Folk Club on 8.11.2024 - exceptionally on the
second Friday of the month
“Once upon
a time - without cell phones” was the motto of the evening, and numerous
contributions dealt with the time when people still had to - and of course
could - manage their lives without digital networking. Today, it's hard to
imagine that it was possible to make appointments without WhatsApp & Co.
back then, and many people didn't even have a phone in the old days. Today,
however, the Folk Club also relies on the community being informed of upcoming
events via the internet. Unexpected deviations, such as the postponement to the
second Friday due to the All Saints' Day holiday on the first Friday, could
hardly have been communicated without accidents in the past. However, in
addition to the many positive aspects, the digital world of information also
brings us a whole host of disadvantages. But we won't bore you with them now
and would rather describe the varied evening instead.
As usual,
John Harrison got us started, this time with two aphorisms from ancient
thinkers: Plato's classification of music as a moral law and Goethe's statement
that we should listen to at least one little song every day, read a good poem,
see an excellent painting and, if it were possible, speak a sensible word.
Well, the
song and the poem would be fulfilled several times over for everyone in this
room. It remains to be seen whether the demand for the painting and especially
the sensible word was fulfilled. John then also delivered a first poem with the
limerick about Rickie Rhyme, which thrives on several plays on words. The poem
has the somewhat unwieldy title “Mint-scented Temporal Limerick Rhyme Perfume”.
His second poem also provided some food for thought: “Never Call A Mirror Sad”.
A third poem about leaves (“Leaves”) was written by Bill Perry, the older
brother of Steve Perry, our revered Folk Club member. Steve passed away two
years ago on November 13th.
Of course, there were also some musical contributions from John: “St. Louis Blues” was,
funnily enough, written by a composer named W.C. Handy, Cell phones were not
even remotely conceivable at the time the song was written in 1914, and even
sound recording and playback devices were still in their very infancy. Our
impresario likes to use Big Bill Broonzy's “Nightwatchman Blues” as an
opportunity to refer to his own Nightwatchman rounds in Bonn (in English) (from
personal experience: highly recommended!). The second blues was “Careless
Love”, which became famous above all in the interpretation by Bessy Smith
(accompanied by Louis Armstrong on cornet, among others). Of course, the song
is about a love that falls apart amid much pain. It's about failure, as befits
a real blues. A little treat for both songs: Our featured artist of the
evening, Attila Vural, sat comfortably in the corner with his guitar and,
without anyone noticing at first, skillfully plucked an accompaniment that had
it all. This gave both songs an extra kick, and John thanked us afterwards for
the support - this is folk club at its best.
For the
second time, we welcomed the Tango Muses to the Folk Club. The Muses are
Katalin van Riesen (clarinet), Renate Bruns (bass clarinet), Claudia
Meyendriesch (accordion) and Karin Hüsken (saxophone). They entered the world
of tango with great verve. The classic is of course “La Cumparsita” by the
Uruguayan composer Gerardo Hernán Matos Rodríguez. The four proved that tango
melodies do not only come from South America with a tango from Japan (“Sukiyaki
Tango”). The tango “Olé Guapa” does not come from the South American homelands
either, but from the Dutch composer Arie Maasland. Olé Guapa is also considered
a classic. “Satumaa” was written by the Finnish composer Unto Mononen, and we
had already learned during the previous performance by the ‘Muses’ that the
Finns are particularly crazy about tango. For the chorus, the Muses had
distributed a German-language text to the audience (“Jenseits von dem fernen
Meer”). The congregation sang along fervently to the catchy melody - great fun.
