The musicians who have contributed, greatly, to Andrew Cronshaw's albums over the years, and many of whom have appeared live at various times too, are (alphabetically):
Natacha Atlas
Fred Thelonious Baker
Micky Barker
Ian Blake
Dave Bristow
Abdullah Chhadeh
Dave Clewlow
BJ Cole
Rosie Cross
Jonathan Davie
Liz Dyer
Mark Emerson
Vo Fletcher
Jon Gillaspie
Chris Haigh
Laurie Harper
Arto Järvelä
Rick Kemp
Sanna Kurki-Suonio
Heikki Laitinen
Lev Liberman
Rory McLeod
Bernard O’Neill
Jamie Orchard-Lisle
Rachel Perry
Brendan Power
Minna Raskinen
Llio Rhydderch
Antti Rintamäki
Hannu Saha
Ric Sanders
Kimmo Sarja
Martin Simpson
June Tabor
Holly Tannen
Matthaios Tsahourides
Neti Vaandrager
Jenny Wilhelms
Cronshaw has for many years performed solo, and from time to time with other musicians. Over the past couple of years Armenian duduk master Tigran Aleksanyan has joined him on some shows, as has, when geography permits, Australia-resident reeds player, multi-instrumentalist and long-time collaborator Ian Blake.
Occasionally over the years there has gathered a bigger ensemble, with the umbrella title "Andrew Cronshaw And..." For a show in the Half the World series at London's Pizza on the Park in February 07 the "And..." comprised Andrew Cronshaw, Tigran Aleksanyan (Armenian duduk), Jenny Adejayan (cello), Louai Alhenawi (Syrian nay, percussion), Attab Haddad (Iraqi oud), Zuzana Novak (vocals, Shona mbira)and guest Natacha Atlas (vocals).
There's a long fRoots magazine cover feature interview with Cronshaw by Ken Hunt - published in 2005 so not up to date, but reasonably in depth - online here. See also andrewcronshaw.com or cloudvalley.com.
The very latest development is a live, and probably in due course recording, group involving Cronshaw with the great Serbian traditional singer Svetlana Spajic, Armenian duduk master Tigran Aleksanyan and Australia-resident Brit reeds player and multi-instrumentalist Ian Blake.
Tracks 5 and 6 on this page's player are a taste of that.
The trio of Cronshaw, Spajic and Aleksanyan made its live debut in April 08 in a broadcast performance for Polish Radio's Nowa Tradycja festival in Warsaw; the first live performance by the quartet, indeed the first time they've all been in the same country at the same time, was in July 08 at WOMAD festival in the UK, on July 26th in an evening staged by fRoots magazine and on July 27th on the BBC Radio 3 stage, with the first part of the latter show broadcast live on Radio 3.
That broadcast was available streamed on demand on the BBC's iPlayer for a week after broadcast; now that week has passed, you can find it as track 6 here on the Cronshaw MySpace player. And click here for video of the first song. (Watch it on the "higher quality" setting if you can).
More performances by the quartet are planned.
And see the Žegar Živi MySpace page for a recording project undertaken by Spajic and Cronshaw, a CD of remarkable traditional singers in the village of Žegar in Dalmatia.
Track 1 on the player, The Shores of Turkey, comes from
"Ochre", the most recent of Cronshaw's eight albums, which is based on seven English folk song tunes.
Musicians on this track are Andrew Cronshaw: zither, dizi, quenacho, whistle,
ba-wu, fujara / Abdullah Chhadeh: oud / Ian Blake: soprano sax / Llio Rhydderch:
triple harp / Bernard O'Neill: double bass.
More about this album here.
Track 2 on the player is part of Käärme, a live duet between Cronshaw (zither, whistle) and Armenian duduk master Tigran Aleksanyan, recorded in September 2006.
