Thursday 29 March 2018

Deptford Wives & The Trills - War Child

Edori Fertig (Deptford Wives)
A night of urban folk for War Child
The Trills
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Kung Fu Vicar
City Farmers Trio
Hofnerama

Date - 25th March 2018
Venue - Ryans N16, Stoke Newington, London, UK

Julie Brown (The Trills)
War Child is a non-governmental organisation founded in the UK which provides assistance to children in areas experiencing conflict and the aftermath of conflict.It was founded in 1993 by film-makers David Wilson and Bill Leeson. On assignment in the former-Yugoslavia they were horrified by the violence and ethnic cleansing they witnessed. And especially its impact on children. In 2015, the number of children, young people and adults who received direct support from us was 126,000.

Make a Donation HERE.

Nat Wallace (Deptford Wives)
The Deptford Wives are a 2-piece rockabilly lounge band playing country and bi-millenial blues. Edori Fertig, artist and singer, brings New York style to classic Lee Hazlewood, Peggy Lee and other covers while her original lyrics chart a wry and dry course through the perils of modern middle age. Nat Wallace on guitar and bass provides the moody, twangy accompaniment to Edori's soulful vocals while cutting up sharp in his hand made Nudi suit.

Minna Lacey (The Trills)
The Trills are a trio of creative vocalists that cross genres on a journey from pathos to joyous and back again. Their evocative and intimate performance created the perfect atmosphere for the War Child benefit night.

Alice Power (The Trills)
Julie Brown has been director at Growing Communities since it launched in 1996 and now also helps run a 17acre orchard in Kent. She has been nominated for a Triodos Ethical Small Business Award, has stood on the London Food Board, and has campaigned tirelessly for policy as well as practical change to food and farming in the UK. Minna Lacey has been writing books for Usborne since 2004, about all kinds of topics - from machines and nature to Christopher Columbus and the Olympics. Born in London, Minna worked as a journalist in Bogota, Colombia, and New York before returning to London to write. Alice Power trained in Contemporary Art at Nottingham Trent University and State University New York (B.A First Class honours). She was a member of The Right Size (1991-2006) designing and inventing visual comedy alongside Sean Foley and Hamish McColl. She has also worked in film and television designing extraordinary props and costumes for Why Not Films, Julian Clary, Ken Russell and Tom Waits.
The Trills - guitar












Wednesday 28 March 2018

The Balagan Café Band - Album launch

Christian Miller
The Balagan Café Band
Christian Miller - guitar
Shirley Smart - Cello
Richard Jones - violin
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Joe Browne - saxophone
Alice Zawadzki - voice
Mike Guy - accordion

Date - 23rd March 2018
Venue - The Green Note, Camden, London, UK
Current album - The Balagan Café Band (F-IRE 2018)

Mike Guy
Future performance
3rd May 2018 - Inventions and Dimensions, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK
13th May 2018 - Southampton Modern Jazz Club, UK
18th May 2018 - Paxton Centre, Paxton Arms Hotel, SE19 2AE, UK

The Balagan Cafe Band launched their debut album in the atmospheric candlelight of the Green Note in Camden this week. The trio draw inspiration from a broad range of feisty cultures around the world but are very much grounded here in London. There is a zesty pleasure in their music, a liveliness that sparks with passion and intelligence. Special guests included Joe Browne (soprano saxophone), Alice Zawadzki (vocals) and Mike Guy (accordion).

Joe Browne
An eclectic new project, this group combines the worlds of jazz, world music and classical, featuring the intimate chamber instrumentation of violin, guitar, cello and accordion and an elegant yet fiery fusion of improvisation and written music. Ranging from Parisian and American Jazz, the Chaabi music of Algeria, Tango from Argentina, Balkan folk melodies through to the early modern and folk music of Western Europe, Balagan fuses these threads into a coherent and characteristic sound world.​

‘…this is music for the ears, heart and feet.’

Alice Zawadzki
The past couple of years have seen the band perform at venues including the Elgar Room, Omnibus and National Portrait Gallery to enthusiastic public responses. The ensemble features some of the UK’s most versatile and capable artists.

