A-line band

Terrible heading but i couldn’t resist.  Last week i went to see Steve Reich’s Drumming piece with Caryl Mann who plays harp and flute on a few of the A-Line recordings (quite beautifully too).   There was an in conversation afterwards with him and Colin Currie and i was planning on only staying for a few minutes as these things are usually just really sycophantic and don’t tell you anything much but he turned out to be a real charmer and it was really interesting to note that the first time the piece was played in London it was played at the Hayward Gallery as part of the Rothko exhibition, which was his first solo show too.  Rothko, Reich, Phillip Glass etc - what massive names they all are now, it’s fascinating how influential and talented such a small group of people have been.

Then as a much more low key but equally good weekend gig I went to see Kath Bloom play at Cafe Oto.  She’s been rediscovered by lots of people who bought the tribute album featuring Devendra Banhart,  Scout Niblet and those kinds of folks but she was orginally recording in the late 70’s early 80’s.  Anyway, she was a total character and we only went because it seemed like a better option than Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.  It was a much better option.
Her songs are very plaintive, verging on depressing, mostly just her and guitar but in the flesh she’s got quite a lot of underlying anger and humour that you wouldn’t necessarily get from just listening to the songs.  She was very funny between songs, making little self depracating comments and goading her violinist.  I’ve been listening to her songs over the weekend and very much enjoying them.

Trackback URL

bloom, caryl, colin, currie, kath, mann, reich, steve