What a crackin' world routes on Sunday with Dr Lucy completely in her element (music, food, dancing, and great people in other words). Andy Kershaw had visited Desmali about twenty years back, and this return found him in fine voice and showing the range of musical styles and cultures that he has brought from his island home of Annobon to the mainland of Equatorial Guinea. That evidence of music swinging back and forward across the Atlantic was evident throughout but particularly when performing Cumbe, brought back, it would seem, by freed slaves to Sierra Leone, and the cross-dressing music, Dadj'i, which was fascinating to hear. Well worth a listen - it was an hour well spent in their company, I thought.
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Lucy's having a weekend off World Routes and has handed the fiddle bow on to Oilrig who's taken it north to the Shetland Folk Festival for a few sessions. Expect rowdiness.
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Week 2 in Shetland was terrific. Some crackin' Orcadian and Shetland fiddle gathering - very fine indeed - and some good chat and explanation of the Shetland way, too. Mary Ann's got Skerryvore from the folk festival coming up on Friday - they're not my cuppa tea, I have to say - thought they were the poorest part of Week 1 from the Northern Archipelago.Comment
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CD night on WR - bit more from the Garifuna Collective, a bit of a beaut from Erdal Erzincan and Kayhan Kalhor, Varnam from Jyotsna Srikanth which was a delight. Not quite so sure about Siba who's getting a bit of play but I wasn't that bothered - some say that the best music is coming from Brazil just now but I never quite get it.Comment
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Will be playing a set from one of my favourite World Routes nights in Quebec tonight bidding farewell to a unique and very special strand.Comment
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It appears that World Routes is to be axed - as I read the new schedule. Won3 to continue with LK and MAK, Fridays 11pm-1 am.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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The programmers shifted it from the light to the dark and then moved it about, with oft repeated items, and thence to the exit - very sad. But of course the concern, what happens to the wonderful Dr Lucy - shunted I suppose. Rubbish news!Originally posted by french frank View Post
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Is R2 or R6 likely to take up some of the WM slack, JC?Originally posted by johncorrigan View PostThe programmers shifted it from the light to the dark and then moved it about, with oft repeated items, and thence to the exit - very sad. But of course the concern, what happens to the wonderful Dr Lucy - shunted I suppose. Rubbish news!I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man.Comment
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Sorry to hear about the fate of Lucy Duran. I found her programmes very enlightening.Comment
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The writing was on the wall for quite a while - Lucy's World was being confined to CD reviews, plenty of repeats; all indicative of shrinking budget. I wonder what will happen to the World Routes Academy? Quietly shelved too I shouldn't wonder.
I'm sure Dr L will continue to be gainfully employed here:
http://www.soas.ac.uk/migrationdiaspora/
and, they, of course, have their own radio station too:
http://soasradio.org/Comment
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In these days when room requires to be made for executive pay, tough decisions require to be made, so I doubt Lucy and the estimable James Parkin will not be turning up too often on any other parts of the Beeb, ts.Originally posted by teamsaint View Post
I mean the World routes on the road thread has not all been brilliant, but plenty has been,and it's hard to think of any other programme about music which has gone beyond the sales pitches of the record companies and recorded music where it is happening. Kershaw's trip to Corsica and Sardinia was an eye-opener for me. The three shows from Madagascar with Lucy, Paddy Bush and Justin Valli like a trip into a different world. Banning Eyre's terrific exploration of Appalachian old-style was stunning Saturday afternoon radio in the small number of days when WR was a Saturday staple for me. Oilrig's recent venture exploring the Scottish routes of the Nova Scotian traditional music was utterly fascinating, and enjoyable. And of course we had some very fine moments in the BBC Radio 3 Music Planet series. Cape Verde, the remote Andes, Georgia, Vietnam...the fascination this programme has brought for this armchair traveller has been wonderful. Maybe there was nowhere left to go; perhaps WR is a victim of doing it's job too well recording some of the endangered musics of the world and telling us a bit about them.
Before Dr Lucy I reckon I'd never heard of Mali never mind that it is a musical powerhouse of the world. I'll be sad to see WR go. I'm sure that as Globaltruth says there are other shows out there, but the BBC allows us to hear things we hadn't known were there and that's how I heard some of these great sounds from all corners of the Globe. I'm probably well enough versed to be able to go look elsewhere, but it saddens me that the BBC is shutting down its external links. World Service ditched world music ages ago, as did Radio Scotland and now Radio 3 has once again cut its provision and it feels like a death by a thousand cuts.
So in the meantime I'll just delve a bit more in the archives, but that's not the point is it.
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I understand your point: I was tending to say, 'Why does anyone have to actually travel abroad? (Are there not any field recordings already available?)' - the main reason given for the cost issue resulting in the cuts.
In which case, how would it have saved money to axe one music strand and start a new one (on film music which, say what others might, has never been an essential part of Radio 3's output, whereas world music has been part of the official remit for 20 years).
And how does it 'prioritise' [sic] world music to axe one of the programmes and leave the other exactly as it is as a late night show (and having already moved WR from its afternoon slot)?It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Final show this weekend with Lucy looking back over the 13 years of World Routes and produced for the last time by James Parkin. I'm sure there will be some fine tales in there.
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Well, in the end she just shuffled off to Buffalo - as one might expect from the good Doctor.
A last pull on the pipe to keep the old shag smouldering, straighten the wrinkled tweed stockings, shake of the head to shrug off the effects of the industrial strength hallucinogenics accidentally ingested via some raw panda liver, shoulders back & off into the distance she went....
Au Revoir Dr L - I do hope you pop back to r3 from time to time...Comment
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[QUOTE=Globaltruth;336627]
A last pull on the pipe to keep the old shag smouldering, straighten the wrinkled tweed stockings, shake of the head to shrug off the effects of the industrial strength hallucinogenics accidentally ingested via some raw panda liver, shoulders back & off into the distance she went....QUOTE]
I thought that was Oilrig, Global...or maybe she's just the straight Talisker. But it is sad to see Dr D sloping off...she's too fine a broadcaster to be away for good...is she not???
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