Our
featured artist Attila Vural began his performance with a melody that he
dedicated to the memory of Steve Perry: “Fragile” by Sting already hints at the
fragility of our lives in the title. Attila interpreted the delicate piece with
wonderful sensitivity and transparency. “Squeeze And Reel”, in which Attila
borrowed from the Irish dance “Reel” to integrate it into his own musical
style. With “Inn On The Blues”, he processed his life out of a suitcase and in
hotels on his music tours. “Smoke On The Water” by Deep Purple then formed the
basis for a piece in which Attila also used the guitar as a percussion
instrument - very fast-paced and virtuosic. “Whisper Of Hope” is the title of
one of his own songs, in which Attila also appears as a singer. He also used
his special guitar with two necks and a special stringing of the main neck with
seven strings (the D-string is double and thus provides more sound volume). The
smaller secondary neck of his custom-made guitar is strung like a ukulele. Each
of the four strings on Attila's guitar is double. There are also no frets on
the neck. This provides the artist with numerous possibilities for interesting
musical effects. Incidentally, the main neck of the guitar is also only fretted
halfway down. With the last piece of his first set, he interpreted the song
“Don't Know Why” by Norah Johnes wonderfully delicately and sensitively - very
classy!
After the
break, Rainer Goetzendorf took over the stage and presented his own
composition, which perfectly reflected the theme of the evening: “The Handy”
tells us something about the superiority of the small permanent companion.
Conclusion: It used to be nicer without a cell phone!
And with
Gilbert O'Sullivan's sentimental work “Dansette Dreams And 45's”, he also took
us back to an earlier world in which small portable record players (Dansettes)
were an object of desire. They were preferably used to play small records at 45
revolutions per minute. Those were the days! But the lyrics of the song do not
glorify the past, although the memory of the events of that time remains
strong.
Away from
the cell phone, off to Franconia! Now comes Kai Hofstetter. Kai tells serious
stories with original songs in a Franconian tone. “So e Zuch is hier nie
gfahrn” describes how children observe a strange train with people in cattle
wagons on the tracks near the town during the Second World War. The adults deny
the existence of the train, and even after the end of the war, no one claims to
have noticed or known anything about such transports - depressing. Der
Bratkartoffelwind” also describes the world of the children, who this time
could tell when it was time to run home by the smell of food. But for the
people who were forced to go far away, the fried potato wind no longer has a
chance. Kai then expressed the adversities of a life without money with
sometimes drastic lyrics in his song “(Ihr kannst mich) alle mal ...”. Lots of
applause for Kai and his imaginative songs.
At the end
of the evening, Attila Vural treated us once again to his own varied pieces and
interpretations of pieces by other musicians. “In The Moonlight Of Ayla” is one
of his own compositions and offers a combination of skillful fingerstyle melody
and percussion elements. Santana's “Samba Pa Ti” in Attila's interpretation
with a flageolet intro is a treat for the ears. For a change, Attila presented
the piece “Dollar Got The Blues” by Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown with vocals
again. His ability to tune his voice to the roughness of Brown's vocals was
impressive. Instrumentally, he then recalled his experiences as an architect
with an indecisive builder. The client can't decide on a colour, and it turns
out he's colourblind. “Change A Painting” is the title. He then chose a
beautiful arrangement for Bobby Hebb's classic “Sunny - One So True”. “A Little
Share Of Sound” is the title of a piece penned by Attila, in which he once
again used the special double-necked guitar and elicited very special sound
effects from it. At some points in Attila's “Time Of Gasoline” I was reminded
of “Tommy” by The Who, but what composer hasn't occasionally had a passage of
sound from other masters in his compositions. In this piece, the visuals of
Attila's playing were also part of the work. At times, Attila operated the
frets with his fingers from above - somewhat bizarre to watch.
The
frenetic applause after this performance left no other option than an encore.
And there was one. Simon and Garfunkel's “Sound of Silence” encouraged some of
the audience to sing along. “Wealth Without Money” was penned by Attila himself
and is a piece with vocals to accompany the artistic guitar passages. The
performance ended with the song “Fly Me To The Moon” by Bart Howard, which was
immortalized in Frank Sinatra's interpretation. But even without vocals,
Attila's guitar version was no less enchanting to listen to.
After the
long-lasting applause, the evening came to an end with the obligatory bouncer
“Jock Stewart”, which was sung by everyone as always. See you again on December
6, traditionally with Simon Kempston, our special guest from Edinburgh
