Festival Music
Telephone Booking Fringe 0131 226 0000 International Festival 0131 473 2000 Book Festival 0845 373 5888 Art Festival 07500 461 332 PREVIEW TAM WHITE & THE SERMON ORCHESTRA Preaching a funky lesson
Tam White is Scotland’s best-known blues voice, but he has a lot more than a 12-bar in his locker. His baptism as a pop singer in the 60s eventually led to the jazz-tinged blues of The Dexters, and on to settings that ranged from a celebrated duo with pianist Brian Kellock to ten-piece ensembles with the late Boz Burrell. The Sermon Orchestra will echo that
latter band in its format of rhythm trio (with Paul Harrison on organ) augmented by horns, and he will have singer Niki King and her brother Toni on board as special guests. While Tam is entirely at home in the
intimacy of duo and trio settings, he admits that he loves the power of the big unit around him, and happily grabs any opportunity to do so — and recession be damned.
The expanded instrumentation and
arrangements add extra dimensions to both the material — whether originals or classic covers — and his manipulation of vocal tone and colour. (Kenny Mathieson) ■ Queen’s Hall, 473 2000, 29 Aug, 7pm, £15 (£12).
REVIEW MARIA TECCE IN VIVA! Seductive Spanish songs from Italian-American chanteuse ●●●●●
The surname of this sultry chanteuse might give her origins away, but otherwise until she switches from Spanish to English there’s no way you’d know this apparently southern European is actually a Boston-born
PREVIEW ADMETO RE’DI TESSAGLIA Getting a handle on Handel
Scorned lovers, jealous tantrums and furious outbursts are all in a day’s work for conductor Nicholas McGegan. As he explains, ‘There’s not a great deal of difference between opera and soap opera — they are all about love, jealously and ambition.’ Admeto re di Tessaglia, which McGegan is conducting at the EIF, is no different. Alceste returns from Hades to find that in her absence her husband, King Admeto, has fallen in love with another woman, Antigona. Forced to decide if she loves him enough to sacrifice herself, Alceste embarks on an emotional journey worthy of the Corrie scriptwriters, accompanied by her spirit-ghost played by the Butoh dancer Tadashi Endo.
‘It’s an absolute masterpiece as a piece of music,’
says McGegan. ‘And the director, Doris Dorrie, has an extraordinary eye when it comes to creating beautiful pictures and for telling the story very simply on stage.’ Dorrie is best-known as an award-winning filmmaker, producer and author. In Admeto, she has used her filmmaker’s eye to create a striking re-imagining of Handel’s classic, reminiscent visually of Japan’s highly-
stylised kabuki theatre. It transplants the action from ancient Greece to the hierarchical world of the Japanese samurai and is populated by dancers dressed as ghosts, sheep and demons. Isn’t McGegan worried that what is happening
onstage will overshadow what he and the orchestra are doing? ‘There is no danger of that. The music is so simple and effective. They complement each other perfectly.’
Though he has conducted more Handel than most — including 23 of the composer’s 40 operas — McGegan says he is constantly making new discoveries in the music. ‘It is beautiful, touching and sometimes quite funny. He’s a composer with so much heart. He wrote knockout tunes.’ McGegan confesses that, while he is delighted with
what Dorrie has done, the inclusion of the dancers has curtailed his fun. ‘I’ve been looking forward to revisiting some of my favourite restaurants in Edinburgh and Glasgow but then there we are in the orchestra watching the dancers and you see how fit and trim they are. Suddenly you think “wow, no haggis and tatties for us after all”.’ (Claire Prentice) ■ Festival Theatre, 473 2000, 28 & 29, 31 Aug, 7.15pm, £14–£64.
now, and went through a scenario that many young bands face — the loss of a particularly prominent member to a solo career. The band initially got together to allow singer Karine Polwart to fulfill a booking at Edinburgh Folk Club, but quickly gelled as a unit. Polwart announced her intention to go solo in late 2004, and button box
Italian-American who currently makes her home in Dublin. Viva! showcases material from Tecce’s forthcoming album, a selection of smouldering love songs inspired, she tells us, by her personal experiences visiting Spain in her late teenage years. She’s certainly got a great feel for the foreign material, belting out the songs with genuine passion and interpreting others with real tenderness. And her performing of a smattering of English language numbers is no less riveting. If there’s one criticism to be made it’s
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the venue — this show would be better suited to a nightclub rather than a hall filled with stadium seating. Still, that’s a minor quibble, especially as the set is atmospherically lit and dressed, and Tecce’s band, three handsomely attired gents playing guitar, double bass and accordion, provide sophisticated, understated accompaniment. Tecce herself, in a dazzling scarlet dress and long black ponytail, is both captivating and very seductive. (Miles Fielder) ■ Assembly Rooms, 623 3030, until 30 Aug, 10.05pm, £11–£12 (£10–£11).
PREVIEW MALINKY Facing up to change Malinky have been around on the Scottish folk scene for over a decade
90 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 27 Aug—10 Sep 2009