(Review
by Peter Slavid)
I should declare up front that I've
been a fan of Rhiannon Giddens for some years.
I first saw her as part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops – the radical
trio that recast the history of American Country music to finally recognise the
part played by African Americans. I've
seen her play with her own band with a mix of pop, folk and country, I saw her
became the first American to receive the BBC's folk singer of the year award.
Then I saw her blow away a room full of Scotland's finest musicians when she
totally stole the show at the Transatlantic Sessions.
So is this another example of a jazz
festival booking someone from a different genre just to fill seats? Well, yes – if you believe that the history
of African-American music and jazz are completely unrelated. But of course they aren't.
Giddens is a banjo player, singer,
fiddler, actress, musicologist and a genuine star with a stage presence to die
for. Growing up of mixed race in the
American south, she called contra dances at school, she went on to train as an
Opera singer, and has devoted a lot of her career to exploring (and sometimes
exposing) the shifting influences of African Americans on the American culture.
Francesco Turrisi is an early music
specialist, a jazz pianist and accordion player and a world class player of the
Sicilian tamburello as well as being entertaining in his own right – especially
when talking about the tambourine.
The duo were accompanied throughout by
some fine bass from Jason Sypher and
on a couple of numbers by some rasping trumpet from Alphonso Horne. The show
opened with a short set from the soul/jazz singer Bumi Thomas, the Scottish/Nigerian who recently survived an attempt
to deport her and who is a quality soul/jazz singer in her own right.
I don't think it's churlish to say that
everyone else on the stage, even Turrisi, was in the shadow of the dominant
personality and star quality of Giddens.
In an outstandingly entertaining show
we were treated to a history lesson, following the African origins of the
banjo, starting with the replica of an 1858 banjo that is Giddens first love.
We follow it through its role in the black-face minstrel movement; and we hear
some of the African origins of the Sicilian Tamburello and it's similarity to
the minstrel Tambo. And all this is done
with so much music and fun that you hardly realise what you are learning.
Musically we heard songs from the duo's
fine recent album “There Is No Other“
and more. We heard American folk music,
a Hermeto Pascoal tune, an Italian folk song in a Puglia dialect, an Irish folk
song that finished with an episode of scat singing, blues, jazz, cabaret, and
even a touch of opera. Then as an
encore, two songs from Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Giddens infectiously
enthusiastic as she bounced around the stage to close to a standing ovation,
and a rush to the CD stall.
The duo are appearing at Sage Gateshead
on Friday November 29.
Peter
Slavid.
Peter
Slavid broadcasts a programme of European Jazz on several internet stations
including mixcloud.com/ukjazz
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