Rowlie at the Discovery Centre, Winchester

As I mentioned in my earlier post today, Rowlie opened the evening last night for Polly and the Billets Doux, at the Discovery Centre, Winchester. Rowlie is a print maker at the Winchester College of Fine Art, and, if his printing is as good as his singing and guitar playing, he's going to have a very successful career ahead of him. Shades of Syd Barrett, with similar lightness of touch and quirky lyrics.

Well, since I wrote the previous paragraph on on Sunday, I've seen some of Rowlie's work and I'm really impressed. This piece illillustration.com combines a great piece of fantastical artwork with an imaginative use of a virtual magnifying glass. I'll leave the reader to discover how to navigate the site, but take your time - it'll be worth it. I'd love to see the 1600x1400 dip pen and ink original. You'll find more of Rowlie's work on his web site.

The Queen and I:



Intaglio:

Polly and the Billets Doux at The Discovery Centre, Winchester

If you were in Winchester last night, you couldn't have had a better time than I had, listening to Polly and the Billets Doux playing live at The Discovery Centre - Winchester's new, intimate performance venue. After un-billed performances by the multi-talented Rowlie and Ryan O'Reily (surely a star in the making), Polly and her band came on to a rousing welcome and certainly didn't disappoint.

Here are a few samples.

When I get low I get high:



The old blues standard House of the Rising Sun, rendered in a way that makes it sound new, all over again:



The set closed with this - look out for Polly playing the lead guitar!



You can buy PBD's new EP CD at any good record shops or, I'm told, from iTunes, or visit the band web site . Their MySpace profile lists their upcoming gigs, including the GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL on 27 Jun 2008 at 13:00 .

A few months ago, I mentioned that I was thinking of getting a video camera. Well, as you can see, I got one and it's really great. Not too heavy but super quality, though you lose a lot when you compress the movie file for use on YouTube. I'll post some more videos and some music mp3s from the show, so keep a look out.

nps output webradio

Someone I met in Amsterdam yesterday told me about an internet radio station that played jazz and world music, so, this morning, when I got home, I decided to take a look at npsoutput.com . What I found is a never-ending stream of great, non-stop, music - world, jazz, blues and grooving music too, spread across three different channels. Indeed, three never-ending streams.

Go to the webradio page select the channel (Kies je station) and click the Shoutcast icon and open the playlist file to add the channels to your iTunes. The tracks being played have their titles shown, real-time. There's also a Media player link, if you prefer that. See the playlist on the right nav-bar for access and a display of what's playing now.

I've been listening to it all day now - you should do the same. It's playing an old Miles Davis / Gill Evans track now - sublime.

Laloli Jewellery Design, Amsterdam

I first found Laloli, at Grimburgwal 13, in Amsterdam, last year, when I was looking for something nice for my wife. I bought her a beautiful little enamel brouch, a tiger or a monkey. Anyway, she loved it and then she lost it, so, I was under orders to get her a replacement when I was there yesterday. All they had left was a turtle covered in hearts.

Monique, if you read this, she loves this one too.
Marianne, you'll have to let me know what other animals you make, since you've got a fan, over here.

I also bought a tulip brouch, like the one in the image (Copyright Laloli), but taller and thinner. They lots of other stuff too, including some wonderful gold earings. Maybe, next time.

Do you want to buy a joke?

"Do you want to buy a joke?" That's what I heard this guy say, yesterday in Amsterdam. Really. I was sitting on a bench, in the sun, looking at the canal, eating my chips - the best chips. No, I mean the best. He'd ridden up on a bike and was talking to the couple on the bench right behind me. Intrigued, I turned around and asked him what a joke costs. Good jokes were 2 euro and great jokes were 5. I asked for a good joke, but only had a five, so decided to go for the great joke. To be honest, the joke was good, but the telling was really great. It was the Panda joke - eats, shoots and leaves, respun.

So, when later in the day, I saw the pandas at the Go Gallery, I wondered, "what's with all of the pandas, all of a sudden." I'm not one for signs, so I figure it was just a coincidence, but it makes you think.

Sit at the Go Gallery, Amsterdam

Yesterday I was in Amsterdam for the day and decided to go the Go Gallery and pick up a copy on this year's Moon Calendar. So far, I've had to make do with seeing it tesselated as as the background on my laptop and I was looking forward to seeing it up close where you can see a lot more detail.


How lucky I was to stumble upon Sit's Unwired exhibition, now in its third week at the Go Gallery and running until 12th May. In his latest work, Sit, better known as Freakin Sitnie delivers a haunting prediction of a very bleak future. We all see examples of some of what Sit portrays here, everyday, but we still ignore the warning signs. Visit the Unwired website (select paintings) for a flash screenshow of details from the work. Let's all hope that his visions - if these are what they are - don't become much more real than they are today. I will not be able to forget the pandas. Speaking of pandas, see ...



