Gig review: Tam Lin

Published on Wednesday 27 January 2010 18:06

TAM LIN **** CITY HALLS, GLASGOW

APPROPRIATE, surely, that a piece of music inspired by a ballad of supernatural shape-changing should be composed and performed by three habitually genre-defying musicians. A response to, rather than a setting of, the powerful ballad Tam Lin, this hour-long suite proved an unpredictable delight, featuring Dick Lee on clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax and whistle, John Kenny on trombones and recorders, and pianist James Ross.

The song has been widely adapted in both music and literature – perhaps most notably, as Kenny acknowledged, in Fairport Convention's folk-rock version of four decades ago. This, however, was chamber-ish music, but reflecting the otherworldly atmosphere and narrative drive of the original, making spare use of occasionally recalcitrant electronic effects, and with Kenny introducing each section with a few lines from the ballad.

Opening with creepily lugubrious tones on bass clarinet, sonorous drones from the trombone, and a folk-like melody on piano, this rich-toned music ranged from wistfully lyrical passages to baleful rasps from muted trombone.

Memorable moments included Ross's piano working up the pace with Kenny's trombone blaring like a great hunting horn; elsewhere a shift into strathspey time, or Lee playing his clarinet into the piano body to trigger an atmospheric susurrus of vibrating piano strings.

Unusually among ballads, Tam Lin boasts a happy ending – apart, that is, from an enraged fairy queen, whose wrathful final declamation was reflected in eldritch noises, as the piece faded into tranquil woodland murmurings. Magic, as they say.