Talabarte Trio

Part 2 here.

Yippee - I finally found a band to look for!  I always wondered why live music wasn´t more available in Galician bars like in Scotland or Ireland or Chicago, for that matter, but I think these guys out of Santiago may be ones to look for.

Talabarte is a trio formed by Pedro Pascual, Quim Farinha, and Kin García.  They play a delightful acoustic mixture of Galician traditional, celtic, gypsy, folk and jazz.

From a review of their eponymous CD on Rootsworld:

The thing that struck me first about this trio from Galicia in northwest Spain is how big they sound. The CD cover shows three musicians, and I kept looking in the credits to see who else joined them. But there is no one else. Accordion, fiddle, and double bass are all they need to put forth a full sound.

Most of these songs are traditional, but there are a handful of originals in the mix as well. Maybe someone steeped in Galician traditional music could tell these apart, but to my ears the styles of the traditional and original tunes match perfectly. And I definitely sense a Talabartan quality in the way the trio arranges melodies, counter-melodies, harmony lines, and accompaniment, splitting these over the three instrumental voices, making the variations interesting in song after song.

Festival de Ortegueira 2014

via

(The Chieftains!!! - C)

Thursday 17 July
Royal Burgh of Renfrew Pipe Band

Proxecto Runas 2014:
Tiruleque
Cuarteto Caramuxo
Xabi Aburruzaga Band

Pepe Vaamonde Grupo

Friday 18th
Escola de gaitas de Ortigueira
Milladoiro
Dominic Graham School of Irish Dance
Moxie
Ruaille Buaille

Saturday 19th
Bellón Maceiras Quinteto
The Chieftains
Fest Rock (Bagad Kemper+ Red Cardell)
Treacherous Orchestra
Anxo Lorenzo band

Sunday 20th
Parade of bands of the Celtic Nations. 

Berrogüetto

Berrogüetto, whose trajectory began in 1995, has recently announced they´re breaking up.  Their first album, Navicularia, established their reputation for a fresh new take on traditional Galician music.  They have been an important addition to the Celtic Festival in Ortigueira since its inception and were recently featured on the soundtrack for the 2011 movie about the Camino de Santiago ¨The Way¨ with Martin Sheen and directed by Emilio Estevez. 

There are plans for a farewell tour of Galicia this spring, details to be announced later.

Celtic Christmas

This is simply delightful - I´ve been listening to it all day while making my modified Nigella´s Ultimate Christmas Cake.

Maybe next year I can listen while decorating a tree. . .

Available at Amazon here.

The Cup Song - 'You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone'

600 students and a beautiful female singer do a catching Irish Gaelic version of 'The Cup Song'

 

Hat tip to Jenna Woginrich

Anxo Lorenzo

To celebrate the weekend, a musician I only recently heard of, Anxo Lorenzo.  Classically trained, he plays the gaita and various flutes. You´ll find a lot of festival footage of him on youtube.



His last album, Tirán from 2010 has moved him into fusion.  From his website:

The album has 11 tracks that are a mix between composition and tradition from the Galician Rías to the Seas of Ireland. A demonstration of virtuosity and sensibility in equal measure and enhanced by the participation of the famous Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell, the strings of Pancho Álvarez, percussion by Milla and Roi Adrio, hurdy-gurdy by Anxo Pintos, accordion by Jorge Arribas and the Hindi style group Om/Off. There is still much to say and discuss in Galician Folk music and now Anxo Lorenzo is having his say. "Tirán" is the genesis of a long musical career for an artist that surprises us with his modesty in light of his genial flair. As a classically trained musician, soloist and composer Anxo continues with his research into various fields of music and gives master classes all over the world

Ortigueira Celtic Fest 2013

Once again, Ortigueira will be hosting their annual Celtic Music Festival July 11-14.

Acts include:

Kan (Ireland)
Escola de gaitas de Ortigueira (Galicia)
Bagad Glazik Kemper (Brittany)
Banda Crebinsky (Galicia)
Harmonica Creams (Japan)


Harmonica Creams were something of a revelation last year.



Kan



 Banda Crebinsky (not feeling the Celtic here, more like slightly demented klezmer- ch)



Bagad Glazik Kemper

Galician harp

The harp is one instrument that I haven´t seen featured in Galician music.  So I was pleasantly surprised when I caught a performance of Rodrigo Romani with a selection from his new CD ¨As Arpas de Breogán¨ on RTVG.



Mr. Romani was a founding member of the group Milladoiro, recording 12 records and is also a founder of the Municipal School of Traditional and Folk Music in Vigo .

In the contemporary folk of As Arpas de Breogán there´s a pleasing jazz fusion component along with the melifluous vocals threading through his original compositions and adaptations of traditional tunes.

