When she was 8 years old, harpist Mary Lattimore, who played at the Fasching Jazz Club on Sunday evening, entered a Sesame Street competition. Her mum sent in a drawing she had done and to Mary’s joy and astonishment she won. She told us that she hasn’t won anything since.
The prize was 8 tickets to the Sesame Street live show which was playing at the small town where she lived in North Carolina. And best of all was a visit backstage to meet the stars. One moment from that visit has stayed with her ever since was meeting Big Bird and the ginormous hug he gave her. One small girl wrapped up in two enormous yellow wings.
That memory has become her happy place. Somewhere she can retreat when life is too dark and brutal.
It was the inspiration for the exquisite instrumental, And he wrapped his wings around me, which she played after telling us the story behind it. She was alone on stage sitting behind the enormous harp that she’d borrowed from a Stockholm musician called Anna. Using an effects pedal, she would loop her playing, constructing great spider’s webs made up of exquisite arpeggios. Introspective, intricate, suggestive, hopeful music that is the perfect antidote for the troubled times in which we live.
Mary is a superb raconteur and many of the pieces were prefaced by a story about what had inspired her. Seeing a dead whale when she’d been musician in residence at a retreat outside of San Francisco. Or recovering from a broken jaw, which had stopped her from speaking for two months, at the same time as astronaut Scott Kelly was coming to terms with life back on earth after a year in space.
That resulted in the track, For Scott Kelly, Returned to Earth.
She sent a copy of that track to NASA and heard later that Scott had really liked it.
The evening was a superb Fasching double bill. Death and Vanilla, a trio from Lund kicked things off. Talk about earworms! Their dreamy, melodic, atmospheric pop reminded me of Saint Etienne, Dubstar, Stereolab, Martha and the Muffins and many more beside.
I read on their record company site that they’ve performed live soundtracks for screenings of Polanski’s The Tenant and Dreyer’s 1932 horror movie Vampyr.
Give them a listen on Spotify. You will soon be hooked.
Icing on the cake for me was running into my old pal, Gunilla, at the merch table. She was at the gig with her recently-married, niece, who is a professional musician. Guess which instrument she plays! Now I know what a harpist does on her honeymoon. Takes hubby to jazz harp gig at Fasching.
After the gig, Anna, the harp’s owner emerged from the audience to take her beloved (but rather large) instrument home, obviously very pleased with what she’d heard. She was not short but that harp was a lot taller. There was no way she would get that in a taxi!
Mary Lattimore is currently in the UK and Ireland . Go on! Treat yourself!
TUE 26 MAR7:30 PM. London, UK. Scala. …
WED 27 MAR7:30 PM. Manchester, UK. The Stoller Hall
THU 28 MAR8:00 PM. The Duncairn, Belfast, UK
FRI 29 MAR8:00 PM. Unitarian Church, Dublin, Ireland. ..
Easter is coming, so what better than some exquisite harp music?
Who is your Queen, King or Knave of Hearts?
Catrin Finch, Alice Coltrane, Alain Stivell, Edmar Casteneda, Andreas Wollenweider ???
When it comes to a discussion of angelic plinking and tinkling, who do you harp on about?
What a swizz! Big Bird is not in the vid. Beautiful tune anyway.
And here’s the tune for Scott Kelly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAwtRLduht
Here’s Scott in space.
And returning home.
I read Scott Kelly’s book about spending a year in space; Endurance, a few years ago and enjoyed it a lot (despite not being much of a space nut).
Interesting story full of answers to questions I didn’t know I needed to ask.
Alas, beyond a fondness for Harpo Marx, I have no connection to harp music…
As a Hollywood superstar, Harpo is probably the most famous harpist who ever lived.
So that’s good place to start @Locust.
And he can certainly can play!
But I hope I’ll be able to get you a little more interested on this thread.
I’m impressed that you’ve read Scott Kelly’s book. I’d never heard of him before Sunday.
“Interesting story full of answers to questions I didn’t know I needed to ask.”
Do you mean to say a lack of gravity is not a problem that you have to deal with at your workplace?
Your reading will certainly come in handy for small talk if Christer pops in to buy a packet of sweets.
Sunday evening at Fasching.
That harp.
I suspect many of you will know Welsh harpist, Catrin Finch, thanks to her albums with kora maestro, Seckou Keita.
This morning on Spotify I stumbled across a gorgeous album, Double You, that she has recorded with Irish violinist, Aoife ni Bhriaina.
Here she is playing with Seckou at an Eisteddfod. I was delighted to hear that she is a fluent Welsh speaker. He is learning a few words too, bless him.
I’ve rather lost track of Mary Lattimore – I bought Silver Ladders when it came out (2020, was it?) probably as a result of a recommendation on this site – but I don’t think I’ve heard anything new by her since then. My fault, clearly…
Mary mentioned Silver Ladders, @Fitterstoke, and played a couple of tunes from it. She talked about working with Neil Halstead as producer.
She also described Slowdive as the best band on the planet and certainly got some brownie points from me for that.
