live
EBO TAYLOR
WOMEX Showcase @ Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay; then the Horizons Tour,
various venues
Sat 26-Wed 30 Oct
The programme of live music happening in Cardiff during the week of WOMEX is also covered Upfront in
this issue. However, confining it all to the capital city would be kinda unegalitarian, and missing the point,
wouldn’t it? Yep. That’s why, straight after the final live showcase on Sat 26 Oct, eight representing acts will
go on four double-bill tours of Wales’ regions. They all look great, but if we wrote about everyone, we’d soon
run out of space. Accordingly, this writer is highlighting Ghanain bandleader Ebo Taylor, who has a catalogue
of great and funky highlife/soul/Afrobeat patchwork, and is still playing and recording aged 77. What a guy!
“I’m just lucky to be invited to the WOMEX,” says Ebo on the phone. “We’ll be playing for 45 minutes; I intend
to create five numbers.” Some will be drawn from his superlative 70s/80s work, although they’ll “carry a new
sound”. Cuts from his comeback albums, such as Mizin from 2010’s Love And Death, are also promised.
Having abandoned the record game between 1982 and 2010 – although he contributed to other people’s
albums, and taught in Ghana for a decade – Love And Death received a glowing reception. “It was
immensely accepted by a lot of people. I was delighted because it gave me another chance to play
internationally, and people back home don’t really know that the Europeans like it – but they appreciate
music much more than back home.”
Ebo spent part of the 60s studying in London and playing in a highlife band, where he met future African
superstar Fela Kuti. “We used to play jazz at the Flamingo, and we played highlife there on Sundays...
we became very good friends. I miss him.” Having benefitted from the reappraisal of much African music
post-Kuti’s death, Ebo Taylor is now an elder statesman by the standards of any genre. “I’ve always been
very humble to my fans, and I think that’s what contains my youth beautifully,” he suggests.
Tickets: £22/£17 (WOMEX Showcase – day pass). Horizons Tour prices vary – see listings.
Info: www.cerddcymru.com/cardiff-womex-2013 NOEL GARDNER
pic: SHEREE MURPHY
BARB JUNGR
St Donats Arts Centre, Vale Of Glamorgan
Sat 2 Nov
For those who feel that the songs of Bob
Dylan and Tom Waits are not quite jazzy
enough, Barb Jungr’s bluesy versions
of the classics are probably what you’ve
been searching for. Having gained critical
acclaim for transforming well-loved songs
into original, vocally-led reinterpretations,
English jazz vocalist Barb Jungr is
currently touring the UK with her most
recent album, Stockport To Memphis.
Her newest offering is a significant step
away from her preceding album, on which
she exclusively re-worked the songs of Bob
Dylan into her chanson-like style. Whilst still
performing a selection of freshly arranged
songs, including Dylan’s Lay Lady Lay
and Joni Mitchell’s River, this biographical
album charts her metaphorical journey from
her home in Stockport to the home of her
musical influences, Memphis, Tennessee
and includes five original compositions.
Though it may be said that nobody does
Bob Dylan like Barb does, as an experienced
musician with 13 solo albums to her name,
it’s good to see Barb is still including
personal compositions within her work.
Barb’s reinterpretations will never be
freed from comparison, but her own
songs are quintessentially her. With an
album composed of her reinterpretations
alongside her charming original pieces,
each holding a certain depth of personal
resonance, Barb’s live show is a prize for
jazz and blues fans.Tickets: £14/£12.50.
Info: 01446 799100 (LS)
BUZZ 44
THE CULT + BO NINGEN
Great Hall, Cardiff University
Stude nts Union
Fri 18 Oct
Old-school rock’n’roll fans rejoice, as 80s
faves The Cult are touring this October
and are going to be taking over the Great
Hall with what is dubbed a “raw and
unfiltered” performance. The tour will see
the band playing their 1987 album Electric
in its entirety. This is an album which
was recorded at the renowned Ladybird
Studios in New York, and was produced by
legend of the hip-hop world Rick Rubin.
An album with a totally new style which
catapulted the band straight into the
arena-treading big time, and allowed the
band to musically live up to their name.
However, hardcore Cult fans don’t need
to fear, you will still get to hear hits from
their other albums. On top of this first,
dedicated, set will be a second set where
the band will draw from their other eight
albums, promising a jam-packed show.
Supporting on the tour will be Japanese
psych-noise-rock band Bo Ningen, whose
influences lie in canonical envelopepushers of old such as Black Sabbath and
The Stooges. Despite only forming in 2006,
they promise an eclectic mix of – deep
breath now – 1960s punk trash, 1970s
Detroit dirt, 1980s New York art-rock and
psychedelic post-rock. All those genres
– mixing old-school with modernity with
the sounds of Japan’s underground – will
definitely offer something unusual and
unique. Tickets: £31. Info: 029 2078 1458
(BG)
KT TUNSTALL
St David’s Hall, Cardiff
Mon 4 Nov
Following the release of her fourth studio
album, Invisible Empire//Crescent Moon,
her most mature work to date, KT Tunstall
is bringing her tour to Cardiff’s St David’s
Hall. Since bursting onto the scene in
2004 after performing her breakout song
Black Horse And The Cherry Tree on
Later With Jools Holland, and being
nominated for 3 BRIT awards in 2006 for
her first album, Eye To The Telescope,
KT has been continuing with a quietly
successful career. Despite not always
springing to mind as one of the UK’s most
wildly popular artists, following the 1.5
million sales of her first album KT’s two
consequent studio LPs have peaked at
numbers three and five in the UK album
charts whilst receiving consistently
favourable reviews.
With a first album hailed as bringing a
new side to folk-pop, and is still wellknown and frequently played almost a
decade later, KT’s music has firmly stood
the test of time. For her newest album,
she’s turned to a mellower country-folk
sound, taking inspiration from her divorce
and the sudden death of her father. This
melancholy album allows the strength
and beauty of her voice to shine through
beyond the occasionally overbearing
energy of her early work. With notable
influences of American folk present in the
music, this is KT Tunstall toned-down and
it’s well worth an evening out. Tickets:
£17.50-£29. Info: 029 2087 8444 (LS)
SCHIZOPHRENIC
Y Ffwrnes, Llanelli, Wed 23 Oct; The
Riverfront, Newport, Sat 2 Nov
As part of their work towards ending
mental health discrimination, Time To
Change Wales is hosting Schizophrenic,
two live music events which will take
place in Llanelli’s Ffwrnes Theatre and
Newport’s Riverfront. The host and
organiser of Schizophrenic is Welsh
musician and schizophrenia sufferer, Dai
Sharkey, who has been writing music for
over 25 years. Combining live music with
personal stories and memoirs from Dai
and fellow musicians, the organisers hope
the event will help to dismantle the stigma
surrounding mental health problems.
Dai, who received sponsorship from the
Arts Council of Wales last year, has recently
written and recorded a 16-track album
entitled Schizophrenia which was released
this summer. A combination of dark lyrics
and a softly-played guitar, Dai says the
album “represents hope, love and faith.”
Alongside Dai’s performance of his ‘dark
folk’ will be some of the best new artists and
performers coming from Wales including
Mad Tom’s Crowd, who are a collective of
eight world music instrumentalists; Fasta
Benj, who will be performing their upbeat
European folk; The Empty Shed Experience
and finally, folk trio Bel And The Hangdogs.
Dai hopes that Schizophrenic will “break
through the taboo, start conversations
about mental health and we’ll have some
fun and dancing too.” Tickets: free. Info:
0845 2263510 (Llanelli) / 01633 656757
(Newport) (LS)