Romani has three solo albums - Albeida (2001), Cantos Caucanos (2003) and Breogan Harp (2012).

Rodrigo Romani at Amazon.es

Negra Sombra/Black Shadow

Some music to go with these rainy, chilling autumn nights.  This version by Luz Casal and Carlos Nuñez which may be familiar from the film Mar Adentro.




Negra Sombra is a poem by the leading Galician literary figure, Rosalia de Castro, 19th century writer and poet.

In Gallego:

Cando penso que te fuches,
negra sombra que me asombras,
ó pé dos meus cabezales
tornas facéndome mofa.


Cando maxino que es ida,
no mesmo sol te me amostras,
i eres a estrela que brila,
i eres o vento que zoa.


Si cantan, es ti que cantas,
si choran, es ti que choras,
i es o marmurio do río
i es a noite i es a aurora.


En todo estás e ti es todo,
pra min i en min mesma moras,
nin me abandonarás nunca,
sombra que sempre me asombras.


And in English (translation No. 4):

When I think that you have parted,
Black shadow that overshades me,
At the foot of my head pillows
You return making fun of me.


When I fancy that you've gone,
From the very sun you taunt me
And you are the star that shines
And you are the wind that moans.


If there's singing it's you who sings,
If there's weeping it's you who weeps,
And you are the river's rumour
And the night and the dawn.


Everywhere you are in everything,
For and within me you live
Nor will you ever leave me,
Shadow that always shades me.

From the very interesting translation page :

Historical Background

"Negra Sombra" was probably written after two of De Castro's babies died a short time apart. Twenty-month-old Adrian died from a fall in November of 1876 and Valentina was stillborn three months later (Marina Mayoral. "Biografía de Rosalía de Castro." Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes). 

Another version with piano:



Back in September, Luz Casals, a cancer survivor, produced an open-air concert/eco festival called Festival de la Luz in Boimorto to benefit the Spanish Cancer Society.  Unfortunately, they had some weather issues, but hopefully will be back again next summer.

Ortigueira Celtic Festival 2012

Javier Pardo

The 2012 Ortgueira Celtic Music Festival schedule is out.

Thursday 12 July

Proxecto Runas 2012
Avelaíña (Galicia)
Rastrexos project (Galicia)
Alén de Ancos (Galicia)
Harmonica Creams (Japan)

Friday 13 July
Bagad Glazik Kemper (Brittany)
Stolen Notes (Andalucía)
Escola de gaitas de Ortigueira
Blazin' fiddles (Scotland)
Jamie Smith's Mabon (Wales)

Saturday 14 July
Oban Pipe band (Scotland)
Crema de gaita (Galicia)
The Rua Macmillan band (Scotland)
Electric ceili (Ireland)

After some looking around on YouTube, I found some examples:

Avelaíña

Bagad Glazik Kemper

Blazin´ Fiddles

Electric Céili

Begoña Riobó

There is a brief ad before the song. 



From her website:

Begoña Riobó is currently one of the most renowned violinists in Galician music. She has an outstanding musical career, has played with Carlos Núñez, Anxo Lorenzo, Susana Seivane, and Sondeseu, amongst others, and is now the first Galician Folk violinist to lead her own band.

"Riobó" is the name of Begoña's group and also the title of the first album, characterised by the virtuosity of the musicians when arranging and interpreting traditional Galician melodies, being faithful to their origins. Thus, each concert is a journey of sensations during which both the deep cultural roots and present day performance formulas live side by side.

Accompanying Begoña in 'Riobó', we have four renowned musicians that garner a solid professional career and participate regularly in the main musical projects in Galicia. They are Fernando Barroso (guitar), Marcos Campos (Gaita, accordion and whistles), Xosé Liz (Bouzouki), and Fernando Pérez (flute and requinta). 

An interview in Spanish with Begoña about her philosophy, celtic music, and putting together the group.  She points out that they tried to make the CD sound as close to the live performance as possible.

DOA

DOA is another longstanding Galician folk group. Dating from the early 70´s they list influences as diverse as Jimmy Hendrix and King Crimson to Bach and Telemann.

Now on my Christmas list, I only heard about them because they have a new remix album ¨A fronda dos Cervos¨ out and there was a blurb on the Gallega channel.

This is not toe-tapping celtic music. From what little I´ve heard, it´s heavily influenced by medieval music and is more on the ambience end of the scale, I suppose.

I´m especially loving the hurdy-gurdy. I wonder how hard that is to learn to play.





More at World Music Central.

Ortigueira Celtic Festival

The annual Celtic music fest gets started July 7th.

Lineup includes Ireland´s Brian Finnegan, who´s also offering a master class,



The Elders



Galician band Berrogüetto,



and last year´s popular band from Vigo The Crass.

