{"id":381,"date":"2018-03-01T22:01:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=381"},"modified":"2018-03-01T22:04:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:04:42","slug":"martin-widden-the-man-with-the-golden-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/martin-widden-the-man-with-the-golden-ears\/","title":{"rendered":"MARTIN WIDDEN: \u2018THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN EARS’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review: Kabantu at the Nuffield<\/span><\/p>\n

Five young musicians in line across the stage of the Nuffield, one of them squatting over a bongo drum. This was Kabantu, the Manchester-based band that played in the Lancaster Arts Concert Series on 17 February.<\/span><\/p>\n

As well as the drum, the line-up consisted of violin, cello, bass and guitar, all of whom played standing up \u2013 which for a cellist is a highly unusual thing to do. It\u2019s achievable if, as here, the instrument is fitted with a long enough spike to raise it to a playable height. So: no chairs.<\/span><\/p>\n

No music stands, either. The group plays from memory and\/or by improvising, so they don\u2019t need any copies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Very little electronics on show either.<\/span><\/p>\n

All this fits with the influence of busking on the group. Four of the five musicians met at the Royal Northern College of Music, where they were classically trained, but in this group they have extended their range into a much broader spectrum of styles. Their repertoire spans from Scottish traditional tunes, Bulgarian folk music, Israel, South Africa and beyond, performed with remarkable skill on their instruments, or by whistling, or in some cases by all five musicians singing excellently in close harmony.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is unusual for the International Concert Series to feature what was in effect a fusion performance, but it made for a very enjoyable evening.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review: Kabantu at the Nuffield Five young musicians in line across the stage of the Nuffield, one of them squatting over a bongo drum. This was Kabantu, the Manchester-based band that played in the Lancaster Arts Concert Series on 17 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[233,64,63,234],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contributed-article","category-review","tag-issue-174","tag-lancaster-arts","tag-martin-widden","tag-nuffield"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-69","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":861,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/12\/17\/martin-widden-wielding-his-pen-like-a-knife-to-the-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":0},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘WIELDING HIS PEN LIKE A KNIFE TO THE HEART’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 17 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Leeds Piano Competition Winner gives first-class recital The Great Hall concert on Thursday 1 November was a solo piano recital by Anna Tsybuleva, winner of the 2015 Leeds Piano Competition. 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Indeed, the music critic Paul Griffiths has written that 'if modern music may be said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":287,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/01\/18\/martin-widden-britains-fiercest-music-critic\/","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":2},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘BRITAIN\u2019S FIERCEST MUSIC CRITIC’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"January 18 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Ella Remembered This was the title of a performance given in the Great Hall on 7 December as part of the University\u2019s International Concert Series. Few people who know anything about singing would need to ask 'Ella who?' - Ella Fitzgerald died in 1996, but more than twenty years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":957,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/04\/02\/an-exceptional-piano-recital\/","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":3},"title":"AN EXCEPTIONAL PIANO RECITAL","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 2 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Review by Martin Widden Some years ago, with help from the Friends of the Lancaster Concerts, the University bought a new Steinway concert grand piano for the Great Hall. Our old Steinway had reached the stage where good pianists were complaining about the state of it, and seemed quite likely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1228,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/03\/27\/widdens-review-concert-for-refugee-crisis\/","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":4},"title":"WIDDEN’S REVIEW – CONCERT FOR REFUGEE CRISIS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 27 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed by Martin Widden Prompted by the refugee crisis across the Mediterranean, the programme for the recital given on 5th March by the twelve-strong a capella choir Stile Antico was focused on John Dowland's set of pavans for voice and lute, Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares. (According to Dowland's contemporary Thomas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":117,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/26\/concert-review-the-brodsky-quartet\/","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":5},"title":"CONCERT REVIEW: THE BRODSKY QUARTET","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 26 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Martin Widden It was once the convention that a concert would begin with a work by a composer from early times; the programme would then move chronologically through pieces by successively more recent composers. A concert by a string quartet might open with a quartet by Haydn (1732-1809), the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}