Description
The Mara! Big Band exploded onto the Australian music scene in March 2022 with the premiere of their stunning new work Zashto?, which was hailed as “…a triumph and a treat…” by Sydney Morning Herald reviewer Jessie Cunniffe.
This new collaborative suite, featuring poetry by migrant and refugee writers and compositions by Sandy Evans, Paul Cutlan, Mara Kiek, Andrew Robson, Tony Gorman and Llew Kiek, was commissioned by Mara Kiek in 2019, with the support of Create NSW. Originally scheduled to tour in 2020 with the support of the Australia Council for the Arts, the project faced cancellations two years in a row because of the pandemic.
The Mara! Big Band, a 13-piece ensemble, features some of Australia’s greatest world/jazz musicians, straddling the Eastern European Gypsy Brass Band and Jazz Big Band traditions, to produce a kaleidoscope of musical colours.
Zashto? was recorded in 2022 and released as a CD in 2023. The band takes to the road again in November 2024, touring Zashto? to regional NSW
Mara! Big Band Zashto?
CD review by Tony Smith
TN160 Dec ‘23
Mara and Llew Kiek have long been collectors and performers of a range of folk music, from medieval chants to the songs of the Balkans and Eastern Europe, particularly as brought to Australia by immigrants.
Their music has usually been of that earthy kind, often expressed in unaccompanied song and using simple percussion.
This album includes contributions from many musicians.
There are sopranos Sandy Evans (also tenor sax), Jenny Dornan and Silvia Entcheva.
There are altos Jarnie Birmingham and Andrew Robson (also baritone sax).
Lloyd Swanton plays double bass, Gary Daley piano accordion and Hammond organ, Sam Golding flute, trumpet and tuba, Paul Cutlan piccolo, soprano and alto sax and B flat and E flat clarinets, James Greening pocket trumpet, trombone, tuba and percussion, Jess Ciampa drum kit, congas, bodhran and percussion.
Llew Kiek plays bouzouki, baglama, mandolin and acoustic and electric guitars.
Mara Kiek, mezzo soprano, plays tapan and darabuka.
The album also relies on the work of librettists, translators and composers.
The 2023 album has eight tracks occupying an hour.
‘The Little Hottie’ triptych consists of ‘The Flit’, ‘The Chase’ and ‘The Snare’.
These tracks establish the ‘big band’ sound of the album.
Beginning with clarinet and double bass, the first track has a Klezmer/ gypsy feel then the music segues into drums and saxophone.
These tracks created by Mara imagine the story of Sandy Evans’ ancestor Catherine Delaney who was pursued and captured and sentenced to transportation after allowing political prisoners to escape from her father’s jail in Cork.
The Irish translation is by Julie Henigan and Peter Smith and Andrew Robson composed the tunes for the second and third tracks.
The English lyrics for ‘The Snare’ show the compassion which the whole album expresses about the travails of migrant women.
‘So you would banish me to a distant shore/ For pitying my poor countrymen/ Bound down in chains in your filthy gaol/ For the crimes of poverty and faith’.
Very sweet guitar backing enhances the poignancy of the lyrics here.
‘Nekoronovanite Printsove’ (Uncrowned Princes) has words and translation by Marcia Malinova-Anthony.
The Bulgarian born poet, writer and artist migrated to Australia in 1979.
Sandy Evans is composer and Silvia Entcheva is Bulgarian music and language consultant.
Brass features here as well as solo vocals.
‘More’ (Sea) is also by Marcia with music by Paul Cutlan.
The track unfolds with bass instrumental bursts which evoke the feeling of the tide on the shore.
The sea features in the thoughts of many migrants.
All of my ancestors came here before flight was developed and more lately, so-called ‘boat people’ have written extensively about the experience of taking to the sea in desperation.
For ‘Yek Vemzemeh’ (A Whisper) the words of Maryam Faghihi Rad were set to music by Lew Kiek.
Three language and Persian music experts were consulted for this track: Khojasteh (Erica) Nazari, Shadi Nazarpour and Esfandiar Shahmir.
Maryam spent six years detained on Nauru and has been living in detention in Australia for four years, awaiting a decision on her refugee status.
She has a six month ‘bridging’ visa.
‘Everything you had you put behind/ You are not crazy, you gambled your life/ You sought help, instead you were punished’.
‘What a Life’ has music by Tony Gorman in three rhythms: 13/4, 12/8 and 11/8.
This migrant from Glasgow brings Caribbean, African and Peruvian influences to this track.
‘Zashto?’ is Bulgarian for ‘Why?’
It has ‘musings of a casual xenophobe and a refugee’.
A meeting of minds is needed and some solution could be found: ‘You could sing with me, you could dance with me, oh won’t you play with me, just give me your hand’.
The question could be wondering why women migrate.
Alternatively, it could be directed at Mara asking for a reason for producing such an album.
Well, in both cases a suitable answer might be ‘why not’?
The women’s migration experience has given rise to some beautiful imaginings and Mara has brought these into very special existence.
In the words of Maryam ‘tough times never last, tough people do’.
As I write, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nages Mohammadi, who is imprisoned in Iran for her activism on behalf of women, has been denied medical treatment because she refused to wear the hijab to hospital.
She responded by going on hunger strike.
The regime in Iran will be unlikely to change its policies to save her life.