Go Gallery describes Sit in these terms:

SIT (Amsterdam, 1976)
Sit,vroeger beter bekend als Freakin Sitnie, maakte jaren geleden furore inde Amsterdamse straatkunstscene met zijn geheel eigen stijl van scherpeen eigenzinnige schilderijen. Geïnspireerd door illustere comicillustratoren als Simon Bisley, Sam Keith, Todd Mcfarlane en JamieHewlett, perfectioneerde hij zijn stijl. In rap tempo werd hij zeersuccesvol. Zijn werk was overal te zien, tijdens evenementen en inclubs, van Amsterdam tot Kuala Lumpur. Vanaf 29 maart t/m 12 mei in GO Gallery.

Or, when translated by Google, with a little editing by me:

Sit, formerly known as Freakin Sitnie years ago created a furore in the Amsterdam street-art scene with his own style of scherpeen(?) idiosyncratic paintings. Inspired by illustrious comic-illustrators such as Simon Bisley, Sam Keith, Todd Mcfarlane, and Jamie Hewlett, he perfected his style. He rapidly became successful and his work has been widely seen, at events and in clubs, from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. From March 29 to May 12 in GO Gallery.

More details of how Sit approached this work can be found on blakkbyrd.

All images Copyright Sit, linked to on the Go Gallery website, or taken from a review on A Blue Chicken .

My charicature

I was in Las Vegas last week and had my charicature drawn by a Canadian artist called Sam Gorrie which bears quite a striking resemblence to what I look like. Here's a photo that I took of it. Sam took all of 10 minutes to draw this!! Cool, or what?

Joseph Sebag talking about Gnaoua

As my wife has described (at some length) we attended a Lila at the home of Maalem Mahmoud Guinea on Christmas evening, 2007. Here is a short podcast of Joseph Sebag, talking about Gnaoau music, that I recorded just before the music started.



As you can tell, Joseph, an Essaouira-born Moroccan, not only understands, but really loves, Gnaoua. If you want to learn more, you should pop into the Galeria Aida, his great little shop selling books and some wonderful ethnic jewellery on Rue de la Skala (just off the Place Moulay Hassan).

Here are three of the tracks that I recorded that night:

Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival 2008 June 26-29

Update: Line-up posted - see my post dated May 31

For the past few years, the Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music festival ended on Sunday with a big concert in the afternoon at Place Bab Marrakech. Last year, 2007, was different - things started a little earlier in the week and the whole thing ended on Saturday night. Not sure I liked it this way. Sunday just seemed a little flat this year. I had heard that they were tryng to restore the town to some sort of normality a little sooner, or maybe it was just because 2007 was the 10th anniversary.

Anyway, according to the festival website, the 2008 festival will run from Thursday June 26 to Sunday June 29, so, if you haven't done so yet, start to make your plans, book your flights and hotels.

While I'm talking, its worth visting the festival site, just to hear the great Maalem Hamid El Kasri singing that old gnaoua favourite - Chalaba.

If you'd like a taste of Gnaoua and world music, why not listen to some of my recordings from the 2007 Essaouira festival.

Should you be planning to visit Essaouira for the festival this year, be sure to take a walk up the Avenue Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah and stop in at Bob Music, at 3, Derb Youssef Ben Tachafine. Abderrahim OUBELLA, who runs the shop, has just about every Morrocan and sub-saharan musical instrument and he knows how to play them all. Tell him John Gnaoua sent you.

Line-up

No official lineup has been posted yet - last year these didn't appear until late April/May - but I think we can rest assured that the festival team will put on a great show for us all. In the meantime, I will keep this post updated with names of artists expected to attend, based on other sources of information.

• Juldeh Camara - One of my Myspace Friends - includes Essaouira 2008 in his list of gigs for this year. Take a listen to some of his music on his MySpace profile. Juldeh sings and plays the riti (nyanyeru), a traditional one-stringed fiddle originating from the nomadic Fulani cultures of the Sahel. I'm looking forward to hear how this sounds when fused with some gnaoua.


• A rumour is spreading on Facebook that Stephen Marley, one of Bob Marley's sons, will appear. Let's hope that there is some truth in this, but as yet, there's no evidence. Update June 1:Funny thing about rumours is that there's often some truth in them. Fact is Ky-Mani Marley, not Stephen, will be playing Essaouira this year.

Van Morrison with John Lee Hooker - GLORIA, etc etc

YouTube may have removed most of Van's music, but you can still find him elsewhere. Not all the classics that we used to be able to listen to, but some pretty good stuff , all the same.

I had posted links to them here, but even that apparently isn't allowed, so, following a request from that nice Web Sheriff, I am removing them. They are still out there, somewhere, as deft googling on your part will show. Sorry folks, but I need to bow out of this.

I'll leave the list of song titles I'd found, unless that's breakingthe rules, too.

GLORIA with John Lee Hooker

Baby Please Don't Go with John Lee Hooker

Brown eyed girl

Till I Gain Control Again - an interesting title given the current situation!

Them with Van Morrison - Mistic eyes and Gloria - old but veeerry good - look at those hep cats in the audience!

Georgia - Montreux Jazz Festival 2004

Have I Told You Lately (with Lavern Brown)

The Band & Van Morrison - Caravan - The Last Waltz

Days Like This - with Brian Kennedy