Entertainment
Heady folk fusion from unique European outfit
Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie
Galway won’t know what hit it when Magda Navarrete & Caravana Banda play The Rowing Club, Woodquay, on Sunday, April 24. The band plays music that draws from Balkan, Polish, Flamenco and gypsy traditions. If that sounds like a heady fusion, let it fall to the late David Bowie to simplify things. Let’s dance!
The band met when Polish singer Magda Navarrete was staying in an artists’ residence in the Polish mountains. She was getting ready to leave when a gang of musicians arrived.
“They were dropping off their things and going off to do a concert,” Magda says. “I heard them speaking Spanish, and the owner of the place said ‘these are my friends from the Czech Republic’. They had been living in Madrid, and I said ‘oh, I lived there too’. They saw me with a cajon [box-shaped drum] and they started to talk to me.
“I said I did flamenco music and they said they played Balkan brass,” Magda continues.
The musicians asked her if she’d like them to play for her and she said she would.
“They went outside the house, and were gone for a few minutes,” she recalls. “I thought ‘ah, they’re not coming’. Suddenly, I saw them pass the window, playing. I went outside, it was summer, and I saw this huge view of the mountains. They were playing and I thought ‘oh my God, this is the thing I was looking for’.
Calling themselves Caravana Banda, the band played Magda a song called Amor Y Oro. The song stuck in her head – “I was dreaming about it,” she says. So, four days after that chance meeting, she took the night train to Prague and met with the band’s musical director Tomas Prusa. They decided to start a project together.
“We had this day of chatting to each other, drinking a lot of Czech beer, eating a lot of goulash, thinking about how we could make this fusion work,” Magda says. “It wasn’t that obvious – I’m Polish, but I do Spanish music. They’re Czech, but they do Balkan music. But we found a nice spot in that music where we use our folkloric influences.”
Magda goes on to explain this cultural mish-mash a bit more.
“We use some very old Polish melodies, and we turn them into rhythmical things,” she says. “And we also use some Czech songs. They have a tradition of wine, and celebrating it, because their region Moravia is almost touching Italy. Wine can be mature or very young. If it’s very young, you can get very sick. So they’re singing about ‘how old or young is this wine? How bad are we going to feel afterwards?’ These kind of things!”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Folk duo Niall Teague and Pádraic Joyce are launching their new album What Will We Be, a blend of folk, Americana and acoustic music, this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in An Taibhdhearc.
The success of their well-received 2020 release Taobh le Taobh, as well as recent successes at the Pan Celtic and Oireachtas Song Contests, spurred the duo on to record this new album which represents many years of collaboration and musical development.
It features Niall and Pádraic on vocals, harmonies, and acoustic guitars, Maidhc Ó hÉanaigh on double bass and Neil Fitzgibbon on fiddle. The catchy title track, What Will We Be, features contributions from percussionist Jim Higgins (The Stunning, Christy Moore, Paul Brady) and haunting, driving melodies on vocals, guitar, and fiddle.
Themes of love and hope are woven through Come Away with Me which features interplay between piano and fiddle as well as rich vocal harmonies.
People, places, and broken dreams are celebrated and lamented on Martin and Tom, Guitar Gold, Memories of You and Achill Island. The influence of David Henry Thoreau’s novel Walden features on the tracks Simple and Wise and Walden, with the beauty of nature, escape and simple pleasures at their core.
The album moves from minimalistic folk ballads such as Galway Ghost to swirling, string-laden arrangements on the song Neptune, both of which are influenced by maritime tales from Galway. Much of the work on this album was supported by the Arts Council, including work with musical arranger Eoin Corcoran and the string ensemble Treo.
The album will be launched this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in an Taibhdhearc. Tickets €22, plus booking fee at Eventbrite.ie.
Dunmore is the place to be this weekend for lovers of traditional music, as the Galway County Fleadh will take place there from this Friday, May 19, to Sunday, May 23.
It is 10 years since Dunmore last hosted a fleadh and the local Comhaltas branch, which has re-formed since Covid, is looking forward to facilitating this gathering of music, song, dance and craic.
The official Opening Concert will take place in Dunmore Town Hall this Friday at 8pm with the acclaimed Mulcahy family from Limerick. Mick, Louise and Michelle are well known throughout the country, thanks to their live performances, television appearances and numerous CDs. They were the winners of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Grúpa Ceoil Award for 2023. Tickets for their concert can be purchased on the door and a great night of music is promised.
Two days of competitions will kick off this Saturday at the town’s Community School, with more than 1,500 competitors taking part. Participants will be hoping to qualify for the Connacht Fleadh 2023, which will be held in Ballina, County Mayo, from June 23 to July 2.
Competitions for those aged Under 10, Under 12 and Under 15 will be held in a large variety of instruments on Saturday, as well as in singing and Comhrá Gaeilge. Sunday’s competitions will be for the Under 18 and Over 18 ages groups, as well as in dancing.
On both days a large entry is expected for Grúpaí Cheoil and Céilí Band competitions across all age groups.
Seventeen Comhaltas branches from across Galway will have participants in this weekend’s competitions, which will result in a large number of visitors to the Dunmore area.
Members of the public are welcome to attend the competitions, which offer a great opportunity to hear and see the talent on display. There will be sessions in local pubs over the weekend as well and everybody is welcome to attend these.
For more information on the County Fleadh, go to www.galwaycomhaltas.ie.
Music for Galway’s concert with renowned Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia which had been due to take place on April 27 but which had to be deferred, will now take place next Tuesday, May 23, at 8pm, in the Emily Anderson Concert Hall at the University of Galway.
This concert of German classics with Bach at its core, will brings the Bach element of Music for Galway’s 41st season to an end.
This world-class pianist who won the famous Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, has a repertoire that spans many eras from baroque to contemporary and he is widely known for his elaborate programmes. Cédric Pescia describes music as ‘language and movement at the same time’.
Audiences will have a chance to experience his soft, clear touch as he performs a programme for solo piano that will include classics such as Schumann’s popular Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), a suite of nine short pieces, and the penultimate of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, No. 31. These pieces will be interspersed with French Suites by Bach.
■ Ticket for Cédric Pescia’s concert are available at www.musicforgalway.ie, or by phone 091 705962 and on the door on the night. They cost €20/€18. The price for fulltime students of all ages is €6 while MfG Friends can avail of the friends’ rate of €16.
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