performingartsincornwall

Well here I am at my first Womad and on the first full day I am looking forward to hearing the veteran Mozambique singer Humberto Carols Bendica.   A veteran 70 year old marrabenta vocalist who started out as a lounge lizard singer in colonial Portuguese in the 60s…on independence and the emergence of a distinctive marrabenta style he became lead singer in Orchestra Star de Mocambique.    Sounds like a real great groove to enjoy on the @BBCRadio3 Charlie Gillet stage ….except no.   No Visa …No Humberto….or as he is now rebranded Wazimbo.     A BBC announcer apologizes and invites a local Bristol band to take his place.     Its cool but its not Humberto! Britain is not open for business if its business with international musicians.    Its closed, and the bureaucratic, and humiliating process musicians have to face to be “allowed” to bring their music   to our country are turning Britain into a backwater and doing unto...

An enthralling evening of music and storytelling from Persia presented by Adverse Camber at Perranporth Village Hall on Carn to Cove Saturday 17th March 2018  I only had a vague knowledge of the epic poem The Shahnameh (the Book of Kings)   as a critical work in Persian/Iranian culture......but the evening in Perranporth Memorial Hall  that Adverse Camber presented their show of the stories and the music of that world brought all sorts of insights, exotic worlds and memories.  The hall was thronging ...evidently Persian storytelling a subject to draw Cornish audiences on a cold March evening.   Two performers,  Xanthe Gresham Knight, a storyteller, and Arash Moradi, musician conjured the exotic and dazzling world of the Persian Book of Kings.    The stories were collected and written over thirty years  at around 1000 AD by the poet Ferdowsi and the epic poem consist of 50000 lines of verse in rhyming couple...

A cold, wild and blustery night made  Rogue Theatre 's Winter Woods  Tehidy Woods  show all the more atmospheric with fire dancers, woodland faeries and the sweetheart tree offering a magical night time pre-amble to the main show. The woods hospitable in a primeval way of offering shelter....... In the stately pleasuredome in the woods (a tent decked out with gorgeous tapestry) The King of the Woods tells a labyrinthine adventure of twins caught up a journey fraught with fantastical gods and animalia ..... now a traditional Cornish entertainment for kids and adults......of finery, wonder, glitter, dance and make-believe.....a memorable Christmas Party for the  Creative Skills and Cultivator   Carn to Cove   Feast Cornwall   Krowji  team ....and a bargain, with hot chocolate thrown in.

Recommended by Denzil Monk to catch this band which Gwenno leads - a Welsh singer who sings in Cornish and prides herself on growing up on the songs of Brenda Wootton (good).  The music was very different from what I expected being a sort of prog rock, psychodelia event (helped by projected mesmerising graphics on to rear screen which lent an acid trip feel to parts of the evening) - atomised abstract patterns a la Bridget Riley on screen cut with archive film and kaleidoscopic patterns.  Unlike Brenda who had a high supple voice, Gwenno has an alto tessitura which makes it difficult for he to rise above the instrumental accompaniment and she is less secure in the upper register.  The sound is dominated by an electroic synth vibe.  She is a striking tall chanteuse of the Ute Lemper groomed and svelte style. Her songs are interesting taking such pictorial themes for lyrics  as Peter Lanyon's mine paintings  (now thank god two of his masterpieces on  d...

Fresh from their astonishing work out as the rude mechanicals in the Royal Shakespeare Company's countrywide production of  Midsummer Night's Dream - Carnon Downs Drama Group continue their tradition of tackling contemporary drama and imaginatively revive David Hare's play "Amy's View" written in the late 90s which follows the falling  fashions in, and relevance of the theatre (a subject that Hare's career at the NT staunched)  the rise of TV, from the late 1970s to the mid 90s.   A family thespian story  set in suburban Pangbourne follows  through the lives of Esme Allen ( characterfully played by Oriel Bennett) we discover as a traditional leading lady dismissive of her son-in-law Dominic Tyghe's (Dylan Frankland) populism as a TV personality and critic and where personal animosity to him  muddies her relationship with daughter Amy Thomas (Zoe Vale).   Traditional dismissive and  snobby attitude to money lead Esme to the trauma of...

9th August 2017 at 1300 The Jazz Bar Edinburgh Daniel Smith piano Scott Hannah guitar Daniel Smith is a very adept Boogie Woogie and Blues pianist and an easy stage entertainer.  His lunchtime set at Edinburgh Fringe in the Piano Bar was packed ..and for good reason as this is a hi-energy perfomance with a very up beat presentation.   Scott Hannah on guitar provided an ideal low key but able foil to the fireworks on the piano. Between excerpts of St Louis Blues 1930s, Basin Street Blues, Honky Tonk blues, we had new work featuring Jamaican ryhthm,  Ska, R&B.   The pianism is enthusiastic and sparkling, the repartee is fast and welcoming and the knowledge of his subject draws even non-jazzers into his world.   As a pianist myself, his technique and command is impressive and enviable!   I have promoted gigs in Cornwall on Carn to Cove with Daniel Smith in the past and audience have loved it and this was a reminder that he is still there and as dazz...

Monday 10th July 2017  Krysia Osostowicz, Oscar Perks violin, Yuko Inoue viola, Richard Jenkinson cello East Cornwall Youth String Orchestra director Tim Boulton The Dante Quartet have been running a chamber music -plus festival in East Cornwall for 14 years and I confess this is the first time I have been able to attend what has become a critical event in East Cornwall classical music making of recent years http://www.dantefestival.org/contact.htm .  This concert was the opening of a busy week  which includes concerts up and down the Tamar Valley, including today in Blisland and Launceston and at Calstock Chapel, Callington Church.    The  leader Krysia Ososkovich is now resident in Cornwall  - in fact co leader because   Oscar Perks led the astonishing performance of Shostokovich's 7th Quartet and the Arensky, so in this quartet leading honours are shared.  Yuko Inoue the violist is a strong middle anchor and,  the relati...