Track 3, Ema Haual / Hällilaul - The Mother at the Grave / Lullaby, is the opening track of the 2000 album, "On The Shoulders Of The Great Bear", which was recorded in Kaustinen, Finland, in the snow of winter, and is based on 13 traditional tunes from the Finno-Ugrian lands of Finland, Ingria, Estonia and the Urals, and 3 from the Scottish Gaeltacht.
The underlying theme of this track is two Estonian runo-tunes played on the marovantele (the first recorded appearance of this instrument, which combines features from the Finnish kantele and Malagasy marovany). The bells are those of Kaustinen's wooden church.
The musicians on this track are Andrew Cronshaw: marovantele, wind-wand, gong / Ian Blake: soprano sax, voices / Bernard O'Neill: double bass.
More about this album here.
Track 4, Baile de Procesión, is a processional dance tune from the dulzaina and tamboril tradition of Castilla in central Spain. It comes from 1993's "The Language of Snakes", Cronshaw's 6th album, which drew on traditional material from England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain and Finland.
The musicians playing on this track are Andrew Cronshaw: zither / Ian Blake: bass clarinet / Chris Haigh: fiddle / BJ Cole: pedal steel / Brendan Power: harmonica.
More about this album here.
Track 5, recorded in 2007, is an early recording by a new Cronshaw ensemble that features the great Serbian traditional singer Svetlana Spajic. In A Solitary Song Svetlana sings an improvisation in the Bosnian Krajina potresalica ("shaking singing") style, based on the singing of Serbs Stana and Nikola Kostic from the village of Gustovare in western Bosnia. Cronshaw plays zither, Tigran Aleksanyan duduk, and Ian Blake bass clarinet.
NEW: Track 6 is the live BBC Radio 3 broadcast of the first part of the set by the quartet of Andrew Cronshaw, Svetlana Spajic, Tigran Aleksanyan and Ian Blake on the BBC Radio 3 stage at WOMAD UK on July 27th 2008. It was available on demand on the BBC iPlayer for a week after broadcast, but that week is passed, so it's listenable here for a limited time. This first part, which was about a quarter of the hour-long set, especially featured Svetlana, and includes an onstage interview with her by presenter Lucy Duran. There are three numbers: Crno Goro (Andrew on Chinese flute + zither, Tigran duduk, Svetlana vocal, Ian bass clarinet), a festive song (Svetlana solo) and a short version of Käärme (Andrew zither + drone, Tigran duduk, Ian bass clarinet).
Click here for YouTube video of the first song, Crno Goro. (Watch it on the "higher quality" setting if you can).
The Andrew Cronshaw website or Cloud Valley's has a lot more information - bio, full discography with track details, reviews, performance dates, photos, online sales of CDs, etc. And there too - for the diligent searcher - is one more album track to listen to...
Main photo of AC by Alexander Brattell, www.brattell.com. Album cover photos and other track pics are by AC, Jamie Orchard-Lisle, Antti Rintamäki, Svetlana Spajic and Karolina Jankowska
Stopped by for a listen. Inspired as usual. I really must get myself a dulcimer. I have been known to pull apart tune and play old pianos (otherwise heading to the tip) like a big dulcimer and I love it... but hmmm a smaller one would be more practical.. m
Dear andrew, Just to tell you we'll dance with one of your tunes in May, for our new piece 'Volubilis'. I'll tell you more soon. Hope you're great! Hugs Jackie & young dancers
Thanks for your reply. I hope you do get to play up my way again especially by candlelight! I saw you at the Early Music Centre in York and was disappointed it wasn't totally candlelit, though it was great!
dear mr.c. thank you for being friendly with us.i remember seeing you play at st albans civic in the mid late 70s.supporting i think jack the lad.two reasons for holding the memory,firstly the sheer beauty of the music,secondly,the crowd all sat down on the floor and like myself was mesmerised.and i see you are still at it,we commend you sir, we do.reegards.vince
Thanks for the add Andrew. I'm a huge fan. I wish all of your albums were readily available in the US though. I only have 3 (found @ overseas stores). But I'll keep looking for the other 5 albums. Keep it up
