... a national muse?

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    #31
    .........On Mseleku again, "it was almost as if Mseleku wanted to become music itself, rather than a practitioner of it."

    Now I like that! -

    Obituary: Versatile South African jazz musician who escaped apartheid to settle in Britain
    Last edited by Guest; 17-09-11, 21:24.

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      #32
      how perfectly illustrated .... the sooner we can move away from an English art the better ... off into multi cultural distractions ... and festivals of youth ...

      .... what are you geezers pretending by this fascination with bricollage from around the planet in the context of an English Muse? .... England and indeed Britain are problematic cultures, PJH is an artist confronting us that many seem unwilling to hear .... in much of the general reaction there is a disturbing embarassment that she is not a pop star celeb drop dead 'gorgeous' but rather an eccentric and idiosyncratic artist ... and a womano f her own will ... she confronts us rather more strongly than we are prepared to admit no?

      is anyone else currently working in English music worth taking as seriously?
      According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.

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        #33
        Originally posted by aka Calum Da Jazbo View Post
        is anyone else currently working in English music worth taking as seriously?
        Well if it's English Calum I'd definitely say this guy.
        http://chriswoodmusic.co.uk/Chris Wood plays "Hollow Point" (about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in London in 2005) at the 2011 Folk Awards. Chris w...

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          #34
          Shows how compartmentalised my listening has become that I totally missed this...

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            #35
            Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
            Shows how compartmentalised my listening has become that I totally missed this...
            Here's another that Global introduced me to based on a John Clare poem.
            http://chriswoodmusic.co.uk/Chris Wood plays "The Cottager's Reply" (from a poem by Frank Mansell) at the 2009 Folk Awards. This track appears on his 2008 re...

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              #36
              Originally posted by johncorrigan View Post
              Well if it's English Calum I'd definitely say this guy.
              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVecC...eature=related
              That's the one I was thinking of too, off to see him again in Nov.

              Problem is that usually this kind of discussion is self-defeating, as we each have our own entrenched point of view...on the other hand if other posters stumble across a new ( to them) voice as a result then maybe it is worth doing.

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                #37
                Originally posted by Globaltruth View Post
                That's the one I was thinking of too, off to see him again in Nov.

                Problem is that usually this kind of discussion is self-defeating, as we each have our own entrenched point of view...on the other hand if other posters stumble across a new ( to them) voice as a result then maybe it is worth doing.
                In my case not too intrenched a jazz buff not to feel critical of the way so many jazz singers, I find, rest on their laurels singing the old standard repertoire, you know, Gershwin, Cole Porter etc, out of some kind of faith in the universality of bygone lyrics. If they - jazz singers - would only take some kind of stand like Billie did, re current issues; Kate Westbrook is one of the few I know of in this country; so one has to hand it to PJ Harvey for her contemporary relevance.

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                  #38
                  Quote: "Is anyone else currently working in English music worth taking as seriously?" It's a good question. Are we saying that a political lyric about England and its perspectives is required here? If so, Chris is great and June is doing what she can do. If not, jazz might just be an example of how to view the question differently. But English jazz music - really English - even 21st Century English - anyone? I don't think so. If there were such a thing, it would probably need a lyric anyway. Soweto Kinch? Maybe and maybe not. Classical music might even do it better now. Berkeley. The Proms. That piece influenced by light coming through a Westminster Cathedral window. I didn't like it but at least it had a specific and historical reference point, if establishment.

                  Certainly, I am noting via PJH's exclusiveness that lyrically we rarely do politics now. Asian Dub Foundation could be an exception. Are the Arctic Monkeys and The Streets nearer to the Smiths than to the Specials? Does this matter, ie in the words of XTC, Is This Pop? They are probably rather more than pop and yet their observations are essentially kitchen sink. It isn't as though the Pogues are singing "Birmingham Six", nor are we being offered a second song about Jean Charles de Menezes who was shot down by the other guns of Brixton. And, generally, it seems to me that you now have all sorts of "foreign" influences that are bound to detract from true expression of Englishness. Those would include family backgrounds in the industry/business rather than the music per se - contrast here with the Watersons - the PR requirements, the need to sell and package. You Tube if you want to.

                  I was looking at Laura Marling earlier - in many ways stunning, not un-English although I thought of Joni, and she is, without any question at all, unusually artistic both in talent and demeanour. Actually, I saw that in AW too. What upsets me though is that I was thinking "is this young woman also a fantastic businesswoman?" Dad has the home recording studio, she is very considered, there are some lightweight, commercial, mates who helped her to get noticed, but I would have thought that she shouldn't have needed them. That side to it isn't so English to me. It is more alien and corporate. Was it always like this? The sixties looked like a time when people stumbled into business and were not so tainted by it. That's more my England but was it ever true?

                  Wonder what I would find if I did a William Cobbett? Got on a horse, rode the length and breadth of the country for the next decade, never referring to the media or going to the established music clubs, but still seeking art? What Englishness would I find in the music, if any at all? Guess I would be looking for others with the vision to be playing to the sky and the sea and the urban and rural landscapes, politically or otherwise. But there probably isn't much of that now in the national character individually or collectively. Three or four people in Northumbria may be among the closest to a solution. They are the nearest to a truer diversity of the extremities. So rare are they that you will know who I mean. They've been featured a lot on television.
                  Last edited by Guest; 18-09-11, 19:12.

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                    #39
                    i tol'ya, bl%%dy tol'ya
                    According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Originally posted by aka Calum Da Jazbo View Post
                      ....another potential National Treasure....bloomin' 'eck! It's gettin' crowded up there, though with Sir Jim departing it leaves a bit of space. It does occur to me - what Nation?

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                        #41
                        that is a good question, up there with whose nation?
                        Last edited by aka Calum Da Jazbo; 03-11-11, 11:01. Reason: usage innit
                        According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.

                        Comment


                          #42
                          National Treasure? Nation?

                          this interest in labels and categories....odd; I don't get it.


                          Have I channelled Queen Vickie yet? Can't remember

                          We are not a [national] mused

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