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PREVIEW REGGAE HORACE ANDY The Ferry, Glasgow, Sun 19 Jun
After giving us The Congo's first ever Scottish show, the Summer Reggae Sunsplash season turns up a more familiar talent in the distinctive vibrato of Horace ‘Sleepy' Andy. Hardly warranting introduction, Andy's career as first guitarist. then singer and songwriter has been long and seemingly effortless, and had brought him no small success long before hooking up with Massive Attack and wider acclaim in the 908.
This longevity owes as much to his acceptance of the new as his honeyed vocal chords, and being ever wary of elders' dismissal of youthful trends which took him from roots reggae on Studio One through a string of enduring rocksteady classics with producer Bunny Lee and onto the frontline at the inception of dancehall. Aside from Massive Attack his appeal has broadened working with the likes of Mad Professor, Sly 8. Robbie, Easy Star All-Stars and most recently with house producer Ashley Beedle on Strut's Inspiration Information series.
It was Beedle with whom he was in Edinburgh with just months ago — in fact, he has appeared in Scotland so regularly it is a wonder that anyone wanting to see him hasn't bought the proverbial T-shirt. What wouldn't surprise is if fans of his sweet. soulful reggae, were returning time and again. Having performed prolifically for over 40 years you can be assured Andy is not one to disappoint.
(Mark Edmundson)
$4522“;er INDIE ST VINCENT
Nice’n'Sleazy, Glasgow, Tue 14 Jul
She may induce elemental wonder, but Annie Clark is no meteorologist. ‘By my humble estimation, it’s 175 Fahrenheit here today,’ affirms Clark - aka cinematic sorceress St Wncent - of her prevailing Atlanta, Georgia vicinity. A quick metric conversion suggests this equals roughly 80 Centigrade and, as such, is highly improbable.
St Vincent’s smouldering lounge-pop, however, revels in atmospheric excess. An erstwhile affiliate of choral rock mob The Polyphonic Spree and former conscript of Sufjan Stevens’ backing flock, Clark’s entrancing solo art spans gentle electro, errant torch songs, spectral trip hop and ambient alt.rock. Her second solo album, Actor, was released in May this year, to rapture.
Drawing inspiration from Clark’s favourite movies - Pierrot le Fou, The Wizard of Oz and tree-house blood- bath Badlands among them - Actor negotiates filmic vistas, eerie dominions and fantasy arias. Its stunning arrangements and dexterous narratives hail Igor Stravinsky, Ennio Morricone, Philip Roth and David Mamet. Our Oklahoman heroine breaks from her
l’lllLVlf. W JAZZ
NATIONAL YOUTH JAZZ ORCHESTRA SCOTLAND
Perth Concert Hall, Fri 17 Jul; Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 18 Jul;
Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Sun 19 Jul
Guitarist Mike Walker will join the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland on this three-date tOur, which will feature a full performance of his long-awaited debut album. Madhouse 8. The Whole Thing Here, released earlier this year. It will be a welcome return to Scotland for the Salford-born guitarist, one of the most original jazz stylists in the country.
The invitation is a follow up to last year's collaboration with guest saxophonist Mark Lockheart. Walker has worked with the NYJoS before. but you do have to go back a bit, to the more experimental period at the start of the decade when Simon Purcell and the Bancroft twins were taking the band in a direction that focused more on individual creativity than group cohesion.
It was a direction that did not ultimately find favour with Richard Chester. then the director of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland (the NYJoS is an off-shoot). His concern was that the technical standard of the players did not match that achieved by their Classical equivalents. and subsequent changes were designed to address that issue.
The Current directors, pianist Malcolm Edmonstone and drummer Andrew Bain. are both former members of the band. and have tried to nurture the conventional big band virtues while at the same time continuing to expand the band's repertoire and enc0urage the presence of imaginative guests like Lockheart and Walker.
(Kenny Mathieson)
84 THE LIST 9-23 Jul 2009
coffee, and eagerly augments this cultural litany. ‘Werner Herzog, Walt Disney, Woody Allen, Jenny Holzer, Charles Bukowski . . .’ she relates.
And what of Dylan Thomas? Is there truth in the rumour that Clark’s nom de plume is a tribute to the Welsh rhapsodist’s place of death? ‘God rest his soul,’ she deadpans in a flash. ‘It is also the middle name of my great-grandmother,’ she adds.
Yet, Clark’s celluloid and bookish fascinations are not at the expense of her musical prowess. A star guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and provocative vocalist, St Vincent thrives on live terrain - as previous tour supports for the Arcade Fire, Death Cab for Cutie and The National have ascertained.
Transpires our protagonist is even set on single- handedly flipping the financial downturn. There’s a lot to be said for ‘musical conservation’ as a profitable ideology, she elucidates. Then she barks a recession- bashing rawk manifesto. ‘Got a melody? Double time it and use it again! Chords? Transpose! Invert! Re- harmonise!
‘Lots of math! Lots of fractals!’ charges Clark with a laugh. She may not be an economist, or a physicist, or a meteorologist, but St Vincent’s glittering fortune is firmly written in the stars. (Nicola Meighan)