Having traded Astronomy for jazz, Christian Miller has played guitar with the broadest possible spectrum of UK jazz musicians – including Heidi Vogel, Mike Mondesir, Adrian Cox, Alex Garnett and Nigel Price, as well New York swing scene favourite Gordon Webster. Equally at home on electric and acoustic instruments, his current projects include Kit Massey’s Hot Club of Jupiter, the Southside Gypsy Trio and his own trio and quartets playing modern and contemporary jazz.

Richard Jones
Richard Jones is a dynamic, exciting young British musician who strives to forge and unearth musical collaborations between a wide range of musical contexts. Since completing his Masters studies at the Guildhall, he has immersed himself in the London music scene and has found a seat within a plethora of different bands. Far removing the violin from the orchestral setting, he delves into rock, folk, world music and jazz to find his sounds. Already, Richard has had the pleasure of working with a host of renowned musicians, including Nicolas Meier, Audrey Riley, Robert Mitchell, Alex Hutton and Christine Tobin.

Shirley Smart
After 10 years living in Jerusalem, Shirley Smart now lives in London, where she has quickly established herself on the jazz and world music scenes. She has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Yasmin Levy, Neil Cowley, Gilad Atzmon, Antonio Forcione, Shekoyokh, Kosmos, London Klezmer Quartet, Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital, Sabreen, Ross Daly, Arun Ghosh, Alice Zawadski, Maurizio Minardi, Sefiroth Ensemble and Partikel as well as leading her own projects, including North African and Middle Eastern group the Melange Collective. She also performs on releases by singer Alice Zawadski on Whirlwind label, and Maurizio Minardi’s Piano Ambulance.





Tuesday 27 March 2018

Roger Grech - The Catford Balladeer

Roger Grech
Roger Grech

Date - 21st March 2018
Venue - A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK

Future performance
20th April 2018 - Mum's Bistro, Bounds Green, London, UK

Classic songs by soulful singer Roger Grech on this A World in London!
Click to listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-21st-march-2018/

Roger Grech
Someone once told me that the secret to being a great vocalist is to ‘live the song you sing’. That advice resonates when Roger Grech picks up the microphone and you hear his natural, untrained talent, caressing each tune with a velvety, pitch-perfect voice. Roger’s official career has never been in music, and began somewhere in deepest South London as a British-born Greek Cypriot, soaking up chart hits and jazz standards by popular artists like Elvis Presley and George Michael. Over time Roger realised he could emulate some of his heroes, and more than carry a tune, if not enhance it. His complete passion for melody & emotional empathy with power ballads, shines through into immaculate yet intimate delivery, uplifting golden oldies into a higher state of aural consciousness. Given Roger’s dual heritage and superlative vocal skills, he beautifully covers some of the most testing Greek classics too. Listen in to this AWIL to hear a gifted man who truly loves the songs he sings, and see him on April 20th at Mum’s Bistro in Bounds Green!
                             
21/3/18 – AWIL 158  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-21st-march-2018/ Production & pics by Sofia Gaetani-Morris, Norman Druker, Sophie Darling,  and sketches by Alban Low. This week on SOAS Radio – The Blood Tub Orchestra with Tim Whelan. Click: https://soasradio.org/music/episodes/awil-252-blood-tub-orchestra  Next week Lucy Caswell on SOAS and Ramon Goose at Resonance.
#AWorldinLondon – IN ITS TWELFTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio 


Wednesday 21 March 2018

Stuart Henderson Quartet - The Magic of Miles Davis

Stuart Henderson
Stuart Henderson Quartet
Stuart Henderson - trumpet
Pete Billington  - piano
Raph Mizraki - bass
Simon Price - drums
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Kelvin Christiane - saxophone
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Barbie Benson - vocals

Pete Billington
Date - 20th March 2018
Venue - Twickenham Jazz Club, Twickenham, UK
Current album - Up Wind

