Grand Union Orchestra 40th Anniversary Film

Описание: Grand Union Orchestra 40th Anniversary Film captures the energy and spontaneity of a typical Grand Union live performance. It features British artists from every major musical culture worldwide, many of them first generation migrants.

The narrative reflects their lived experience and global heritage, and draws on historical and contemporary events. It explores the astonishing range of original music and songs composed for the Grand Union Orchestra by Tony Haynes for over 40 years.

This is multiculturalism in glorious action! Read more about our work here: grandunion.org.uk and tonyhaynesmusic.wordpress.com

First we summon up Eleggua, the Yoruba orisha, protector of travellers; I Live in the City is based on poems by East End schoolchildren. The next sequence of pieces features our South Asian musicians – one passing through several different rhythms, based on the Indian Rag Mishra Kafi; then a medley of Chinese folk songs featuring traditional instruments – Dance of the Yao People, Picking Betel Palm & Song of Four Seasons.

The Mother, The River tells the story of Bangladesh’s struggle for independence through the eyes of a woman who goes down to the river every night with a candle, asking it for news of her son and praying for his safe return from the war. I Never Sleep is the lament of a refugee from a similar but unnamed conflict, trying to keep her daughters safe until they can be reunited with their father. Eleggua Kó, Eleggua Rá is a menacing big band version of the orisha’s chant with African drums and rhythms.

The second half begins with a setting of the great biblical lament of a people in captivity By the Waters of Babylon, followed by a defiant response of an African slave to his master Can’t Chain Up Me Mind. Setting words by a dissident poet, Songs and Weapons compares the wasting of Portuguese conscripts’ lives in ruinous colonial wars to the deforesting of the land to build the ships that created the empire originally.

Collateral Damage speaks for itself, dramatising conflict and its impact on those caught up it in so many parts of the world now and in the past. If Music Could… is a kind of elegy, on how we as musicians wish to create a better world, and must strive to do so through our art. Raise the Banner provides a positive, upbeat assertion of this, picturing colourful crowds gathering in our parks and streets in a spirit of unity.

grandunion.org.uk
tonyhaynesmusic.wordpress.com

00:00:00 - Opening
00:01:24 - I Live in the City
00:07:00 - Rag Mishra Kafi
00:12:53 - Mishra Kafi Ballad and Rupak
00:19:40 - Dance of the Yao People
00:24:59 - Picking Petal Palm
00:29:32 - Song of Four Seasons
00:36:42 - Tony Haynes : Conflict, Hope and Resolution
00:38:22 - The Mother, The River
00:51:49 - We are Invisible
00:55:38 - Eleggua Kó Eleggua Ká
01:03:33 - By the Waters of Babylon
01:09:30 - Can't Chain Up Me Mind
01:14:32 - Tony Haynes : Counting the Human Cost of Empire
01:16:05 - Songs and Weapons
01:21:58 - Collateral Damage
01:30:48 - Are All Gods Harsh?
01:31:39 - If Music Could...
01:36:59 - Raise the Banner

Music composed and/or arranged by Tony Haynes
Lyrics by Mohammed Rafiquzzaman, Sara Clifford, Valerie Bloom,
Manuel Alegre, David Bradford and from traditional sources.

Victoria Couper (Portugal/South Africa) voice
Kate Shortt (England) voice, cello
Anna Opochinskaya (Russia) voice
Lucy Rahman (Bangladesh) voice
Richard Scott (England) voice, tenor saxophone
Josh Brandler (Switzerland/Jamaica) voice, guitar, congas
Shanti Jayasinha (Sri Lanka/Scotland) trumpet, cello
Claude Deppa (South Africa) trumpet, percussion
Kevin Robinson (Jamaica) trumpet, flugelhorn
Byron Wallen (Belize) trumpet
Tim Smart (England) trombone
Ros Davies (Wales) trombone, flute
Maia Wilson (England) trombone
Andy Grappy (Caribbean British) tuba
Lauren Breen (England) alto saxophone
Chris Biscoe (England) soprano and alto saxophone
Tony Kofi (Ghana) alto and baritone saxophone
Jason Yarde (Caribbean/British) saxophones
Louise Elliott (Australia) tenor saxophone, flute
Jyotsna Srinkanth (India) violin
Zhu Xiao Meng (China) gu zheng
Ruijun Hu (China) bamboo flutes
Yousuf Ali Khan (Bangladesh) tabla, dholak
Mahesh Parkar (India) tabla
Carlos Fuentes (Chile) Latin-American percussion
Abass Dodoo (Ghana) African drums
Gerry Hunt (England) guitar, saxophones
Javier Fioramonti (Argentina) bass guitar
Marc Parnell (England) drums
Tony Haynes (England) piano, trombone

Production: Richard Mallett, Paul Sparrow, Tim Hand, Steve Fox,
Mark Duncan, Daniel Olabode, Martin Wiggins
Management: Jo Cole, Jane Deppa, Basia Talago-Jones