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SAKÉSHO FEATURING ANDY NARELL
Saturday · Parrish Auditorium at Miami University’s Hamilton campus
The steel pan (or steel drum as it’s better known) has long been associated with the sound of Reggae and Calypso, since those genres introduced the instrument to Western ears decades ago. Jazz percussionist Andy Narell heard much more potential in the steel pan than the narrow interpretations imposed by music snobs who considered the instrument’s sound too ephemeral to be taken seriously. Narell proved them wrong with a series of acclaimed and commercially successful steel pan Jazz albums for Windham Hill in the ’80s and early ’90s, and continued to contradict critics by devoting his entire career to the pursuit of steel pan excellence.
But even as Narell was building a stellar résumé with his recording and touring efforts around the world, events in South Africa conspired to alter and enrich his career in ways he could not imagine. With the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africans were finally free to explore music from beyond their borders, giving rise to an intertwined series of listening clubs throughout the country. These clubs were frequented by poor citizens who would pool their money to buy CDs and then bring them to the clubs where everyone would assemble to listen to the group’s purchases. By the time Narell decided to test the waters by touring South Africa in 1999, he had no idea that he had become a national musical icon. Expecting to play to a few hundred people at the South Africa for the Arts Alive festival, Narell was overwhelmed to face an audience of close to 80,000 hardcore fans. In 2000 Narell returned to South Africa to tour the country with the band that had accompanied him at the Alive fest — pianist Mario Canonge, bassist Michel Alibo and drummer Jean Philippe Fanfant, whom Narell had met in Martinique in 1993 and recorded and toured with as often as possible ever since. They commemorated the tour with Live in South Africa, recorded in Johannesburg toward the end of the circuit.
The following year, Narell decided to form a more permanent union with the trio and christened the project Sakésho. Like all of Narell’s musical explorations, Sakésho draws heavily on French Caribbean roots while deftly weaving in threads of classic Jazz and modern World music on their two studio recordings, 2002’s self-titled debut and their most recent disc, 2005’s We Want You to Say. For the past two decades, Andy Narell has more than proven that the steel pan’s popularity, commercial viability and versatility could last longer than a day-o. (Brian Baker)
THE LAST TOWN CHORUS
Sunday · Southgate House
Mixing a light Country flavoring with the hazy etherealness of the old 4AD bands (Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, etc.), The Last Town Chorus makes a hypnotic sound with minimal bells and whistles. TLTC began life in 2001, when, on the same day, singer Megan Hickey met future bandmate Nat Guy and her soon-to-be instrument of choice, a 1940s lap-steel guitar. Hickey bought the lap-steel from Guy and The Last Town Chorus (with Guy on acoustic) was born. Hickey learned the instrument fairly quickly and developed a mournful, tears-dripping style almost as becoming as her sensual, soaring vocal coo. The Brooklyn-based twosome released a self-titled CD in 2003. Critics took note of the duo’s haunting, evocative sound, particularly in England, and TLTC began touring regularly with different configurations and auxiliary musicians, opening for the likes of kindred souls such as Hem, Ida and The Innocence Mission.
Guy left the fold in 2004, leaving Hickey to become, essentially, The Last Town Chorus (like how Trent Reznor IS Nine Inch Nails), utilizing a revolving cast of supporting musicians. The increased responsibility seems to have emboldened Hickey, whose forthcoming album, Wire Waltz (available in the U.S. on March 6 from HackTone Records), is even more enchantingly elegiacal than the debut. The new album features a naked, turtle-paced version of David Bowie’s “Modern Love” (you might have heard it if you watch Grey’s Anatomy), which gives a good hint to TLTC’s hovering aural aura. Hickey’s lap-steel playing adds another level of magnetism to her music; on the instrument, Hickey creates echoing, pastoral dreamscapes, which adds to the melting-candle-wax feel, but she also conjures up rawer, more distorted sounds.
Head over to YouTube for a look at how gorgeously Hickey’s warm, gliding atmospherics translate live. Like Neko Case’s hallowed, traditional Roots sound or Cincinnati band Over The Rhine at their towering, celestial best, you can count on a transfixed, pin-drop-quiet audience. (Mike Breen)
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2007.