Kelvin Christiane
Future performance
25th March 2018 (3.30pm) - Sunday Jazz at the Retreat
25th March 2018 (8pm) - Jazz at the Hare Bethnal Green
30th March 2018 - Remix Jazz Orchestra, Finchampstead Memorial Hall, The Village, Finchampstead, Wokingham RG40 4JT, UK

Raph Mizraki
A vibrant and energised night at Twickenham Jazz Club, one of the jazz jewels in the West London crown. Old and new faces packed out the music bar at the Cabbage Patch pub, the home of the club on Tuesdays. The music of Miles Davis and the performance of Stuart Henderson's quartet had drawn them in from the cold. Many had come to celebrate the 60th birthday of Kelvin Christiane, who runs the club with his wife Lesley, all left in uplifted spirits with cake and fire in their bellies. Long live jazz, long live Miles the king, the magic lives on.

From 1983 - 2005 Stuart Henderson was principal trumpet of The Scots Guards Band in Her Majesty’s Household Division. During this period he played many times for the Royal Family and at State occasions all over the world. Since leaving the services Stuart has become a fixture on the UK jazz scene appearing with many of the countries finest jazz musicians.

He leads various small groups and is musical director of the Remix Jazz Orchestra. He has played at many jazz festivals including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Brecon. Recording credits include dance labels “Nanny Tango”, “Soul Purpose” and “Greenfly”, and artistic collaborations with Tongues of Fire, Macnas and Mark Anderson “Dark Spark”. His commercial work includes the Rebecca Poole quartet, the String of Pearls, Joe Loss, The Showbiz Pops Orchestra and Nick Heyward.

Simon Price
Real Jazz musicians love to play to an intimate, individual audience who truly listen to their music. This cannot be achieved in huge venues like The Festival Hall, The Royal Albert Hall or many of our central London prestigious venues, yet often the musicians that appear at Twickenham Jazz Club are in middle of a tour at such venues and just seek a 'Proper Jazz Gig' - they just want to relax and play the music they love, to a listening audience.

In December 2014, the club moved to a new home, the world famous Cabbage Patch in London Road, Twickenham. Right in the middle of town, a stroll from Twickenham Station and with excellent bus services that stop virtually outside the door, the new venue promises to deliver even better jazz on a regular basis in a more accessible location where the Club continues to build its reputation as one of the best jazz clubs in London.

Barbie Benson







Tuesday 20 March 2018

Namlo & Jhuma Limbu - Nepalese Crossover


Ganga Thapa
 
Namlo
Ganga Thapa
Bishwo Shahi
Robyn Hemming
Gizem Altinordu
Shreya Rai
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Jhuma Limbu



Date - 14th March 2018
Venue - A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK
Current album - Namlo (2017)

Robyn Hemming
Future Performance
18th April 2018 - Tuned-In London, Sands Films Studios, 82 St Marychurch Street, Rotherhithe, SE16 4HZ

Namlo & Jhuma Limbu on this A World in London!
Click to listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-14th-march-2018/
Shreya Rai
Our radio session with London’s unique Nepalese band Namlo and special guest singer Jhuma Limbu extended into an unforgettable three day East-West musical trek, beginning on Wednesday at Resonance FM! This South London session was an ear-opener to the voyage of discovery that Namlo & Jhuma are also on, exploring regional and ethnic differences that they weren’t aware of before.


Bishwo Shahi
Nepal may be a tiny country but it has remote areas divided by mountains & valleys, and Jhuma comes from the East which neighbours Bhutan. Southerners are more influenced by India and the Northerners Tibet. It takes a rendezvous in London for these crossovers to happen, and Jhuma Limbu has been in town since November, recording her second album – ‘Sounds of Mundhum’ - with Namlo producer/guitarist Bishwo Shahi. Nepal’s Night Band introduced Jhuma to Namlo founder & composer, Ganga Thapa, who hails from western Nepal but has lived in South London for ten years and is our most talented torch bearer for Nepalese folk songs.

