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Fred's
Diary
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2005
Apr
28[Blindman's Holiday & Kim Sanders]
Instrumentalist Kim Sanders and the acapella group Blindman's Holiday appeared tonight.
The music was superb. Kim Sanders began with some haunting Turkish pieces on a woodwind instrumenet, which may have been a "ney" (Dervish flute) or kaval (long Turkish wooden flute). One half of my mind noted that the instrument sounded coarse, like a recorder with overblowing to get the high-pitched notes ; the other half of my mind hung absolutely transfixed on the exotic images evoked by the music.
Kim's next tunes were a Macedonian piece in 7/8 and a Bulgarian piece in 6/8 on some species of bagpipes. Unfortunately I could not follow the music, and was just left with impressions of the sound, which suggested juvenile R2D2 robots in the back seat of a car, poking and arguing with each other and stridently asking "are we there yet?" The pieces seemed specifically crafted to wake up the next-door neighbours.
More haunting Turkish pieces on woodwind followed. The faint sounds of the patrons' cutlery merely suggested the hooves and bells of goats while some lonely shepherd played his pipes.
Then we were back to the strident bagpipes, in a piece called "we're all mad!"
Linda Marr then joined Kim's instruments in some songs:
After a break, Blindman's Holiday appeared with some songs from Finland, Quebec, songs about credit cards (English), something happening in the hot sun (Sardinian dialect, chorus sounded like "Satore de forte"), coffee (English), Australian detention camps ("Behind barbed wire"), an entreaty to the goddess of the sea (Brazil), "Love, lust, commitment and trust" and an audience sing-along with the Colombian song "A Adorar a San Antonio" - "In praise of Saint Anthony", with its chorus "Río ri río ra, San Antonio ya se va!"
Finally, Kim rejoined Blindman's Holiday in a Bulgarian song by the ?Bisserol sisters (about whom Kim is developing a limerick), an Achinese lullaby from Malabo, a Hungarian/Transylvanian song and, lastly, "Doin' Time" (English).
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