music seems particularly significant at certain times in life doesn't it?
These last few weeks it has been a spectacularly delicious presence
in this life, and I wanted to share some of its gifts with you.
Sanctum has been a wonderful contribution to the city of Bristol:
Theaster Gates‘s inspired project comprised music/spoken word
/poetry by local performers, for 24 hours a day across 21 days;
in the magnificent leaning 14th century Temple Church
an A-frame inner sanctum was constructed from local
recycled materials: you can just see it
through the church windowshttp://sanctumbristol.com/
make sounds, move your mouse across the homepage;
I made about six visits to this seminal event &
was touched by some heartfelt music:
Moussa Kouyate master kora player from Mali
an uplifting electric piano player
a young woman with the voice of an angel, singing Teenage Dirtbag*
and there at midnight on my birthday we
saw my friend Red Deer Sleeping (Mog Fry) play
lyrical, gentle songs with cuatro and ukulele accompaniment –
Mog gave away beautiful handmade books of her songs, a Sanctum memento
and we caught duo Really The Blues too
- Teenage Dirtbag wryly performed by The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
though, purtroppo, the ranch here is too bijou to accomodate
the marvellous performer, artist, storyteller & tribe of
John Bently – Bones & The Aft
Billy Bones
http://bonesandtheaft.blogspot.com
and Mikey Kirkpatrick – Bird Radio
http://www.birdradio.co.uk
many wonderful musicians are no longer with us: to honour them
and their work, and to keep them in our memories, I name some
I am priveleged to have known, who now are dead
Ruan O’Lochlainn sax & keyboard player with Bees Make Honey
& amongst others, Slim Chance
Ronnie Lane bass player, Small Faces & Slim Chance founder
Rebop Kwaku Baah Ghanaian drummer extraordinaire with Traffic et al
Bob Marley John Martyn
Phil Taylor drummer with Motorhead
here’s a picture of a Ronnie Lane (centre) band, with Ruan O’Lochlainn (far left)
and here is wondrous Toby Thompson, performance poet,
and friend, with a short video Sweet Angel
and the inimitable Stephen Jenkinson teacher, storyteller, activist & farmer
…all the cultures that are really cultures,
all of them are deep and skilled practitioners of grief.
They are. And that grief is a willingness to see things.
And that willingness is the beginning of your chance to have it otherwise,
and by your grief you can be recognized as a fellow human being by
people who are past masters at it, and you become trustworthy to them
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