Folk & Jazz: Spoiled for choice in a true musical mêlée

Published on Tuesday 4 August 2009 18:55

FROM pub gigs to recitals in kirks and concert halls, the Festival cometh, bringing a bewildering mêlée of music – folk, jazz, world, you name it, as the hugely protean Fringe kicks off on Friday and the "official" Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) opens a week later.

FROM pub gigs to recitals in kirks and concert halls, the Festival cometh, bringing a bewildering mle of music – folk, jazz, world, you name it, as the hugely protean Fringe kicks off on Friday and the "official" Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) opens a week later.

For those intrigued by the folk-classical interface, the EIF's Caledonia Sessions at The Hub should prove rewarding, with the ever-adventurous Concerto Caledonia and guests exploring the Scots music scene of the 18th century. There are beguiling Scots folk overtones, too, in the New York-based Mabou Mines' acclaimed puppet theatre production Peter and Wendy, with its haunting music written by former Silly Wizard fiddler Johnny Cunningham before his untimely death five years ago. Meanwhile, Greyfriars Kirk sees a rare excursion to Edinburgh for the unmistakably plangent heterophony of Gaelic psalm singing from the Lewis Psalm Singers (see www.eif.co.uk for details).

Meanwhile, a flick through the orange-headed music pages of the Fringe programme ( www.edfringe.com) shows the Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride's ( www.acousticmusiccentre.co.uk) hosting a three-week run, ranging from folk stalwarts such as Dick Gaughan, the all-women Poozies (launching a new album), award-winning singer-guitarist Kris Drever and Edinburgh bluesman Tam White to interesting visitors such as the powerful singer-songwriter Nick Harper, zany Virginian bluegrass outfit the Hot Seats and, from Australia, the wonderful Spooky Men's Chorale. Some of the AMC's regular seat-filers have spilled into Acoustic Music Centre @ The Queen's Hall concerts, including the ever-popular McCalmans and Women In Harmony (Annie Grace, Corrina Hewat and Karine Polwart). The Queen's Hall's own programme ( www.thequeenshall.net) offers folk supergroups Blazin' Fiddles and Capercaillie, veteran guitarist Bert Jansch, singer-songwriter Eric Bogle on his final UK tour, jazz diva Barb Jungr's Tell It Like It Is show and the idiosyncratic sounds of Music From the Penguin Caf.

With its famously intimate "folk living room", the Royal Oak pub ( www.royal-oak-folk.com) once again boasts its Festival Folk at the Oak programme, a random sample from which includes Claire Mann and Aaron Jones, guitarist Kevin MacLeod with accordionist Freeland Barbour, and the irrepressible daily Air Alba cabaret. David Ferrard (with a fine new album just out) hosts his nightly Scottish folk Roots and Offshoots show there, as well as his Songs of Conscience show with veteran protest singer Roy Bailey.

From crowded howff to busy delicatessen, Valvona & Crolla ( www.valvonacrolla.com) once again hosts music acts including the inspired clarinet-accordion pairing of David Vernon and Dick Lee, Luca Villani's classically programmed Guitar Fiesta! and Burns-themed one-woman shows from Gill Bowman.

Burns songs meet those by fellow-songsmith Robert Tannahill in Burns and Tannahill: Twa Robs, interpreted by Wendy Weatherby, John Morran and others, at Diverse Attractions in Riddle's Court ( www.diverseattractions.com). Amid an extensive classical programme, there is once again Scottish harping, including Scots virtuoso Catriona McKay (in Celebrate the Music of the Scottish Harp 2) and Chinese counterpart Yi Dong, at St Andrew's & St George's ( www.standrewsand stgeorges.org.uk) while Canongate Kirk (www.canongatekirk.org.uk), features the notable Chinese singer Fong Liu with Scots flautist and composer Eddie McGuire, as well as a night with McGuire's band, the Whistlebinkies.

Meanwhile the Jazz Bar's nightly programme ( thejazzbar.co.uk) includes the formidable New York-based Russian trumpeter Valery Ponomarev with his quintet, Scots trumpeter Colin Steele's Kind of Blue Miles Davis tribute, and the Dana Dixon Blues Band, among others, while at the Outhouse ( www.outhouse-edinburgh.co.uk), former Ray Charles band vocalist Barbara Morrison offers a bluesy take on the great American songbook.

There is, of course, much else – dig into that programme for eclectic delights ranging from the Soweto Gospel Choir at the Assembly Rooms ( www.assemblyfestival.com), to the exuberance and melancholy of the Yiddish Song Project at The Lot (www.the-lot.co.uk).