Monday Roundup #136

Concert announcements:

Tilman Lewis/Nilan Perera/Laura Swankey / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-09-02 (Saturday – early!) [FB event]

Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior/Kurt Newman/Andrew Furlong / The Sympathetic String Band / Marilyn Yogarajah / Nick Flanagan) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-09-10 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]

Happy Sundays (feat. Leather Jacuzzi / Imploders / Shrewd) / The Baby G 2023-09-10 (Sunday). $free, 19+. [FB event]

Anastasia Minster (Raphael Weinroth-Browne) / Annette Studios 2023-09-15 (Friday). $22.63. [FB event]

15 New Works for Snare Drum [15 world premieres for solo snare drum by Kati Agócs, Amy Brandon, Brian Current, Jason Doell, Emilie LeBel, Nicole Lizée, Russell Hartenberger, Vincent Ho, Anna Höstman, Michael Oesterle, Monica Pearce, Bekah Simms, Andrew Staniland, Hiroki Tsurumoto and Christina Volpini] (feat. Ryan Scott) / 918 Bathurst 2023-09-17 (Sunday). $pwyc. [FB event]

Burn Down The Capital presents (feat. Jessica Ackerley Trio / Adversarial Networks / Zoë Alexis-Abrams) / Tibet Street Records 2023-09-16 (Saturday). $15, all ages. [FB event]

Alabaster DePlume / The Rivoli 2023-09-17 (Sunday). $27.56, 19+. [FB event]

Happy Sundays (feat. Castle Frank / L CON / Nikolas LB) / The Baby G 2023-09-24 (Sunday). $free, 19+. [FB event]

Sianspheric [There's Always Someplace You'd Rather Be 25th Anniversary Show] (Psychic Weapons / Fires of Cheektowaga / Annual Leaf) / Bovine Sex Club 2023-09-30 (Saturday). $14.11, 19+. [FB event]

Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!

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Shows this week:

Michael Davidson’s Adjacent Spheres [Michael Davidson/Adrian Russouw/Aidan McConnell/David Hodgson] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-22 (Tuesday – early). $pwyc. [more info]

Fortunato Durutti Marinetti (Marmalade Duplex) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-22 (Tuesday). $pwyc. [more info]

The Music Gallery's Departures Series (feat. Ale Hop / Robin Hatch / You Can Can) / Standard Time 2023-08-23 (Wednesday). $13.92, all ages. [FB event]

All-Set! Presents (feat. Mike Smith/Jake Oelrichs/Pete Johnston/Michael Davidson) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-25 (Friday – early!). $pwyc. [FB event]

Exit Points #41 (feat. Gladys/Mira Riselli/Lex Feathers/Josh Cole/Bruce Cassidy / Paris Unltd/Sara Constant/Jen Lo/bachelard/Michael Palumbo / Switchemups) / Array Space 2023-08-25 (Friday). $20 at the door. (cash/card/mobile). [FB event]

The Ryan Driver Sextet / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-25 (Friday). $pwyw. [FB event]

Scott Thomson [performing Martin Arnold's “Enamel”, for solo trombone: Toronto premiere] (Allison Cameron) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-27 (Sunday) [morfe info]

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It happened this week...

• ...on August 21, 2009 at Holy Oak.

Melissa Boraski - Too Tall

• ...on August 27, 2009 at Musideum.

Jah Youssouf and Abdoulaye Koné - unknown

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Sunday Playlist #3

Sunday Playlist #3: Something Else!!!!

Feuermusik - Doppelspiel

Buildings - unknown

Apostle of Hustle - Dark is What I Want

Alpha Yaya Diallo - Unknown

The Woodchoppers Association et Jah Youssouf - unknown

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You can always click the tags below to see what I originally wrote about the shows these songs came from.

Recording: The Woodchoppers Association et Jah Youssouf

Artist: The Woodchoppers Association et Jah Youssouf

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at the Music Gallery, September 19, 2009.

The Woodchoppers Association et Jah Youssouf - unknown

My notes for this gig can be found here.

^* Does anyone know the title of this one? Please leave a comment!

Gig: The Woodchoppers Association et Jah Youssouf

The Woodchoppers Association et Jah Youssouf

The Music Gallery. Saturday, September 19, 2009.

After seeing Jah Youssouf and Abdoulaye Koné performing on their own at Musideum, I was looking forward to seeing them jamming with the venerable Woodchoppers Association, with whom they'd been touring Canada on the folk fest circuit over the summer. Turns out this show at the Music Gallery would be the last before the guests returned to Mali, and we got a full-length show, with two sets, each over an hour long.

The show opened with Jah Youssouf playing solo, giving a sample of his talent with the ngoni. He was then joined by the redoubtable Abdoulaye Koné for a couple numbers. On this show, he was more of a supporting player to the top-billed Youssouf, not taking any lead vocals, and keeping a lower profile. But his agile way with his instrument made him a key part of the overall sound.