Luar na Lubre

Luar na Lubre is something of an institution in Galician music. They started off in 1986 and are still going strong.

I have a greatest hits CD that´s great accompaniment for the part of the trip where the dryish Province of Leon gives way to the lush green countryside of Galicia.

They´re currently on tour, unfortunately not to Madrid.

From Wikipedia in Spanish -

The music of Luar na Lubre relies heavily on the folklore of Galicia, but is also heavily influenced by the countries within the "Celtic" tradition as the area round the Atlantic has a particular way of making music, an aesthetic used and adapted by many Galician folk groups and, in many ways thanks to this, the music of Galicia has acquired a level of internationalization previously never thought possible. Still, there are certain "traditionalists" who criticize this movement.

Their style has evolved considerably over the years, gradually becoming more sophisticated. In 1996 the British musician Mike Oldfield issued the Voyager album including an adaptation of O Son do Ar, and invited the group on his world tour, which gave Luar Na Lubre international fame. In 2003, the song ¨Memoria da noite¨ was composed, referring to the sinking of the Prestige oil tanker off the Galician coast.

In 2009, Luar Na Lubre celebrated it´s 25th anniversary, recording their first live album (Ao Vivo) at the Teatro Colon in La Coruña and inviting musicians like Luz Casal, Pedro Guerra and Diana Navarro to join them.

In November 2010 their latest work came out: "Solstice", a project that marks a new beginning for the group, a different direction in their trajectory that points to medieval music, the richness of medieval Galician-Portuguese lyrics, influences from the pilgrimmage route the Camiño de Santiago, and the introduction of different cultures expressed through music. Solstice is a mixture of religion and paganism, the acoustic and electrical sounds of the past and present, from that which is intrinsically Galician, from a Galicia looking at the world as an equal now and into the future.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

Carlos Nuñez and the Chieftains

I managed to catch most of Michael Moore´s ¨Capitalism - a love story¨ yesterday, and it made me so angry I needed a pick-me-up today.



Carlos Nuñez is probably the most famous Spanish celtic musician. He´s had a long and illustrious career and recorded a lot. This year in honor of the Jacobeo, he helped organize a free concert in the Plaza do Obradoiro in Santiago de Compostela with the Chieftains and the Galician Symphonic Orchestra. Apparently it was an unforgettable performance. He also seems like a genuinely nice guy and has such a good time playing that it´s infectious.

Nuñez collaborates often with other musicians. This is an earlier performance with the Chieftains. The first tune is Alborada de Veiga and the second is the Muiñeira Chantada (which is almost certain to be played at any festive gathering in Galicia were there are gaitas or pipes).

V and I did get to see the Chieftains in concert on St. Patrick´s Day in Chicago (The Irish are very big in Chicago) one year. They were great!

Here´s some more:



Happy Friday!

Leilía

While I´m cleaning the house for an impending visit from my dear friend J, I thought I would share.

Leilía is a folk group of Galician women. I picked up their CD ¨Madama¨ at FNAC without knowing what it was and it turns out I LOVE it!

See if you agree.



O meu amor

O meu amor se ti fores
lévame podendo ser
eu teño de ir a cabar
onde ti fores morrer

Eu hei de morrer cantando
xa que chorando nacín
as marabillas do mundo
acabaron para min

O meu amor se ti fores
lévame pudendo ser
eu teño de ir a cabare
onde ti fores morrer

Loosely translated:

Oh My Love

Oh my love if you go
take me with you if you can
I have to end
where you go to die

I will die singing
because I was born crying
the world's wonders
have ended for me

Oh my love if you go
take me with you if you can
I have to end
where you go to die

I´m showing my age - but it reminds me of the Le Mystere des voix Bulgares from the 90´s.

Susana Seivane

While we were in La Coruña we got to see Susana Seivane perform live in the Plaza Maria Pita. She was great! She´s been touring this summer with a great band, with invited guests Rodrigo Romaní, Anxo Pinto, Xosé Manuel Budiño, David Paz, Jose Rodriguez and Jose Somoza. Great music, charming stage presence and she sings too!

I found this samba-flavored number that they played while we were there:

It´s your funeral

As the child of immigrants, my parents emigrated from England to the US in the 50s, I never seemed to develop that abiding sense of place that some people do. I grew up in the midwest, went to graduate school in Texas, visited LA, NYC and Seattle, lived in Montana and then Chicago and now Madrid. There are things that I liked about all of them, but none calls to me as my definitive ¨home¨.

So when V and I were at Finesterra on the Costa da Morte earlier this year - I told him I wanted my ashes scattered in the Atlantic between Spain and the US. It appeals to my sense of being ¨between¨ places and people.



