Well, this is something I’ve been excited about for a wee while now. Come late October, I’m going to be doing a short tour with three of my favourite musicians – Suhail Yusuf Khan, Jon Thorne and Lisa O’ Neill.
Jon, Suhail and myself will be playing a largely improvised set based on traditional material from the UK and India, plus some of our own compositions. I’m hoping to try out a few new songs, for example. Lisa O’Neill is an amazing song writer from Cavan in Ireland and she may also join us onstage for a ditty. I love her music and am delighted she’s on board – she’s my favourite songwriter of the last few years and has just recorded her 2nd album, which is a wee beauty.
Here are the dates:
30th October – Dunfermline – Carnegie Hall – Tickets here
31st October – Kingsbarns – Cambo House – Details here
1st November – Edinburgh – Queen’s Hall – Tickets here
2nd November – Glasgow – Oran Mor – Tickets here
3rd November – Aberfeldy Festival
6th November – London – Old St Pancras Church – Tickets here
7th November – Bangor – Dylan’s at Menai Bridge – Tickets here
Now, this tour all came about due to the generosity of the people of Dewars. Here’s the press release, which will tell you all about it
Presents:
|
James |
Jon |
Suhail Yusuf |
|
Yorkston |
Thorne |
Khan |
With Support – Lisa O’Neill
“Think Fife Vs Manchester Vs Calcutta and you may be somewhere close.” – Bob Agnews, Fence Records.
In 2012, Dewar’s hosted an experiment. Musicians from India and the UK were placed in a makeshift recording studio in Edinburgh for a week and asked to come up with an album of original songs. King Creosote, Suhail Yusuf Khan, The Pictish Trail, Slow Club, Found, James Yorkston, Raghu Dixit and others came and went, collaborating and creating with those they met. The results were rather special.
In the spirit of that album, three of those acts are on tour together for the first time, playing together as a trio and performing a semi-improvised mix of traditional music from India and the UK/Ireland alongside their own compositions.
James Yorkston – “One of the most respected and influential singer/songwriters on the Scottish indie-folk scene” (The Scotsman). From Fife, Scotland.
Suhail Yusuf Khan – 8th Generation and award winning sarangi player and classical singer, from Calcutta, India.
Jon Thorne – Best known as jazz double-bassist with electro outfit Lamb, from Manchester, England.
The support comes from Lisa O’Neill – a unique singer/songwriter coming from Cavan via Dublin. She is currently recording her 2nd album, her first for Domino Publishing.
From Stephen Marshall, Global Marketing Manager – Single Malts:
The album these fellows worked on is called Experimental Batch No.26. Experimental Batch is a term we use for whisky and I thought it apt for this type of thing too. We’ve pressed up 1000 copies on vinyl, with artwork from pictures taken during the week. We’re going to get a couple of thousand cds done too. We’re going to give the physical copies to independent music shops with an rrp on it, so they can make a bit of cash, but so they don’t give it away. It’ll also be downloadable from I-tunes. It will be released in June 2013, with a single preceding the release.
Further info about the artists –
Suhail Yusuf Khan
Suhail plays the Sarangi, an instrument he describes basically as an “Indian ‘cello”. He comes from a rich musical background and within his family he is the eighth generation Sarangi player carrying on the tradition. Suhail descends from the Moradabad-Rampur and Senia Gharana of Miyaan Tansen. He is the grandson of renowned Sarangi legend Padmabhushan and Padmashree awardee Ustad Sabri Khan and nephew of the Sarangi genius Ustad Kamal Sabri.
Suhail is the recipient of many prestigious awards: The Best Instrumentalist Award by Chinmaya Center of Music, The Best Sarangi Player award by Expressions 2003 and 2004 at Pragati Maidan, The Best Emerging Musician at DPS Noida Thunder Festival, 2005, The Best Musician at Pepsi Storm held at Hamsadhwani theatre, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. He also received the prestigious President`s Gold Medal in All India Radio competition held in 2004.
Suhail has toured extensively in India and played in France, England, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, Singapore and the Middle East. Suhail is also a very accomplished singer, trained in the Indian Classical fashion, whilst acknowledging influences from Sufi devotional singing and artists such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Jon Thorne
Jon Thorne is an English double bassist and composer.
Musically Jon is self taught and started playing at the age of 23. He studied and played jazz for a number of years and considers legendary British bassist Danny Thompson his bass mentor. Jon has also been strongly influenced on bass by Charles Mingus. Renowned as a passionate, energetic and highly skilled performer, Jon Thorne’s career as a double bassist has spanned a broad range of the musical spectrum.
As bassist in the band Lamb between 1996-2012 he recorded 5 albums, toured 40 countries in 5 continents and played at most of the worlds leading festivals including Coachella, Roskilde, Wechter, Glastonbury, Montreux Jazz, North Sea Jazz and NYC Central Park Summerstage.
His first orchestral suite is entitled Watching the Well. It was a Manchester Jazz Festival commission, written for and featuring Danny Thompson, debuted at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in 2007, and was released on the Naim label in November 2010 to strong critical acclaim.
He has also recorded, performed and appeared on albums with artists as diverse as Liam Bailey, Robert Miles, Trilok Gurtu, Robert Fripp, Donovon, Guy Barker, Badly Drawn Boy, Kate Havnevik, Lou Rhodes, James Yorkston, King Creosote, The Accidental, Amos Lee, Jesca Hoop, The Memory Band, Mr Scruff and Steve and Martha Tilston
James Yorkston
James Yorkston has been releasing a series of much acclaimed albums since 2001 and has toured the UK, North America and Europe, building a loyal and dedicated following. A popular figure in the contemporary music world and integral member of the much lauded Fence Collective, his style shows a mastery of folk traditions, often drawing on traditional songs, which has seen him collaborate with such heritage artists as the Waterson family, Martin Carthy and the late Bert Jansch. James Yorkston is a regular performer at festivals such as Green Man, Latitude, Bestival and Meltdown.
James has been featured twice on BBC2’s The Culture Show, has had a 20 minute documentary about him screened on Channel 4 and was a musical director for the BBC Electric Proms tribute to Lal Waterson. In 2011 his debut book ‘It’s Lovely to be Here – The Touring Diaries of a Scottish Gent’ was published by Faber, and his most recent album I Was A Cat From A Book was released in 2012.
“An effecting and mesmerising album, and one of Yorkston’s finest to date” – The AU Review
“Yorkston’s best Yet” – The Skinny
“As always with this gem of a musician, all human life is here” – Q
“Yorkston exposes and plays with his emotional connection to life around him, showing once again that he is able to put pen to paper in a way that his contemporaries can only dream of “ – The Line of Best Fit
‘For me, listening to James Yorkston’s music is like coming across the interesting-looking person on the fringes of a party. Before you know it, you’ve spent the evening listening to their compelling tale. In this record, I get a real sense that he has found his true voice. There’s a quiet confidence in his craft; his singing, the words and instrumentation’ – Phil Selway, Radiohead.
Lisa O’Neill
http://breakingtunes.com/lisaoneill