They were then joined by the Woodchoppers, running ten deep, including a powerful four-piece horn section. The band was under the genial leadership of Dave Clark, wearing a lampshade-like hat and entertaining the crowd with self-knowingly unctuous banter. He began the Woodchoppers part of the set with some improvised conducting of the band, signalling for vamps and bursts of noise with broad gestures. When Clark turned and started to conduct the crowd, they took to it without hesitation, collectively becoming an unrehearsed choir. Perhaps like an athlete limbering up, these exercises might have had something to do with the band hitting the ground running on their first jam. Surely it's also that these are all seasoned musicians who have been playing together for a long time, and this subset in particular have been road-tested in this configuration. From the outset, the ngonis fit well into an electric jazz groove driven by el-p player Jason Kenemy, and the first set closed out with three strong rockers, the last one featuring Jah giving the audience a phrase to sing along to to a slow funky jam.

After about a fifteen-minute layoff go stretch, the second set started sans the guests, with a rollicking call-and-response number that the band took to the crowd with a pair of tap dancing shoes used as percussion along the backs of the pews. Jah and Koné rejoined the group and settled in for an excellent afro-funk-styled number, followed by three more simmering numbers. The final number of the main set ("the last chance to dance," warned Clark) turned into a whirling maelstrom of music, with the horn section taking to the crowd to walk up and down the rows of pews as they played, creating moving stereophonic fields of sound while the band played a low-slung groove.

For the encore, Clark invited the crowd to slide their pews right up against the stage to hear Jah right up close, and then the other musicians returned for one final number.

A very good time and a high standard of excellence throughout. A nice start to the Music Gallery season as well — hopefully all my trips to St. George the Martyr will be as ripping.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Recording: Jah Youssouf and Abdoulaye Koné

Artist: Jah Youssouf and Abdoulaye Koné

Song: Unknown^*

Recorded at Musideum, Thursday, August 27, 2009.

Jah Youssouf and Abdoulaye Koné - unknown

My notes for this performance can be found here.

^* This is actually two songs, but they flow together very well and give the listener a chance to hear the musicians' different styles. If anyone know the titles here, please leave a comment!

In-store: Jah Youssouf and Abdoulaye Koné

Jah Youssouf and Abdoulaye Koné

Musideum. Thursday, August 27, 2009.

I don't recall when I'd put myself on the Musideum's e-mail list. In fact, when a message arrived in my inbox, I had to tilt my head and think for a second who they were and why they were sending me stuff. Turned out to be an invite to an evening of acoustic Malian music featuring Jah Youssouf and Abdoulaye Koné, and looking it up, this sounded like exactly the sort of thing I'd dig. Headed down to Richmond Street after work and found the perfectly lovely Musideum, vendors of exotic instruments of all kinds in a restored warehouse space that felt more like an art gallery than a store. A small crowd of fifteen-twenty people gathered as the musicians tuned up. As I was snatching a chair close to the action and settled in I felt a bit shabby and out of place amongst an older, professional-looking crowd, but what can you do?

Hosting the evening was Lewis Melville — musician, producer, and a true hero of Canadian independent music — who had met Jah and Abdoulaye in Mali, has recorded with them and worked to bring them to play in Canada. He introduced the artists and acted as translator.

More than just sitting and playing a few songs, it was a chance to hear the musicians talk about their music and background and to really get a feel for their personalities. Both spoke in French, and I usually managed to get a general impression, which would be filled in by Melville's summaries. Jah Youssouf, Malian star, is a player in the Wassoulou tradition, and was more of a talker, a naturally forthcoming storyteller while Koné, a young griot, was a bit more reserved, with a sly smile and a soft but magnetic manner of expression.¹ Both musicians were playing the ngoni, a stringed instrument often thought of as a forerunner to the modern banjo. Koné played a traditional griot version of the instrument, and used drones and circular rhythms to accentuate his dazzling flurries of notes. Youssouf played a larger kamale ngoni, a ten-stringed version that looked not unlike a kora and was capable of dazzling, harp-like runs.² When called for, Koné even improvised some percussion, using keys on the side of a metal water bottle to add some rhythm while Youssouf was playing. We got to hear each of them playing in their own distinct styles as well as together, utterly cooking with complementing cascades of notes. It boggles the mind a bit to consider the complicated music that can be wrung from a construction of gourd, cowhide and fishing line.

The pair played some traditional songs along with their own compositions — one even recounted their impressions of playing in Canada ("beaucoup de cowboys", declared the chorus). There were no few musicians in the crowd, evidenced by the fact that when the floor was opened for questions, the first one was about the tuning of the ngonis, and the answer (pentatonic scales, I believe, if I got the gist of it right) caused general murmuring and nodding. The musicians — Youssouf especially — gave the impression that they would keep playing for as long as there were people sitting and listening, and the performance ended up lasting over an hour-and-a-half, certainly much more than I was expecting.

Certainly an excellent night, and kudos to the Musideum people for sharing their space so graciously. I note that Youssouf and Koné have a local gig coming up at the Music Gallery, Saturday September 19th with the Woodchoppers Association, the long-running improvisational music collective that includes Lewis Melville. Probably worth checking out.

Listen to a couple songs from this performance here.

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¹ Koné also told a fine story about his grandfather, a blind griot of great renown, whose music was so powerful that on putting his ngoni down on the table, it would continue to play itself!

² Youssouf was playing not only his own ngoni, constructed out of a calabash, but also a Canadian-made version, designed with stage performance in mind.