After my rambling year in Scandinavia (and the end of the Scanfolk
series), I have left Stockholm to settle for some time in wonderful England.
The choice of finding a county to move to was not too difficult: Is there any
better county name for a folk music enthusiast than "Suffolk"? There
is of course the alternative of "Norfolk", but that sounds too much
like "No Folk"... Suffolk is located in East Anglia, on the Coast,
North-East of London.
Anyway, in this new series I will give some impressions on Folk music and beyond,
on events in the County of Suffolk and beyond its borders.
My first encounter with music events in Suffolk was a one-evening Jazz festival,
and this event has left an unforgettable impression (I actually made a note
of it in last issue's editorial). Set in the medieval remains of Framlingham
castle, this open air concert announced on its flyers: "Bring along chairs
and picnics". We did not take note of this little sentence, and so we felt
like the worst equipped in the whole audience. It was absolutely amazing: There
were about 1000 people in the audience, all having brought along their garden
chairs and a huge picnic basket, along with various other useful equipment,
such as garden lights, blankets etc. A big sign on the entrance said "No
tables allowed" - surely to the disappointment of most in the audience
(not that they would have had any hand available to carry a garden table). Those
few people who did not bring along chairs (and were because of that allowed
to sit directly in front of the stage), had at least blankets, pillows and a
full picnic hamper including the odd bottle of champagne! An impressive display
of picnic food and garden equipment, better than you can find in any garden
or picnic superstore...
It seemed that we were the only ones who were not that well equipped, but in
fact this was not really necessary to enjoy the high quality Jazz music programme
- the whole Dankworth clan was playing, featuring the legendary Jazz
couple Cleo Laine & John Dankworth with band, along with their son Alec
and daughter Jacqueline, both there with their own bands. Lovely stuff; not
folk though...
One final remark goes to the festival toilet facilities - I have never before in my life seen a folk festival that provides luxury toilet facilities - these temporary toilets were situated in the car park outside the castle. You were invited into the "good room" with a red carpet that guided you to the facilities, and while there you could look at the pictures hanging on the walls... impressive indeed! Other festivals should take note of this!
Anyway, I went to see this autumn in Colchester two superb concerts. Flook! made quite an impression on the audience; their blend of Irish and English music on twin flutes is just perfect! Their line-up features Sarah Allen on flutes, whistles and accordeon, Brian Finnegan on flutes and whistles, Ed Boyd, the tremendous guitarist and finally John Jo Kelly; great bodhran player. I loved the gig, and so did the band - as such a beautiful venue you won't find often in Britain.
The other concert I saw in Colchester was of the Wrigley Sisters, Jennifer
and Hazel, with their sparkling and lively fiddle + guitar music from the Orkneys.
Their wonderful sense of humour, their great stories and last but not least
their lovely Orcadian dialect always make their concerts a highly entertaining
affair. You will find out during a concert how exciting the "shopping boulevard"
of Kirkwall is, what the newest juicy gossip from the Orkneys is and how the
little fairies regularly kidnap fiddlers for a party.
At the same time, Jenny and Hazel are extremely talented musicians, and as per
usual with twins making music together, their musical intuition is perfect.
Hazel was pleased to find a finely tuned piano on stage, so that she could play
both piano and guitar. Lovely music, great evening out...
I must admit, I have missed plenty of great sounding concerts in Colchester, yet I still have enough time to discover more folk music from Suffolk and beyond... watch this space!
Some useful links to folk in Suffolk and beyond:
Photo Credit: All photos by The Mollis.
(1) Blazin Fiddles; (2) Moorland near Snape; (3) Flook! in Colchester
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