NOW in its 16th year, Celtic Connections is pushing the boundaries of its titular remit – and the links are all the more exciting.
FLECK, KOUYATE, SANGARE & DIABATÉ ****
GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALLDUELLING banjos? Not quite – more an exuberant transglobal sparring of distantly removed instrumental cousins, as the American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck joined
Bassekou Kouyate, a leading exponent of the ngoni, the paddle-shaped African lute, and his band, and fellow Malian Toumani Diabaté, maestro of the kora harp-lute.
Fleck opened solo, with a languid prelude, somewhere between Bach and bluegrass, accelerating into flurries and torrents of taut-strung music.
As Kouyate's powerful band, Ngoni Ba – featuring four ngonis and percussion – took the stage, proceedings worked themselves into a hypnotic groove, Kouyate and Fleck throwing phrases to and fro while Oumou Sangare's powerful vocals rode the riffs with joyful panache.
There were brief but impressive vocal interludes in Scots and Irish Gaelic from the smoky-voiced Kathleen MacInnes and Liam Ó Maonlaí's ornate sean-nos singing.
There was poised and elaborate decoration, too, in Fleck's duet with kora star Diabaté – African baroque, you might say, as their exchanges developed from spare, hanging notes into cascades of bright, percussive string sound.
Sangare joined them for a poignant and utterly beautiful song, banjo murmuring below her plangent, drawn-out lines. Heart-stopping stuff.
BBC SSO – CONFLICT & RESOLUTION ***
CITY HALLS THIS year's Celtic Connections crossover challenge fell to composer Dave Heath, whose Conflict and Resolution – an intended celebration of the life of Charles Rennie Mackintosh – was the centrepiece of a programme linking the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with traditional Catalan and Scots musicians.
Conducting, Heath dispensed routinely with Phil Cunningham's The Highlands and Islands Overture and Britten's Catalan-inspired Mont Juic Suite before embarking on his own new work.
Conflict & Resolution certainly invokes conflict, not least the breathtaking entry from the back of the hall of the traditional musicians, creating a euphoric clash between their raw energy and the neat regimentation of the orchestra.
But the resolution took too long to happen. Heath needs to distil his many fine ideas and not allow the piece to tip, as it did here, towards a caricature of itself. Some lovely moments, but too many false endings.
THE SEAQUINS ***
OLD FRUITMARKET COMPRISING 12 young female folk musicians from Denmark, Scotland, Sweden, Finland and Cape Breton, The Seaquins were originally assembled as a Danish festival project last year, bringing together traditions from around the North Sea/North Atlantic coastline.
With a line-up of fiddles, accordions, cello, flute, guitars, piano and of course vocals, they alternated medleys of tunes and songs that focused individually on each territory, with others knitting together material from the wider group.
Memorable moments included a vibrantly upbeat, deftly layered Finnish set and a sweet assortment of lullabies, but much of the performance lacked the excitement and impact anticipated from such a large cross-cultural gathering.
The openers were the all-male Marseille sextet Lo Còr de la Plana. Their dazzlingly intricate, rhythmic polyphony, sung in the ancient Occitan language of southern France, was accompanied solely by hand drums, clapping and foot-stamping. Otherworldly harmonies, primal chanting and quickfire call-and-response all featured in a stunning display of vocal artistry.
DAMIAN HELLIWELL & THE MAINLANDERS WITH FRASER FIFIELD ****
CLASSIC GRANDFRASER Fifield's Stereocanto project is a fiercely contemporary fusion of modern and traditional styles. Performed as a three-piece here – with Graeme Stephen on guitar, Alyn Cosker on drums and Fifield on pipes, low whistles, soprano sax and laptop loops – it was a showcase of superbly skilled playing. But good taste was somewhat lacking: jazz-funk explorations are questionable at the best of times, let alone when they're swathed in discordant psychedelic bagpipe licks.
Isle of Eigg banjo and mandolin wizard Damian Helliwell and his newly formed four-piece band The Mainlanders were much more the crowd-pleasers: they rattled out rootsy, upbeat reels and jigs which got the crowd on their feet and kept them there.
Yet Helliwell's compositions are fresh and vibrant too – taking from klezmer music as well as rock and pop influences, he blends with the traditional Scottish impulse into a dynamic, fluid and always keenly melodic sound.