You should certainly give her newer stuff a listen on Spotify or YT.
I went to the gig thanks to @DuCo01‘s recommendation.
We are so different in our approach to gig-going.
He’ll try and listen to as much as he can of an artist beforehand.
Once I’ve heard a couple of tracks by a new artist and have got a good feeling about the music, I’ll stop listening. I want to come to the gig as fresh and open as possible. I’ll listen more after the gig.
I’m exactly the same if I go to a movie. I definitely don’t want to see the trailer or read too many reviews. If, for example, Wendy Ide, Fredrik Sahlin, Mark Kermode and Peter Bradshaw have all given a movie a thumbs up, I’m keen to give it a try.
A Palme D’Or from Cannes, an Oscar or the Audience Award from the Stockholm Film Festival will all increase my interest.
I just stumbled across an article with some interesting statistics about the gender stereotypes when it comes to choosing a musical instrument.
https://www.wqxr.org/story/stereotyping-instruments-why-we-still-think-some-are-for-boys-others-for-girls/
“95% of harpists reported are women, as are 66% of flute players; the overwhelming majority of percussionists are men (94%), ditto trumpeters (97%). ”
As mentioned above, a conventional harp is a large, heavy and rather cumbersome instrument.
Odd in a way, that it appeals to so many female musicians.
But there are blokes too. When I mentioned Mary B to Mrs KFD, she suddenly remembered an old fave from her youth: Swiss, New Ager, Andreas Wollenweider.
Then, from Brittany, there’s Alain Stivell. When he plays his Celtic harp, the moshpit goes mad
And now something very different: the percussive, Colombian, jazz harp of Edmar Castaneda.
He is something else.
Sabroso! Some harp music is a perfect antidote for insomnia. Spotify has lots of playlists in the vein of Soothing Celtic Harp at Bedtime.
You won’t get much sleep wen Edmar’s arround.
Brandee Younger & Dezron Douglas – Hortense
In a rather unusual setting.
Brilliant stuff, @Mike_H. I am very glad you reminded me of Brandee. She’s wonderful.
Her she is Tiny Desking.
In her Spotify biog Brandee mentions that she honours the legacy of Dorothy Ashton.
Dorothy was from Detroit and Stevie Wonder was also a big fan.
No mention of the extremely brilliant Cerys Hafana, who very nearly won The Afterword’s Album of the Year Poll a few years ago?
Thanks a lot @gary.
I am so pleased that I have AW pals like you who will get me back on track when come off the road.
Cerys is wonderful. How did I manage to overlook her? I’m very pleased that you reminded me. Let’s have some more at once!
You just jogged my memory. I suddenly recall that Arooj Aftab had an excellent harpist playing on her Tiny Desk session. (Along with the magnificent Gyan Riley on guitar, Darian Donovan Thomas on violin and Shahzad Ismaily on bass and synth. What a band!)
Her name is Maeve Gilchrist! And here she is
I’m kicking myself for not mentioning Joanna Newsom.
She’s that most unexpected of things: a siger-songwriter who plays a harp rather than a sensible, small instrument like a guitar, kantele or banjo.
She attracts a rather dedicated fanbase and so I’m not a really hardcore fan. Her Minnie Mouse vocals are a tad off-putting,
But when DuCool and I saw her at Dramaten (the Swedish National Theatre) I was very impressed. She has a lot of charisma and a disarming sense of humour.
“Do you do your own taxidermy?” Dave Letterman was a card! And the most perfect of hosts! What an uncanny ability he had to make guests feel welcome!
Ah, of course – I’m a big fan of Joanna Newsom but it didn’t cross my mind either that she plays the harp. Probably because I’ve never seen her live, and although the harp is all over her albums I don’t really think about it as being harp music! That’s just one part of a whole, where the gorgeous melodies, interesting lyrics and her (IMO wonderfully) distinctive voice are the other big parts of the appeal.
I love a distinctive voice, most of the “good voices” of the world are too bland and dull for my taste.
I wasn’t very keen on her voice on “The Milk-Eyed Mender”, though I did enjoy short listens of a few tracks at a time. Later on, with “Ys” and “Have One On Me” she seemed to tone down the vocal quirks a bit and the music was more enjoyable for it.
Haven’t played her for a long time. About 8 years according to MediaMonkey. Must revisit.
Sometimes you need a little something different.
Quite brilliant! Thanks a lot Hubert!!
I’d never heard of Pauline Vallance but she is a talent to be reckoned with.
Next up: Sexual Healing to the tune of Postman Pat!!
What will Mrs Goggins have to say about that?
Stairway to Heaven to the the tune of Snooker Loopy … quite brilliant pick-up for a Sunday afternoon
Edit: just found Sweet Child o Mine to the tune of The Wombling Song too
Glad you both enjoy them, she would post them on The I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue Facebook page during lockdown.
ISIHAC are rather good at this sort of mash up, aren’t they? I can imagine her stuff went down a treat.