From the Romany road to the southside of Glasgow
Simon Thacker, Justyna Jablonska, Masha Natanson – Glad Cafe, Glasgow, 1st May 2018
Simon Thacker, Justyna Jablonska, Masha Natanson – Glad Cafe, Glasgow, 1st May 2018
You know you’re in for a good night when the café bar restaurant and live music venue you’ve just arrived at doesn’t just acknowledge and understand what is meant by the phrase "normal, plain white coffee please" but delivers with a seriously rich and strong cup of Joe with a jug of cold, fresh milk by its side.
The Glad Cafe on Glasgow’s southside may be a hip food and arts venue but they cater for all ages and all tastes – in food, drink and entertainment (the latter ranging from indie, world and traditional singer-songwriter musicians to film, drama and philosophical talks).
This time around, on a drizzly May evening, the Glad Cafe’s warm and inviting arts and music room featured the return of Edinburgh’s Simon Thacker, an outstanding classically based guitarist and composer who previously performed at the venue with Svari-Kanti (a pioneering fusion of western classical and Indian ragas).
Tonight however Simon Thacker was in the company of Lublin based singer and violinist Masha Natanson and Polish cellist Justyna Jablonska.
Jablonska is also Thacker’s supremely talented partner on the remarkable Karmana album, where Romany and traditional music forms (from India to Scotland) are deconstructed and reconstructed in to a progressive world music tour de force.
The trio were performing a number of select dates across Scotland on their Songs of the Roma tour, a geographical, historical and musical trip through Romany lands and song, with detailed, informative and at times wonderfully humourous between song anecdotes from Simon Thacker (a man who is as passionate about the songs and their history as he is about playing them).
Opening with 'Albedo,' a flamenco-meets-classical solo guitar piece from Karmana (and a virtuoso exhibition warm-up for Simon Thacker) the set continued with the Karmana 'Finale,' which concluded in a crescendo of guitar and cello.
Simon Thacker and Justyna Jablonska’s interplay, understanding and musical simpatico on 'Finale' is all the more impressive given that most of the time the pair are playing off of each other or between each other’s lines; it's also while watching such musicianship you start to truly understand why Karmana is the weighty work of expressive and artistic endeavour it is.
For all the talents of Simon Thacker and Justyna Jablonska it was the introduction, and featuring, of Masha Natanson that truly started the Romany journey.
A consummate violinist, with many a tune in perfect three part instrumentation harmony, it’s Natanson’s voice that lights up the Romany road.
Being a small room there was actually no need for the singer to be mic’d up (but amplifying a voice also helps protect a voice on the road, no matter how small a venue or room you’re playing) but Masha Natanson could, frankly, fill a large theatre without amplification.
Delicate yet sonorous, Natanson was captivating throughout, whether that be the light, bubbly and joyous vocal of 'La Carciuma De La Drum' (which also features on Karmana with Natanson guesting) or on the more forlorn, such as the vocally haunting rendition of 'Ederlezi,' formed around one of the most famous and beautiful Roma melodies.
The Glad Cafe on Glasgow’s southside may be a hip food and arts venue but they cater for all ages and all tastes – in food, drink and entertainment (the latter ranging from indie, world and traditional singer-songwriter musicians to film, drama and philosophical talks).
This time around, on a drizzly May evening, the Glad Cafe’s warm and inviting arts and music room featured the return of Edinburgh’s Simon Thacker, an outstanding classically based guitarist and composer who previously performed at the venue with Svari-Kanti (a pioneering fusion of western classical and Indian ragas).
Tonight however Simon Thacker was in the company of Lublin based singer and violinist Masha Natanson and Polish cellist Justyna Jablonska.
Jablonska is also Thacker’s supremely talented partner on the remarkable Karmana album, where Romany and traditional music forms (from India to Scotland) are deconstructed and reconstructed in to a progressive world music tour de force.
The trio were performing a number of select dates across Scotland on their Songs of the Roma tour, a geographical, historical and musical trip through Romany lands and song, with detailed, informative and at times wonderfully humourous between song anecdotes from Simon Thacker (a man who is as passionate about the songs and their history as he is about playing them).
Opening with 'Albedo,' a flamenco-meets-classical solo guitar piece from Karmana (and a virtuoso exhibition warm-up for Simon Thacker) the set continued with the Karmana 'Finale,' which concluded in a crescendo of guitar and cello.