Standouts included surging epic The Slovenian and Banjo In The Bin Bag, which Helliwell described as "a mental one" – which turned out to be rather an understatement!
FRIDAYSHARON SHANNON BIG BAND WITH CARA DILLON ****
GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALLNORTHERN Irish vocalist Cara Dillon opened with a number about a boy named Johnny, Johnny, Lovely Johnny. She followed it up with a tune about another lad, Paddy, but it turned out to largely be a lament for Johnny too. Her six-piece band, she pointed out, featured three members named – yes – Johnny. "So Johnny," Dillon remarked, "he's doin' all right, you know?"
Her songs are lightweight, but Dillon's voice is sweet and bewitching and her band were on top form here, setting the tone perfectly for Sharon Shannon.
The former Waterboys accordionist's Big Band shows are the epitome of eclecticism – a laid-back ceilidh session with a broad church of musicians embracing styles from jazz and blues to folk and reggae.
The mood was relaxed and celebratory, Shannon spinning twisting reels and jigs and welcoming guests ranging from "Dickie the techie" (the band's hard-working technician, who growled his way through Dancing In The Moonlight) to virtuoso bodhrán player John Joe Kelly and singer-songwriter Mundy, the roots rocker with whom Shannon has shared immense success recently with their version of Steve Earle's Galway Girl.
Audience members were finally coaxed out of their seats to dance by the encore, and this one could easily have run on late into the night.
THE BURNS UNIT ****
ABCTHE Burns Unit has to be one of the oddest bands to grace the Celtic Connections stage. Eight diverse songwriters – including Karine Polwart, King Creosote, the Delgados' Emma Pollock and political rapper MC Soom T – came together at the Burnsong songwriting residency in 2006. Now, minus Squeeze's Chris Difford and plus drummer/producer Mattie Foulds, they have made an album.
The Burns Unit make a virtue of their breadth of range, taking it in turns to hold centre stage with songs written both separately and together.
They are clearly good for each other: Soom T sounds great backed by the rest of the band; the normally mellow Polwart discovers her inner rock star and bangs some drums; exuberant Canadian Michael Johnston bounces around from instrument to instrument keeping the energy high.
The range expands still further when they slow things down. Pollock's You Need Me has an echo of 1930s cabaret about it, while her melodic duet with Kim Edgar is a delight.
The whole thing is, she concedes, "a bizarre happening". Please make sure it keeps on happening.
BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA ****
OLD FRUITMARKETTHIS exhilarating performance by Bassekou Kouyate and his trailblazing ensemble, Ngoni Ba, left us in no doubt as to why they are the taste of the African scene and why musicians like Damon Albarn have made pilgrimage to visit them back home in Bamako, Mali.
In an innovative opening set, Jayme Stone (a Kouyate disciple) forged the first link between the American banjo and Africa, playing with kora maestro Mansa Sissoko.
Kouyate followed, resplendent in ochre and blue robes, the glamorous singer Amy Sacko (who is also his wife) at his side.
For songs such as Poyi, Sacko's gritty, spell-binding vocals conjured up the brave fate of warriors as the lutes improvised interlocking rhythms over calabash percussion and the clack of a chekere shaker.
Kouyate's rock aesthetic came to the fore in Hendrix-like virtuoso solos, as his band offered complex polyrhythm while shuffling across the stage in witty dance formations.
An unexpected tribute to Kouyate by Senegalese singer Samba Sene made this a special African night.
PUMAJAW & SHELLEYAN ORPHAN ****
CLASSIC GRAND THOUGH sadly only sparsely attended, this bewitching double bill has set the bar for mesmerising performance at this year's Celtic Connections.
Rarefied 80s outfit Shelleyan Orphan have recently reformed after a 16-year layoff, but they displayed a quiet confidence in weaving together jazzy drum patterns, plangent double bass, burnished guitar and Caroline Crawley's pure voice into a cohesive and entrancing sound – although a skiffly number sounded a little throwaway next to the rest of the elegant set.
The bewitching Pumajaw are one of the Scottish music scene's most exotic animals, drawing influences from eerie folk fables and spectral sea shanties.
Instrumentalist John Wills built a heady soundtrack by looping effects-laden acoustic guitar and beats, but all eyes were on the engrossing Pinkie Maclure, who dresses like a glamorous flapper girl and sings like a siren while accompanying herself on creaking concertina.
The effect was equally deadly and alluring.
