Album reviews: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Cairo Gang | Erykah Badu | The Great Wee Band | Mátyás Seiber | Sandy Wright | Giorgis Xylouris | Carmen Souza

Published on Sunday 28 March 2010 20:55

BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY & THE CAIRO GANG: THE WONDER SHOW OF THE WORLD **** DOMINO, £11.99

IT'S that time of the year when lonesome troubadour Will Oldham breathes another album into melancholy existence. This time he has formed the world's smallest mob, with cohorts Emmett Kelly and Shahzad Ismaily, aka the Cairo Gang. Far from coming on like some band of marauding minstrels, the trio have gently eked out an intimate recording which does not just continue Oldham's run of general excellence in the field of spectral Americana, but embellishes it with bursts of Kelly's burnished blues guitar, mournful backing vocals from the "gang" and a timeless singer/songwriter soulfulness on some of the tracks.

ERYKAH BADU: THE NEW AMERYKAH PART 2: RETURN OF THE ANKH, 13.99

**

UNIVERSAL MOTOWN

ERYKAH BADU has carved herself a respected position, especially in her native US, for her conscious soul stance. Part one of her New Amerykah strand, subtitled 4th World War, tackled the sociopolitical realm. In contrast, Return Of The Ankh is her personal odyssey, fuelled by romance and relationships, assisted by a long list of hip-hop producers and pervaded by the whiff of incense – it's also the name of one of the periodic floaty Roy Ayers-style jazz excursions on harp and theremin. However, when Badu is not contemplating her navel on the likes of ten-minute closer Out My Mind, Just In Time, she simply reverts to conventional and somewhat anachronistic snoozy soul funk.

THE GREAT WEE BAND: THE SOUND OF MUSIC

****

TRIO RECORDS, 11.14, from.triorecords.co.uk

THE distinctly Scottish ring to this quartet's name was inspired by an impromptu remark by their Glaswegian guitarist, Jim Mullen. His band mates, trumpeter Henry Lowther, bassist Dave Green and drummer Stu Butterfield, are equally familiar on the UK jazz scene, and they make beautifully crafted music. Mullen's flowing, harmonically imaginative guitar work is a joy. Lowther favours an understated sonority and a melodic subtlety that is an ideal foil for the guitarist, while the rhythm section supports the action perfectly. They draw on a fresh-sounding selection of three standards and four iconic jazz tunes, Horace Silver's Nica's Dream, Clifford Brown's Joy Spring, and Monk's Ruby My Dear and Monk's Dream, and round out the material with an elegant jazz take on Handel's Sarabande.

CLASSICAL

MTYS SEIBER: STRING QUARTETS Nos 1-3

*****

DELPHIAN, 13.99

A GOOD place to start with Mtys Seiber's music is the three string quartets he wrote at significant moments in his life. The Quartet No 1 – his Op 1, no less – dates from his student years under Kodaly in 1920s Budapest; the Second Quartet followed a decade later and represents a heady independence of style and freedom of spirit; the last stems from the last few years of his life. All are performed on this robust disc by the Edinburgh Quartet, who extract from each a superb individuality of character, from the Bartk (even Ravel) influences of the early quartet, and the harsher didacticism of the serially charged middle one, to the more luxurious maturity and softening of language of the last. A complete and compelling revelation.

FOLK

SANDY WRIGHT: THE SONGS OF SANDY WRIGHT

****

NAVIGATOR RECORDS, 12.99

SANDY Wright is a weel-kent name on the Scottish folk scene, yet under-acknowledged apart from the better-known performers who sing his material. This bumper edition, complete with notation, showcases his ear for a deceptively simple yet potent song, with one CD featuring his own dry, understated delivery, bolstered by his Toxic Cowboys band, the other assembling covers by the likes of Kris Drever, Roddy Woomble and Eddi Reader.

A harmonium gives a homely, Ivor Cutler-ish feel to numbers such as This Old House, there's an old-fashioned simplicity to love songs such as My Shining Star and a juke-box feel to Whisky Moon, while the wry charm switches to an angry, whisky-voiced rant in Whores and Bitches.

Those stamping their own character on Wright's material include Chris Woods' powerfully brooding version of Beads and Feathers, Kris Drever's eloquent Steel and Stone and the haunting chant of Silver Swans from Lori Watson over a drift of strings.

WORLD

GIORGIS XYLOURIS, STELLOS PETRAKIS, PERIKLIS PAPAPETROPOULOS: IF I GREET THE MOUNTAINS

****

ACCORDS CROISES, 13.99

WE DON'T hear much about the music of Crete, despite the heroic exertions of that celebrated Irish "bard without borders" Ross Daly, who has spent the past 35 years on the island, reviving its ancient musical traditions. The three musicians behind this CD have all worked with him, but their own musical roots go infinitely further back. Giorgis Xylouris is the son of a noted Cretan musician and nephew of the singer Nikos Xylouris, who was a local idol; his instrument is a slender, thick-set lute called the laouto. And it's the sound of this which opens this arresting CD.

It's got more in common with the Arabic oud than the Turkish saz or the Greek bouzouki, but all share the same muscular resonance, which is appropriate since Crete – as the crossroads for Roman, Arabic, Venetian, and Ottoman civilisations – represents a unique melding of cultures.

This CD offers a lovely compendium of the songs and dances which you can still hear in the outlying villages of Crete, on the time-honoured instruments.

CARMEN SOUZA: PROTEGID

****

GALILEO MUSIC, 13.99

WHAT is Carmen Souza on? Sometimes this Cape Verdean singer's sound is pure Billie Holiday, sometimes she gives the impression of Eartha Kitt on speed, sometimes her vocal pyrotechnics evoke a young Cleo Laine. Backed as she is here with rippling accompaniments from a band blending Afro-Latin and contemporary jazz effects, she beats up a very unusual storm. The title means "protected", and the poetic voice is as original as the musical one.

The lyrics she has written have a vivid, passionate energy: some are about how to live, some reflect a deep religiosity, some are about the getting of wisdom, but perhaps the most charming is a nostalgic paean to her seafaring father. The song which plugs her into the grand Cape Verdean tradition, Sodade, marks out just how different she is from its most famous exponent, Cesaria Evora.