well... there's me on the ol' runt bass (aka violin)-------------------------
and live...such delights such delights my people: the boys of the band------ and verily you will see them on the road --- and you will be overcome with glee... they are nimble of finger. and fly of face.... oh yes.
red leader's squadron (in no particular order...)
squeezy ian 'shetlanding's a lost art' watson on accordion
daniel glendining geeetar, vox, shirtlessness
ali friend on showstopping bass (quite literally)
the sugarush kid all the way from oz on the ivories, yes and the glockenspiel - that's mr grant very clever windsor to you
and keeping it animal on the drums, mr stevie pilgrim
Influences
where do i start..?
this week am loving kings of convenience song know-how that I discovered somewhere in the deepest regions of my i-pod...something about the bass on that.
but otherwise... ooh mr nick cave and tom waits esq... soul coughing, esquivel, anything the kronos quartet get up to (especially if it involves clint PWEI mansell), richard hawley (the voice on that man), visotsky, theo bikel, shantel/bucovina club gypsy beats, hutz sergei (my doppel) & the bordellos,----------------
dmitri shostakovitch, steve reich, martha wainwright, rufus too, antony, ha! and lamb of course. that track earl zinger did with koop modal mile... and mr devendra banhart - - how brilliant is he?
then there's the worldy side of things - darko rundek, the klezmatics (still going strong and I love 'em so), vera bila, taraf, and oi va voi - for nostalgic reasons... AND my top tip...trumpeter avishai cohen (remember the name..)
------------------------------------------------------------------film-stylee: anything kusturica, mikhalkhov's burnt by the sun, gadjo dilo, anything the amazing alberto iglesias lends his soundtrack wizardry to....-------------------------------------------------
when i'm not getting carpal tunnel on here, i like books, remember them?....bely, bulgakov, dostoevsky, murakami, gogol, and poems by blok, tyutchev, akhmatova, esenin and cohorts....
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then IN THEIR VERY OWN PEDESTAL POSITION----------- there's
keith richards, yuri basmet, radu lupu & jaz coleman................
Sounds Like
violin, but not as you know it....nick cave stumbles across a drunken accordion player in a darkened underpass somewhere in the haze of a moscow dawn....
chopin meets gotan on the steppes..
all helped along by the delightful vocal talents of richard hawley, kt tunstall & ralph fiennes.
Buy Poison Sweet Madeira NOW -----------------------------------------------------
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once upon a time....set out across the ocean in my peagreen boat...
wearing big blackboots, over the knee..hurrah for the winter chill
AND, HERE LAYDEEZ AND GENTLEMEN ------------------------------------THE FULL LA-DI-DA BIOG--------------------------------
Sophie Solomon's voice is her violin. Whether she's performing with the LSO or playing with her own band, her music is a thrilling combination of technique and passion that refuses to be confined by the conventional parameters of the instrument. " When I play, the violin is like an extension of my body," she says. "I'm not thinking about anything else. I don't completely understand what happens but it's definitely as if the spirit takes over." Her unique musical vision reaches its full flowering on her self-composed Decca debut solo album Poison Sweet Madeira, an audacious mix of different styles and influences given purpose and unity by her extraordinary violin playing. It's a record that defies categorisation as classical influences collide gloriously with world music flavours drawn from Russia, eastern Europe, north Africa, gypsy music, tango and klezmer to create a vibrant musical portrait of one of the most adventurous artists of our time. Sophie Solomon began playing the violin at the age of two. At four she met Yehudi Menuhin and was taken to see the great cellist Rostropovich. For the first five years she played totally by ear, learning to read music at the age of seven. The violin was her life.
She often exasperated her teachers by her inability to sit still and her exuberant habit of jumping up from her seat when excited by the music she was playing, but was gifted enough to rise rapidly through the National Children's Orchestra and ProCorda to become one of the most promising violinists of her generation. Yet by the age of 16 she had come to realise that there was a wider world of music waiting to be discovered. "I'm very passionate about classical music, but I was never completely satisfied by the classical world alone," she says. "I felt constrained by the fact that the music was written down and the strict parameters of the repertoire. I felt I had to step outside of that and find my own voice." While studying History and Russian at Oxford University, Sophie not only DJed drumnbass, but also developed a passion for other kinds of music such as Russian, klezmer, East European and gypsy styles. Three generations back her fathers family had been Jewish immigrants from Poland and Lithuania, and a year spent living in Russia, was a life-changing experience. She also travelled widely in Poland and Eastern Europe, absorbing new sounds and influences along the way. Sophie's experiences led in 1999 to her becoming a founder member of Oi Va Voi, one of the most exciting bands in Britain today (Daily Telegraph). "With Oi Va Voi I came back to the violin on my own terms," she says. "...It was liberating because I had the technique but felt I'd lost the constraints that classical training imposes." Famed for their live appearances and Sophie's on-stage pyrotechnics (one critic dubbed her 'the Keith Richards of the violin'), the band's debut album Laughter Through Tears received rave reviews, was voted in the top 10 albums of 2004 by the New York Times, and won them two nominations in BBC Radio 3's annual awards for world music.
Sophie became increasingly in-demand, lending her violin playing to the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Heather Nova and Theodor Bikel and collaborating with Canadian hip-hop producer Socalled on the album Solomon & Socalled's HipHopKhasene (released on the German-based Piranha label) which won the German Record Critics Award for Album of the Year 2004. She has also taught at London's School for Oriental and African Studies and is on the artistic advisory committee of the Genius of the Violin festival, the only such event in the world devoted entirely to the instrument. A solo career which tied together her diverse musical interests was the next logical step. "Ive always been fascinated and inspired by a rich tapestry of music and the solo record has given me the opportunity to explore this. There's a deep Russian influence, a North African vibe, a drunken underground Romanian late-night bar feel and a Tom Waits sleaze factor creeping in I wanted an album that was diverse but had a cohesive voice, which is my violin."
Produced by Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby (Finley Quaye/Oi Va Voi/Ben Taylor) and Marius de Vries (Madonna/Bjork/David Gray and a host of films such as Moulin Rouge), three tracks have guest vocals. A Light that Never Dies finds actor and fellow Russophile Ralph Fiennes lending his voice to words based on a poem by Russian Symbolist Alexander Blok. Burnt by the Sun, sung by Richard Hawley, ex Pulp and Longpigs guitarist and now one of the most talked about artists of 2005, is "based on Stalin's favourite tango and is the first thing I learned to play on the accordion," and KT Tunstall is simply stunning on Lazarus.
"I've been obsessed with Russia since I was about nine - It's a country where life is lived in full colour with extreme polarities of experience - from pain and suffering to the heights of exuberant passion and wildness. Musically I hope there's something of those extremes on the record."
Oh Sophie, thank you so much for those links to the Lodz, Poland concert on TV. It looked brilliant, but how did they remain seated? Any chance of getting it released on DVD or any other live performance, while we wait for Album 2. Or better still, how about coming to Dublin for a live performance ! You have so many distractions with film scores, composing and directing for theatre, etc. It is three years since I saw you in Paris, and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Bring on this album ! Best wishes, Gerard x
Sophie, you are very welcome back. Great news about Album 2, I'm really looking forward to it, and hearing more details. It's exactly what we need in these gloomy times - good music to cheer us up. The sooner the better !
I liked your solo-album very much - and on oi va vois laughter..... record - you did a marvellous job. thanx a lot - looking forward to here more from you!!
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