Elina Duni (voice); Rob Luft
(guitars, electronic effects)
A homely scene
greeted us, Elina and Rob on the sofa with a few fairy lights behind, yet this
was also an international gig, as shown by the names in the chat box and the
greetings that Elina gave later, to people from France, Albania, Kosovo, the USA. Excellent sound
through my headphones and passable even without them.
About 35 people listed as listening, enough to
fill the jazz bar at the Globe – Alas! But this is a different sort of gig,
which may continue in some form in the future, who knows?
First up was
Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman which blended later into a folk song from
Elina's native Albania, When You Appear at My Doorstep. Flowing guitar
comments to the vocal lines with a very Eastern feel and the second song is
sung beautifully, in Albanian, slowly reflective, a passionate repetitive
chorus, ascending scales and jubilant guitar sounds. This outline doesn't do
the performance much justice, but you can listen for yourself on YouTube.
Next came a love
song from the mountains of Kosovo, the words were foreign but the sentiment
came across. A complex song with many sections yet not difficult listening,
repeated passionate phrases, singing the tune with the guitar but a few notes
higher, very different from jazz variations, ending with the guitar sounding
like a double bass. Flying Kites, an original, composed on the very sofa
that we were looking at, (not an observation we could appreciate at an actual
gig), drawn from Elina's childhood memories, and the
guitar playing fast twisting riffs to imitate the kites.
Then came a typical
folk song theme, the girl fancies a man she meets when getting water from the
well, before remembering that she must return home to her mother. A fast skilled
guitar over a slow song, with brilliant very high guitar notes to end.
Another original (One Day In?); followed
by a Charlie Haden/Abbey Lincoln number with echoing guitar. The duo
showed their versatility with an out and out jazz standard, I'm Glad There Is You.
A final folk
song, a love song about the moon, and the well-deserved encore, which was
demanded in the chat box, Serge Gainsbourg's Couleur Cafe, done samba
style, with Rob singing in harmony in the chorus, and an abundance of guitar effects which sounded like quite a few
guitars at once.
If you want more of
these two musicians, and I bet you do, Rob's album, Life Is The Dancer,
was out in April 2020, on Edition Records.
See www.robluft.bandcamp.com
Elina's last album,
Partir, April 2018, is on ECM Records. See www.amazon.co.uk/elina-duni.
Ann Alex
No comments :
Post a Comment