Description
Mara! Big Band to tour Northern and Western NSW in November
by Llew Kiek
TN166 Oct 24
Shortly to kick off on a regional NSW tour, the Mara! Big Band will present their newly created world/folk/jazz suite “Zashto?” at six venues in November.
You may remember from previous Trad and Now pages, that “Zashto?” (“Why?” in Bulgarian language) explores the experience of migration to Australia and the spectre of incarceration, physical and psychological, that has hovered over each wave of migration in the past 230 years through the stories of three women who arrived in Australia at very different times in our history.
“Zashto?” commences with the story of 16 year old Catherine Delaney, who was transported in 1803 for releasing political prisoners from a County Cork gaol where her father was the gaoler.
Catherine was an ancestor of Mara! Band member, Sandy Evans, and her story was rewritten by Mara Kiek and translated into historic Irish Gaelic by Julie Henigan (Notre Dame University) and Peter Smith (Ulster University).
Mara sought historic pronunciation guidance from Honor Mhic Chlaoin and Siobhán Máirtín (Ireland), and Wilma Greer (Aus).
Quite a librettist’s journey!
The music for this 3-part section of “Zashto?” was written by Mara and Andrew Robson.
Bulgarian/Australian poet, Marcia Malinova-Anthony, contributed two works in the Bulgarian language to “Zashto?” which are reflections on the hopes and dreams of a post WW2 European migrant and the frustrations and challenges she encountered here.
Her texts were set to music by Sandy Evans and Paul Cutlan.
Marcia has worked with the Mara! Group previously, creating the libretto for Kъm Neisvestnoto, a collaboration between the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir with the Mara! Band for the 2002 Brisbane Festival.
Maryam Faghihi Rad was incarcerated with her 2 daughters on Nauru for 6 years.
Her work, Yek Zemzemeh (a whisper) in Persian language Farsi, has a remarkably positive spin, considering the trauma she and her girls suffered.
Maryam is an accomplished artist, and her beautiful mandala is the cover of the “Zashto?” CD.
The music for her piece is by Llew Kiek.
Mara Kiek’s finale composition and English text Zhashto? (subtitle: Musings of a casual xenophobe and a refugee) asks why we have such difficulty accepting newcomers and encourages us to reach out to those struggling to forge a new life in our “lucky country”.
Interspersed between the vocal works are instrumental pieces by Robson and Tony Gorman.
The whole is peppered with solos and interludes from some of Australia’s most renowned world, folk and jazz improvisers.
Mara is joined by vocalists Silvia Entcheva, Jarnie Birmingham and Jenny Dornan; percussionist Jess Ciampa; Steve Elphick on bass; Gary Daley on accordion; Llew Kiek playing bouzouki, bağlama, electric and acoustic guitars and mandolin; aforementioned reed players, Evans, Cutlan and Robson; and, brass players James Greening and Sam Golding.
Sound design is by Guy Dickerson.
See the advertisement elsewhere in this edition of Trad&Now for November Tour details which will include regional centres of Newcastle, Goulburn, Bellingen, Port Macquarie, Bathurst and Gulgong.
Workshops are being offered to students and interested players at Newcastle and Goulburn.
The participants will be invited to perform with the band for the finale of “Zashto?”.
The Mara! Big Band will also present a second set of some favourites from the Mara! Quintet repertoire re-arranged for the Mara! Big Band.
We are extremely grateful to our local co-presenters and Create NSW whose support enabled the creation of the works and the mounting of the tour.
MARA! to tour 40th anniversary concert
TN165 Sept 24
Not too many Australian music ensembles can boast a 40-year national and international career, performing, recording and broadcasting uniquely Australian music, forging creative paths, and driving the development of an entirely new musical genre.
One name stands out and that is the dual ARIA winning world/jazz band Mara!, “The Dom Perignon of our world music bands” accord to the Sydney Morning herald.
Mara! grew out of the ‘80’s ‘alternative’ folk group, Tansey’s Fancy.
They began working under the name ‘Mara!’ in the UK in 1984, where they performed in folk clubs, arts centres and small festivals around the UK, Germany, Italy and France.
Folk Roots UK labelled them “Far ahead of the pack”.
Bassist Danny Thompson (Pentangle, Donovan, Kate Bush) toured extensively with Mara! in the 1980s and recorded the first 2 Mara! albums.
With his help, Mara!’s star ascended rapidly and by the late 80s the band had performed at most major folk and arts festivals in the UK and Europe.
Having now performed in 23 countries, released 11 albums here and overseas and toured widely for bodies as diverse as the Northern Ireland Arts Council, SOCOG, DFAT, Musica Viva, Radio Australia and WOMAD, Mara! are established as a leading international world music ensemble.
On Sunday, September 22, the Mara! Band will celebrate their 40th Anniversary with a boutique concert featuring the Mara! quintet, Martenitsa Choir and the new Mara! Big Band.
The program will showcase a retrospective snapshot of some of this extraordinary ensemble’s achievements over the past 4 decades.
This will include excerpts from their collaborations with Martenitsa (featuring Bulgarian soloist, Silvia Entcheva) which resulted in the creation of two major works ‘Sezoni’ (1997 Real World Records) and ‘Tra Parole e Silenzio’ (2012), both of which have toured internationally.
Never satisfied to rest on their laurels, Mara! have continued to drive the creation of new and challenging works including another body of original compositions composed specifically for Martenitsa and Mara! Band, soon to be released on the album ‘Za Vas Ot Nas’.
In 2022, Mara! expanded their line-up, adding brass, accordion, drums and vocal trio, to create the 13-piece Mara! Big Band, a hybrid Gypsy style world/jazz band.
They launched a new musical suite ‘Zashto?’ (‘Why?’ in Bulgarian) with a series of concerts in NSW and ACT.
Recorded in 2023, ‘Zashto?’ was released on CD on October 13.
A review published in Rhythms Magazine in March said:“…outstanding horn arrangements… some of the country’s most distinguished instrumentalists… (and) a quartet of equally sublime singers… Zashto simply demands repeat spins…”.
Excerpts of Zashto? will feature in Mara!’s 40th Anniversary concert and the Mara! Big Band will then take the full work on tour in regional NSW, with concerts in Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Bellingen, Goulburn, Bathurst and Gulgong, thanks to the support of Create NSW.
The 40th anniversary concert is being staged in the intimate setting of Riverside Theatre’s Lennox Theatre in Parramatta, NSW.
Tickets are strictly limited so advance booking is recommended.
Ed. Mara! Still three albums available for sale on the Trad&Now website, all of which are also on Trad&Now Live! and can be heard there from time to time.
