You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 14th, 2007.
I’ve just heard the news that Alice Coltrane has died. I’m quite distraught by this. An amazing human being who managed the near-impossible task of stepping out from the colossal shadow cast by her late husband, producing a run of albums in the 1970s (Ptah, World Galaxy, Universal Consciousness, A Monastic Trio, Journey In Satchidananda, Huntingdon, Lord Of Lords) which demonstrated amply the reasons for John’s faith in her abilities.
Lord, help her to be.
Although I have spent many an evening gazing at its vast rotunda from inside the inside of Cotton’s Rhum Shack on the Chalk Farm Road, this was my first visit to the Camden Roundhouse, at least since that time I used it to turn a steam engine through 180 degrees in the mid 1800s. This time it was a complete lack of revolution that caused me to attend; the Zero Degrees of Separation tour featuring the folkish tag team of Juan Molina, Vashti Bunyan, Vetiver and Adem.
On entering, I noted the wondrous restored roof. In case events were to slack, I thought I could happily lose myself in amongst the intricate joistwork supporting its elegant wooden dome, imagining myself flying pigeon fashion through its spaceship-like beams and struts.
This meticulously planned event saw the four acoustic guitar-toting types and their respective bands going at it mob-handed, with at any one time up to a dozen individuals on stage gently reworking each other’s songs. Occasionally this reworking would be so gentle as to involve a dozen people shaking bells while the song was performed with little real modification, as on Adem’s sweet “Love And Other Planets”.
The whole zero degrees of separation thing was highlighted by the ease with which smaller groups could coalesce - Vetiver and Vashti Bunyan for a stroll through Kathy Heideman’s “Sleep A Million Years”, followed by Adem and Vashti, Vetiver and Juana, all as if they had been playing together for a million years.
Despite this, the highlights were the solo moments. Vashti did “the mobile phone song” as she put it, along with “Wayward”, “Hidden” and the flautistic “Lately” from her unexpectedly brilliant much-delayed follow up to her 1970 debut. Vetiver’s gorgeous “Maureen” showcased Andy Cabic’s incredible voice, somehow capable of sounding utterly detached yet emotionally charged simultaneously.
No-one got within a million miles of the magnificent Juana Molina however. Her “Micael” (from album Son, one of my favourites of last year as you know) and “Salvese Quien Pueda”, built up from looped guitar figures, keyboard burble and vocal fragments, dissolving with extended scat-singing codas, somehow filled the cavernous roofspace, and the much-deserved ovation she received at the end damn near brought it all crashing down around us.
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