A quick glance around the schedules

[Globaltruth]

Cerys has Tinariwen playing this morning.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lb37t

I've been chatting with the amiable Martin Wainright via the Twitter machine & am hoping he may feature this on r4's Pick of the Week. Although he is sadly determined to also feature the irksome Gambo on Don McLean....

[Paul Sherratt]

Mr Mid Atlantic is the one exception to my rule about not talking about presenters.

[johncorrigan]

Cerys looks like she's having a bit of a Jamaican fest this morning on 6 and I don't think it's got anything to do with the hundred metres tonight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lk5b7

[johncorrigan]

Following on from a rather excellent Cerys 6 Music continued its celebration of 50 years of Jamaican Independence with 'Wheel and Come Again', a really interesting doc about the cycles of Jamaican music written and presented by Colin Grant - I really recommend a listen. I certainly found out things I didn't know about and heard some great sounds, but the story of Bunny Wailer towards the end of the programme made me feel very sad. Great radio.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lk5b9

[Lateralthinking1]

Following on from a rather excellent Cerys 6 Music continued its celebration of 50 years of Jamaican Independence with 'Wheel and Come Again', a really interesting doc about the cycles of Jamaican music written and presented by Colin Grant - I really recommend a listen. I certainly found out things I didn't know about and heard some great sounds, but the story of Bunny Wailer towards the end of the programme made me feel very sad. Great radio.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lk5b9

Many thanks John.

I hope they concentrate on the first two decades as those, in my humble opinion, were by far the best musically.

[johncorrigan]

Many thanks John.

I hope they concentrate on the first two decades as those, in my humble opinion, were by far the best musically.

Yep Lat - that's what they did mostly.

[Globaltruth]

I've been chatting with the amiable Martin Wainright via the Twitter machine & am hoping he may feature this on r4's Pick of the Week. Although he is sadly determined to also feature the irksome Gambo on Don McLean....

What a gent! Mr Wainwright, Grauniad's Northern correspondent for last 4 decades, has just dropped me a note to say he didn't use Cerys on R4 Pick of the Week because she'd been POTW the previous week. Truly a victim of her own success.

Just thought I'd let you know.

[johncorrigan]

Many thanks John.

I hope they concentrate on the first two decades as those, in my humble opinion, were by far the best musically.

I was having a second listen to this yesterday and it really did merit a repeat, Lat. One of the really excellent bits has the Queen giving the Independence to Jamaica, and the arrival of a group of Rastafarians to the ceremony having come out of the bush with their drums. I had not known that drums were banned in Jamaica as they were seen by the plantation masters as dangerous. He also talks about the importance of the Wailers as the three character types of Jamaican males. I really found loads of interest in this programme and Colin Grant was a very erudite presenter.

[Lateralthinking1]

I was having a second listen to this yesterday and it really did merit a repeat, Lat. One of the really excellent bits has the Queen giving the Independence to Jamaica, and the arrival of a group of Rastafarians to the ceremony having come out of the bush with their drums. I had not known that drums were banned in Jamaica as they were seen by the plantation masters as dangerous. He also talks about the importance of the Wailers as the three character types of Jamaican males. I really found loads of interest in this programme and Colin Grant was a very erudite presenter.

Thanks for that John. That sounds very interesting. My fantastic teacher in 1970, and her husband in the Jamaican High Commission here, were among the most erudite and considerate people I have ever met. The music for me ties in with them and it will be fascinating to hear some more of the history just eight years earlier.

Funnily enough, I distinctly recall that among our correspondence a year or two later, one of her letters was written in a card with drawings of drums on it. I will have to locate it. They were though by then in Trinidad. Lat.

[johncorrigan]

Mark Coles has Baaba Maal with him on his most recent show as well as a discussion with Ian Anderson about the decline in World Music sales - don't know how he gets them into that shed - and a vaguely kinda Olympic themed show. Great tune from the Sunda Islands* among plenty others. (don't think they're in the limpets!)

http://www.markcolesmusic.com/Portfolio.php

* a group of islands on the Malay archipelago in case you didn't know.

[johncorrigan]

Just heard the Unthanks on Radcliffe on 6 today.
They played this from their new record - didn't hear it at Folk Awards time - very beautiful, I thought.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fL3E8FRxiw

[handsomefortune]

I was having a second listen to this yesterday and it really did merit a repeat, Lat. One of the really excellent bits has the Queen giving the Independence to Jamaica, and the arrival of a group of Rastafarians to the ceremony having come out of the bush with their drums. I had not known that drums were banned in Jamaica as they were seen by the plantation masters as dangerous. He also talks about the importance of the Wailers as the three character types of Jamaican males. I really found loads of interest in this programme and Colin Grant was a very erudite presenter.

thanks to this thread i found this programme. twas great jc - colin grant could do a whole series imo, especially the stuff about london west end musical/panto cross over back to jamaica,

also would like to hear more about the late 60s rasta scene amongst jamaican academics etc the researchers and experts guesting on the programme were very unique i thought - (being as it's quite a well worn subject.... as the history is more usually presented in the uk)!

yep - poor old bunny! so sweet, that he just wanted a semi rural life with his chickens etc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Wailer and still going strong!

'out of many, one people' reminds me of a cushion cover i inherited from a relative from trinidad and tobago, which the phrase is embroidered onto.

[Lateralthinking1]

thanks to this thread i found this programme. twas great jc - colin grant could do a whole series imo, especially the stuff about london west end musical/panto cross over back to jamaica,

also would like to hear more about the late 60s rasta scene amongst jamaican academics etc the researchers and experts guesting on the programme were very unique i thought - (being as it's quite a well worn subject.... as the history is more usually presented in the uk)!

yep - poor old bunny! so sweet, that he just wanted a semi rural life with his chickens etc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Wailer and still going strong!

'out of many, one people' reminds me of a cushion cover i inherited from a relative from trinidad and tobago, which the phrase is embroidered onto.

Yes, this was good stuff. Informative, well-presented and some wonderful music. Was there anywhere in the world where things didn't go rapidly downhill in the early 1990s? Substitute roses for chickens and I'm with the Wailer position.

Incidentally, I realise now that those drums on the card from Trinidad were steel drums. Well, they would be, wouldn't they.

[Lateralthinking1]

Just heard the Unthanks on Radcliffe on 6 today.
They played this from their new record - didn't hear it at Folk Awards time - very beautiful, I thought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fL3E8FRxiw

That just about ticks every box that this country can manage. It hardly seems possible in this decade that such has proven possible. Until the Ashore CD, two tracks recorded by June Tabor were, to my mind, head and shoulders above the rest - and that's saying something, given her standard. One was Natalie Merchant's 'Verdi Cries' and the other Dave Sudbury's 'King of Rome'.

So it's one of my favourite songs and now it has been done by my favourite British artists of the last decade - I can't think of one thing I don't like about the Unthanks, they are so right in every respect - and then added to all of that a bit of excellent Yorkshire brass which will always have a place for fairly obvious reasons and others too.

I would just add that I postponed it. It has been a very long time since I thought a group of musicians were so consistently good that I have regularly been nervous about whether they might suddenly have become rubbish. And to have those apprehensions again is, of course, an unexpected joy. Ten out of ten if I am not permitted eleven.

[johncorrigan]

That just about ticks every box that this country can manage.

I enjoyed the opening ceremony of the Limpets, Lat, but if anything was missing that should have been there it was a bit of Brass Band.