Simon Thacker and Justyna Jablonska’s interplay, understanding and musical simpatico on 'Finale' is all the more impressive given that most of the time the pair are playing off of each other or between each other’s lines; it's also while watching such musicianship you start to truly understand why Karmana is the weighty work of expressive and artistic endeavour it is.
For all the talents of Simon Thacker and Justyna Jablonska it was the introduction, and featuring, of Masha Natanson that truly started the Romany journey.
A consummate violinist, with many a tune in perfect three part instrumentation harmony, it’s Natanson’s voice that lights up the Romany road.
Being a small room there was actually no need for the singer to be mic’d up (but amplifying a voice also helps protect a voice on the road, no matter how small a venue or room you’re playing) but Masha Natanson could, frankly, fill a large theatre without amplification.
Delicate yet sonorous, Natanson was captivating throughout, whether that be the light, bubbly and joyous vocal of 'La Carciuma De La Drum' (which also features on Karmana with Natanson guesting) or on the more forlorn, such as the vocally haunting rendition of 'Ederlezi,' formed around one of the most famous and beautiful Roma melodies.
If someone had dropped that pin during 'Ederlezi,' you would have actually a heard it hit the floor – and while there may have been a bar at the side of the room (what club sized music venue these days doesn’t?) no-one was going near it during any part of the show.
Indeed it was only at the intermission between sets was there was any real business being done bar-side and even then the discussions were more to do with what had just been heard during set one than what real ales were on tap.
That's the utmost respect for the artist (it’s a pity a percentage of the rock and blues fraternity that frequent the club with bar venues don’t hold to that same level of respect).
The second set was no less captivating and enthralling, with highlights including a brace of Romany songs of Russian descent.
The most striking of the pair was 'Ne govorite mne o nem,' here arranged as a stripped back, voice and guitar ballad (Simon Thacker arranges, or more accurately completely re-imagines or reinvents every number in the repertoire; so intricate are his reworkings that reams of sheet music are in front of all three players, making for hand-turning page and eye co-ordination as dexterous as their musical abilities).
FabricationsHQ is a rock orientated site but prides itself in being genre unspecific – if it rocks, whether that be Celtic folk, progressive metal or most points in between, it rolls on to the pages of FabricationsHQ and, in this particular case, down the Romany road of Simon Thacker, Justyna Jablonska and Masha Natanson.
If musical tales of Romany life and legend coupled with exquisite musicianship and evocative and emotive vocality capture your imagine and musical interest, get yourself on this trio's Romany road sometime soon.
Alternatively, if that road happens to lead to 1006a Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow, pop in to one of the finest community spirited café arts and entertainment venues in central Scotland, safe in the knowledge they pride themselves in bringing some of the best local and international arts and music performers to the city’s southside – as well as doing a cracking plain, normal white coffee.
That’s something to be applauded as loudly and thoroughly as Simon Thacker, Justyna Jablonska and Masha Natanson were.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Photo credit (live shot): Barbara Ostrowska
Indeed it was only at the intermission between sets was there was any real business being done bar-side and even then the discussions were more to do with what had just been heard during set one than what real ales were on tap.
That's the utmost respect for the artist (it’s a pity a percentage of the rock and blues fraternity that frequent the club with bar venues don’t hold to that same level of respect).
The second set was no less captivating and enthralling, with highlights including a brace of Romany songs of Russian descent.
The most striking of the pair was 'Ne govorite mne o nem,' here arranged as a stripped back, voice and guitar ballad (Simon Thacker arranges, or more accurately completely re-imagines or reinvents every number in the repertoire; so intricate are his reworkings that reams of sheet music are in front of all three players, making for hand-turning page and eye co-ordination as dexterous as their musical abilities).
FabricationsHQ is a rock orientated site but prides itself in being genre unspecific – if it rocks, whether that be Celtic folk, progressive metal or most points in between, it rolls on to the pages of FabricationsHQ and, in this particular case, down the Romany road of Simon Thacker, Justyna Jablonska and Masha Natanson.
If musical tales of Romany life and legend coupled with exquisite musicianship and evocative and emotive vocality capture your imagine and musical interest, get yourself on this trio's Romany road sometime soon.
Alternatively, if that road happens to lead to 1006a Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow, pop in to one of the finest community spirited café arts and entertainment venues in central Scotland, safe in the knowledge they pride themselves in bringing some of the best local and international arts and music performers to the city’s southside – as well as doing a cracking plain, normal white coffee.
That’s something to be applauded as loudly and thoroughly as Simon Thacker, Justyna Jablonska and Masha Natanson were.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Photo credit (live shot): Barbara Ostrowska