Planning your funeral is an odd exercise. It is supremely narcissistic (after all you´ll be dead and not in a position to either know nor care if your wishes are followed), and oddly sensitive to the survivors at the same time.

And since I decided a long time ago not to have children and have no plans to return to the states, figuring what will happen to my stuff is a little complicated - nieces and nephews by marriage, charitable or cultural organizations? Or just plan to die poverty stricken, which seems more and more likely.

I think the traditional Spanish funeral obsession is fading over generations. V and his brothers and sisters are not at all interested in the usual open caskets, visitations and burials the way his parents are. Who came and who didn´t and who said what to who are all very significant. His mother has spent whole afternoons (on more than one occasion)telling me about every tragic or unusual death she can remember. Scenarios include toddlers falling from high apartment windows, sudden illness, or long, lingering, debilitating conditions, the whole gamut. I remember hearing the phrase ¨Capilla Ardiente¨ on the news whenever some celebrity died and thinking there must be a big Chapel called ¨Ardiente¨ where all the famous people were taken (literally ¨burning¨ or ¨glowing¨ chapel, but anywhere the casket is taken for any funeral service). If you´ve seen celebrity funerals here (Rocio Jurado is the last one I can think of - it was a humdinger both first in Madrid and then in Chiprio in Andalucia), you know the Spanish can put on a show. People waited in line for days to say goodbye to Lola Flores and Franco (not that anyone talks about that now).


One of the things that surprised me was how fast they get you into the ground(or oven as the case may be) here. In the US it can take a couple of weeks for a funeral to get organized. But here - the deceased is normally sorted within 48 hours.

Burial arrangements are getting complicated as well. I live near La Almudena, the principal cemetery in Madrid. V tells me there are 5 million people buried there. In fact, there´s a general policy of periodically digging up remains to consolidate them and make more room. Niches are increasingly popular as the ¨condominium¨ option of cemeteries. La Almudena has its own bus service and street map.

It helps that I´m an atheist. So I get to choose something from a whole range of traditions, not confined to the Spanish cult of death. The pure spectacle of a Viking funeral appeals to me - but what a nightmare for your survivors to have to organize. Just getting the necessary permits would be daunting. I think a rowboat will be fine, and as far as I´m concerned they can either scatter the ashes or just chuck the entire urn into the sea and be done with it. We all know there are worse things being released into the ocean all the time.

That leaves the music. Queen´s ¨Who wants to live Forever¨ blasting from oversized speakers is perhaps a tad over the top.
Upon reflection, a lone piper playing on the conveniently adjacent hilltop could be both economical and dignified. Bagpipe music has always made me cry and also makes my hair stand on end. How´s that for neurological confusion. Although, since I will be dead, I don´t expect it to produce that effect on this particular occasion. I rejected ¨Amazing Grace¨ both because of too many policemen´s funerals in Chicago and also the Bapto-Christian connotations. I am most definitely NOT saved, or even safe for that matter.

Here´s a selection of lovely songs.

I´m partial to ¨The Dark Island¨ which is from a Scottish TV mystery series. I love mysteries. I wonder if its available on DVD. I do hope the Scots won´t mind.

THE DARK ISLAND

In the years long ago
When I first left my home
I was young and I wanted
The whole world to roam;
But now I am older
And wiser, you see,
For that lovely dark island
Is calling to me.

cho: O, I've wandered away
From the land of my birth,
And been roaming around
To the ends of the earth,
Still my heart is at home
In that land far away
That lovely dark island
Where memories stray.
One day I'll return
To that far-distant shore,
And from that dear island
I'll wander no more.
'Til the day that I die
I will no longer roam
For that lovely dark island
Will be my last home.


Oh - and I want one hell of a wake.

A Farewell

A few weeks ago we received the terrible news that a friend had died in a car accident back in the states.

Susan is a very dear friend´s sister. We met when she moved to Chicago to make a fresh start. A former military police officer with a fondness for white wicker and lace, Susan was a genuinely good person with a ready empathy. She was dealt many challenges in life, and while she occasionally paused to catch her breath, always kept on fighting the good fight. She was an inspiration and she will be sincerely missed.

We sponsored a memorial grove with the Trees for Life organization dedicated to re-foresting the Caledonian forest in the Scottish Highlands. The image is from their website.

If you´d like to participate more trees can be added. The memorial grove is under Susan M. Kihlgren.

http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/index.html

I don´t know if Susan was a Loreena McKennit fan, but I do know that J is.

O Bonny Portmore I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

O Bonny Portmore you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.


All the Birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying "where shall we shelter or where shall we sleep?"
For the Oak and the Ash they all cutten down
And the walls of Bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.


O Bonny Portmore you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

Let´s see what we can to do restore the environment, instead of hurtling headlong toward its destruction.