Jhuma Limbu
AWIL was the first radio show to champion Namlo, four years ago, and with enormous pride we’ve watched the band evolve into the versatile, confident, cosmopolitan collective they are now. The other Namlonians include Welsh double-bassist Robyn Hemming, Turkish multi-percussionist Gizem Altinordu, Lucie Treacher on clarinet, Californian cellist Eileen O’Neall, and divine singer Shreya Rai whose duets with Ganga have matured into perfect harmony. Together, Ganga & Shreya have developed a Kishore/Lata vocal partnership, and if you know your Bollywood playback singers and how much skill goes into achieving that level of quality then no praise could be higher. Ganga is a gifted master of melodic songwriting too, so let this be your primary focus beyond where the band’s repertoire originates from.

Gizem Altinordu
Our second date with Namlo was on Thursday, when DJ Ritu co-hosted their concert along with Tina Tamang, out in the wilds of Essex at The Thameside Theatre.  It took numerous hours to get there, almost requiring a passport to the East, but the effort was rewarded by such an appreciative crowd hungry for a taste of ‘back home’. A sizeable chunk of the Gurkha community settled in Thurrock ten years ago after actress Joanna Lumley’s appealed for these brave soldiers to have the right to remain in the UK after years of dedicated service to the British Army. Hence, it was a dignified audience, with ex-military men and their families, but a few guys broke ranks and couldn’t resist the urge to bop on stage compelled by Namlo’s songs and Yak Bites’ spicy food! We completed our mini-tour with Namlo on Friday at North London’s hottest night-spot, Balabam, where predominantly young, non-Nepalese but globally-minded revellers danced their socks off to an epic Himalayan mountain rock set by the band. Wherever the compass points to - North, South, East, West - all routes lead upwards to Namlo’s magnificent musical mountain peak! See them at Tuned-In London, Sands Films on April 18th! www.jhumalimbu.com
               
14/3/18 – AWIL 157  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-14th-march-2018/ Production & pics by Sofia Gaetani-Morris, Norman Druker, Sophie Darling,  and sketches by Alban Low. In support of the UCC university strikes there was no AWIL at SOAS Radio, but next week we’ll be chatting with the Blood Tub Orchestra, and singer/musician Roger Grech will join us at Resonance FM!
#AWorldinLondon – IN ITS TWELFTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio 

Monday 12 March 2018

The Yoruba Women Choir - Funmi Olawumi

Funmi Olawumi
The Yoruba Women Choir
Funmi Olawumi

Date - 7th March 2018
Venue - A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK

Future Performance
12th March 2018 - Union Chapel, London
24th May 2018 - Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham
26th May 2018 - The Brewhouse Theatre, Taunton
9th June 2018 - Colchester Arts Theatre

The Yoruba Women Choir on this A World in London!
Click to listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-7th-march-2018/

Some of Africa’s best voices are in town for a concert at Islington’s Union Chapel on March 12th and coinciding beautifully with International Women’s week they just happen to be female! It’s been a personal ambition for AWIL to meet with The Yoruba Women Choir for years and at last our prayers were answered when founder & director Funmi Olawumi stepped into our studio on Wednesday. Funmi is Nigeria’s very own musical Wonder Woman, blessed with magnificent vocal chords, and magical vision that empowers other women & champions Yoruba culture. She created her first troupe in 1998, a formidable trio known as the Queens of Lagos, and in 2005, she expanded the group into a fully-fledged choir collecting sister singers from the entire country. The Yoruba Women Choir ensures that female voices are heard loud & clear, both at home, and on the world stage. Thanks to the promoters of the annual London African Music Festival - Biyi Adepegba & Barbara Pukwana from Joyful Noise- YOU can hear them right here! More info at www.joyfulnoise.co.uk
Funmi Olawumi
7/3/18 – AWIL 156  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-7th-march-2018/ Production & pics by Sofia Gaetani-Morris, Norman Druker, Sophie Darling,  and sketches by Alban Low. Also this week Amanda Noar’s Impact Theatre Company - #MadeInDagenham – The Musical at SOAS Radio – click here: https://soasradio.org/music/episodes/awil-251-amanda-noar
 Next week Jamie Renton at SOAS and Jhuma Limbu & Namlo at Resonance! #AWorldinLondon – IN ITS TWELFTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio