Album reviews: Jonnie Common | Gerry Rafferty Classical | Folk | Jazz | World

A round-up of the week's releases by the Scotsman's music critics

POP

Jonnie Common: Master Of None

Red Deer Club, only available from www.jonniecommon.com

***

THE Fence Collectee formerly known as Down the Tiny Steps reverts to his real pop star-worthy name for this modest treat of an album which boasts the witty yet plaintive charm of his compatriot King Creosote, albeit minus that affecting, melodic je ne sais quoi. Master Of None blends analogue electronica with lo-fi indie whimsy and the warm dappling of steel guitar, producing an electro-country feel on some tracks. The most creative of these is the hazy, bittersweet Summer Is For Going Places which loops archive folk vocals to hypnotic effect, displaying the languid ache of a Scottish Beck.

Gerry Rafferty: City to City

EMI, 7.99

***

THERE is a rich irony at play in remastering and reissuing an album renowned as Gerry Rafferty's consummate expression of his post-Stealers Wheel hate affair with the music business. Imagine how Rafferty might respond in his shaggily soulful tones to news of a bonus CD of demos… But fans will surely want to reacquaint themselves with the album's evocation of restlessness and rootlessness, as well as its mellow love songs, before moving on to an early studio version of Take The Money And Run (from his next album Night Owl), the simple Beatlesy melody of Matty's Rag divested of its souped-up AOR production and ultimately to a demo of Baker Street with the iconic saxophone melody played on wah-wah guitar.

FIONA SHEPHERD

CLASSICAL

Concerto Caledonia: Revenge of the Folksingers

Delphian, 13.99

***

IT'S a dangerous thing to categorise Concerto Caledonia, whose loose make-up of personnel allows it to cross musical borders with an ease of conscience that is always refreshing, and occasionally a shade anarchic. Classical or traditional? This CD – a result of a residency last winter in the isolated charm of Aldeburgh – is as enigmatic as the title suggests. Artistic director David McGuinness explains a process that saw him draw together his "17th-century dance band", vocals included, take a cursory look at Aldeburgh legend Benjamin Britten's folk song arrangements, toss them aside (apart from The Salley Gardens, rearranged for the disc) and come up with arrangements of their own – from settings of Burns to Hamish Henderson and featured singer Olivia Chaney – as well as traditional pavans and galliards peppered with tinkling orchestrations. It's well-tempered fun, as you'd expect from McGuinness and his wacky pals.

KENNETH WALTON

JAZZ

The Magic Hat Ensemble: Made In Gorton

Jellymould, 11.99

***

THE cover image depicting an LP record inside a well-worn inner sleeve and a track listing of familiar standards and classic jazz compositions by Victor Feldman, Art Blakey and Wayne Shorter rightly suggests an orthodox approach to the jazz repertory.

That said, the quintet tackle the material with such winning verve and enthusiasm that they can't help but sound fresh and fervent. Trumpeter Steve Chadwick is probably the most familiar face in the line-up, which also features Tony Ormesher's guitar work and some agile, grooving pianism from Andrzej Baranek, with Nick Blacka and Rob Turner on bass and drums respectively.

They move into a more abstract territory for a time on Feldman's Seven Steps to Heaven, but for the most part this is classic bop delivered with flair and energy by a very tight and inventive young band.

KENNY MATHIESON

FOLK

SPIERS & BODEN: THE WORKS

NAVIGATOR, 12.99

****

MELODEON player John Spiers and singer-fiddler Jon Boden have had an often catalytic impact on the English folk scene, as individuals with projects of their own (notably Boden's "Folk Song a Day") and as founder members of the mighty juggernaut Bellowhead.

Here, however, they celebrate the tenth anniversary of their award-winning duo with fresh re-recordings of some of their concert favourites, joined by such eminent guests as singers Maddy Prior and Eliza Carthy, Eliza's Dad, Martin, and guitarist Martin Simpson.

I defy anyone not to enjoy the result, with Boden's impassioned and sometimes wonderfully melodramatic vocals sounding these song-stories over Spiers' churning melodeon, often to an energetic stomp, sometimes to a gentler measure.

Particular gems include the irresistible pacing of a piece of terpsichorean exotica, The Rochdale Coconut Dance, their signature song The Prickle-Eye Bush, with its happy ending forestalling the hangman, and the all-out jig-time and spectacular vocal entry of Haul Away.

JIM GILCHRIST

WORLD

The Rough Guide to Sufi Music

RGNET, 8.80

***

AS WILLIAM Dalrymple says in his excellent liner-note, this CD takes the listener to the "other side" of Islam, where the puritanical and negative effects of orthodoxy do not hold.

Sufism is Islamic mysticism, and it's the most accessible and liberal face of that religion. The great Sufi saints believed that all religions were one, merely different manifestations of the same divine reality: their search is for the God within, for total immersion in the absolute, and to look beyond the letter of the law.

Sufism has spread far across the globe, linking simple peasant communities and rarefied philosophical enclaves. As al-Ghazzali wrote in the 11th century: "The hearts of men have been so made by God that, like flints, they contain a hidden fire which is awakened by music and harmony, and renders man beside himself with joy.

"These harmonies are echoes of that higher reality which we call the world of the spirits. They fan into flame the love already dormant in the heart."

This fascinating CD reflects many facets of Sufism in its musical and dance expressions, and what is notable is how the same spirit emerges, whether it is from Egypt, Pakistan, or Mali. The Turkish ney-flute player Kudsi Erguner fills the first track with a wonderfully warm and rich sound, followed by the celebrated Al-Kindi ensemble from the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Then we go to Tamil Nadu, and from there to Senegal, where a singer accompanies his chant with pared-down simplicity on very basic metal percussion.

We get – of course – the late great Pakistani qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, with his high-pitched, free-ranging flights, and also a snatch of more commercial music from his home country. My favourite tracks are by the Punjabi gypsy singer Reshma, and by Cheb I Sabbah from Afghanistan.

MICHAEL CHURCH