roots R&B indie rock alt-country soul and more. The Australians may well be continuing to steal our musical things but in return they have over the years at least been providing NZ audiences with new festival opportunities. Bluesfest NZ is an extension of the Byron Bay Bluesfest circuit which includes like-minded events in Victoria (Point Nepean) Tasmania (Southern Roots) and the original Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival in NSW. Whitianga certainly seems an unlikely venue for any large-scale festival of this kind but with so many people holidaying in the region and a local audience otherwise starved of international live music it does makes sense. More importantly perhaps the local district council and general community are evidently supportive.
Miserable Exuberance From a Yin and Yang
New York Times – Mar 24, 2008
Meanwhile CDs shipped to stores have apparently been copied in high quality and uploaded. The album has been leaked across the Internet for days. A plan catapulted toward chaos — aesthetically that fits the Raconteurs’ music. The songs are tautly constructed; some like “Rich Kid Blues” “These Stones Will Shout” and “Consoler of the Lonely” leap suddenly from riff to riff. And there’s nothing sloppy about the band which keeps dynamics and details in mind even when it’s bashing away. Yet the Raconteurs sound as if they could go off the rails at any second. The vocals verge on mania the guitars and keyboards thrive on distortion and Mr.
Hush Sound amplifies audience muffles fresh lyrics in Blues
Daily Cardinal – Mar 24, 2008
Where she once sounded breathy and ethereal she has pulled in depth and strength to give her singing a bluesy husky feel. The change brings the music from pretty to powerful especially coupled with more predominant piano on many of the tracks. ne great track that shows this difference is ?The Boys Are Too Refined? which combines a characteristically beautiful piano intro and Greta?s new husky vocals for a hybrid style between old and new. A disappointment is the departure from fantastical creative lyrics in favor of the more traditional love and heartbreak. n a behind-the-scenes video included on the bonus track version of the album (it?s not really worth it by the way) Salpeter sums up the new songs well describing them as having more ?depth? while being less ??himsical? than past tracks. For fans looking for a familiar older sound from the group both ?As You Cry? and ?Not Your Concern? have the same sound as many tracks from the first two albums.