Unlocking Our Hidden Collections: Sue Steward and Edmundo Ros

First published on the British Library Sound and Vision blog.



The Unlocking Our Hidden Collections initiative is the British Library challenging itself. With over 170 million items in the Library’s collections and an average of over 8,000 new items added every day, it is impossible to keep up – processing and cataloguing backlogs mean that there are so many treasures that are ‘hidden’ from view and unable to be searched in any of the Library’s catalogues. Unlocking Our Hidden Collections is a concerted effort to bring some of these to light, by targeting specific collections across the Library’s many curatorial areas for detailed cataloguing where previously there was none at all. Collections in this initiative include manuscripts from the medieval to contemporary periods, charters, censuses, photographs, correspondences and music manuscripts. They also include recordings from the British Library sound archive. The project that I work on within Unlocking Our Hidden Collections is entitled ‘Rare and Unpublished World and Traditional Music’, which catalogues and ultimately makes publically available collections of sound recordings that would otherwise remain obscure.

As a cataloguer in this process, I have the absolute pleasure of listening to wonderful recordings of some of the most interesting musical cultures in the world, researching their context and diving into the recordists’ own experiences through their documentation and other material. So far, I’ve worked with collections of recorded music from Thailand, Malaysia, India, Nepal and Kenya from the 1960s to the 2000s, but today I want to highlight one specific collection, the Sue Steward Collection (C1984 in our catalogues).

To read the full blog post and to read more about Sue Steward's wonderful collection and her recordings of Edmundo Ros (that him in the photo up at the top), head over to the British Library Sound and Vision blog.


Photo: Edmundo Ros in Amsterdam, 1957, by Harry Pot.

Jazz Fusion Review Round-Up

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 191, October 2023.

Nowadays, the line separating jazz from instrumental hip-hop can be incredibly fine, given the amount of influence that has passed back and forth over the past 50 years. Budapest-based trio Jazzbois embrace this permeability with their third album, Higher Dimension Waiting Room (Blunt Shelter Records, 34 mins). Here, the hip-hop and jazz are completely entwined, from the dreamy, lo-fi synths and fluttery piano to the broken beats and funky bass. It’s light and fun with a sci-fi edge, chilled-out but with enough groove to keep you dancing. Special props to Tamás Czirják, whose drumming consistently brings the fireworks.

Production duo Abderraouf B. Grissa & Dan Drohan also sail the jazz-hip-hop continuum with their first collaboration RBGxDD (Uno Loop, 41 mins). Together they make a dance-oriented jazz that isn’t afraid of venturing ‘out there’. Live instruments and samples merge seamlessly, guiding us through different zones – from rolling blues grooves to dubwise spacescapes to Latin psychedelia to a sound effects record – without ever losing the carefully-curated unifying vibe based on those two home styles. This musical journey hits more like an exploratory mixtape than your usual jazz album, and is none the worse for it.

Another album that hops between genres at will is the reissue of Ambiance II Fusion’s 1985 record Come Touch Tomorrow (Freestyle Records, 39 mins). The ensemble revolves around Nigerian-born saxophonist Daoud Abubakar Balewa, whose classic instrumental soul-funk absolutely oozes 80s production, with its heavy reverb, gated snares and ultra-smooth sax. Strangely enough, this album sounds like tracks from several different albums stitched together. Some tracks are live (or live-sounding) and others are studio recordings; some tracks seem to bear little stylistic resemblance to those around them – sometimes there’s reggae, or bossa, or even pure synthwave with no saxophone to be heard. It’s as if the album itself is a little unsure of what it wants to be.

New York-based Greek vibraphonist, electronicist and drummer Christos Rafalides makes an ode to lockdown in Home (Emarel Music, 50 mins), recorded in improvised home studios across the world in the spring of 2021. Each of the seven tracks features a guest musician, and each bring their own slant on Rafalides’ malleable jazz, whether that’s Middle Eastern from outi (Greek oud) player Thomas Konstantinou, light Latin from pianist Giovanni Mirabassi or space-age Caribbean from steelpan player Victor Provost. The latter is a particular highlight, providing a real complement to the vibraphone. Not all the collaborations work as well as that, but Rafalides’ musicianship shines throughout.

But if you only have enough space in your ears for one jazz fusion album this month, make it Peter Somuah’s Letter to the Universe (ACT Music, 41 mins). The young Ghanaian trumpeter’s second album takes a celestial, spiritual approach, creating a cosmic jazz with elements of bebop and post-bop, big band, jazz-rock, highlife and, of course, hip-hop. Miles Davis is an ever-present reference, and there are guest turns from Ghanaian stars such as highlife legend Gyedu-Bley Ambolley and up-and-coming Frafra kologo player and singer Stevo Atambire of Alostmen. From the superb trumpet playing to the intelligent compositions and arrangements, this is a brilliant album – there’s surely more great things to come from Peter Somuah.

Nils Økland & Sigbjørn Apeland - Glimmer

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 191, October 2023.

Nils Økland & Sigbjørn Apeland
Glimmer
ECM Records (48 mins)

Hardanger fiddle player and violinist Nils Økland and harmonium player Sigbjørn Apeland have been making music together for 30 years, but Glimmer is only their second album of duets – and their first since 2011. It was worth the wait.

Økland and Apeland channel their homes of Nord-Rogaland and Sunnhordland in western Norway, using the traditional music of those regions as a basis for controlled, thoughtful improvisations, with occasional influence from medieval, baroque and atonal 20th century art music. The results are breathtaking. The amount of sound created from just two instruments is epic, but it never feels overwhelming. Instead, the tones echo as if from across the fjord, reflecting a natural, spacious beauty. The effect is calm and haunting, poignant and bittersweet, even a little unsettling, with its deep, heavy drones and subtle clashes of tuning between the Hardanger fiddle and harmonium.

Glimmer is a triumph of emotion and restraint, an album imbued with a trust and an understanding that can only come from three decades of collaboration between two of Norway’s most respected musicians.

Maalem Mahmoud Gania - Colours of the Night

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 191, October 2023.

Maalem Mahmoud Gania
Colours of the Night
Hive Mind Records (71 mins)

The sacred Sufi trance music of the Moroccan Gnawa people is one of the great traditions of the African continent. Before his death in 2015, maalem (ceremonial master) Mahmoud Gania brought Gnawa music to new heights and new audiences, including collaborations with jazz and rock musicians. Colours of the Night was his final recording, made in 2013, and here he goes back to the roots.

The performances are, unsurprisingly, top-notch. Accompanied by the unmistakable bluesy sounds of his gimbri (bass lute) and the polyrhythmic krakeb (metal castanets) of his chorus, Gania’s aged but powerful voice reaches high to call down the spirits of the West African Fulbe, Bamana and Hausa from whom the Gnawa descend. With simple and effective production, Gania and his troupe give listeners a glimpse of the heady energy of a lila (ceremony).

Although this album represents the last hurrah of a master, it is also a herald of the new generation, featuring a then-17-year-old Asmâa Hamzaoui, who is now making waves as Gnawa’s first professional female gimbri player. Colours of the Night is, above all, a fitting swansong for Gania, a musician who did so much for the preservation and advancement of his art and his people.