Arts/Review

FREEDOM TO LOVE. By Faith Nolan.
Aural Tradition Records, Vancouver. LP,
cassette and CD formats.

If to be Canadian is to be meek and
mild, Faith Nolan is the antithesis. The
Nova Scotia born, fifth generation singer-
songwriter hits the complacent body
politic square in the solar plexus with her
third album — the first on the Vancouver
Folk Music Festival’s Aural Tradition
label — Freedom to Love.

Anger finds its expression in Nolan’s
compositions, “Forturer,” “Anna Mae
Aquash,” “Black, Brown, White Blues”
and “I Black Woman.” Since the image of
the docile Canadian is more a stereotype
conceived by outsiders, it’s appropriate to
note Nolan’s own refutation of stereotypes
in the latter song: “I Black woman can
barely dance/ I'd rather read a book than
jive and prance. . .I ain’t voodoo queen, an
African dream/ I’m my own woman with
my own damn scene/ I Black woman will
not be used.”

“Torturer” is an acerbic composition
that in addressing the plight of battered
women and children, observes, “‘Pinochet
in Chile/ death squads in El Salvador/

while we’re talking ‘bout human rights/
let’s take a look next door,” and asks,
“Where does the torturer live?”

Anger and urgency, however, are bal-
anced by light-hearted tunes like the tradi-
tional folk blues, “Shake Sugaree” and
Nolan’s own “Prove it on Me.” And there
is “Aleticia,” an unforgettably beautiful
and poignant Latin-laced ballad.

For further contrast, Nolan performs
two American left classics, both written by
Abe Meeropol (adoptive father of the
Rosenberg sons): “Strange Fruit,” the
anti-racist protest to lynchings made fam-
ous by Billie Holiday, and “Beloved Com-
rade.”

Thus the progressive music of the Eight-
ies combines with the power of the tradi-
tional tunes in this engrossing album.

Faith Nolan appears in concert on Sun-
day, Nov. 12,8 p.m. at the Vancouver East
Cultural Centre. Tickets are $12, phone
254-9578 for reservations.

LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU: Songs of
Bertolt Brecht. By Frankie Armstrong
and Dave Van Ronk. Aural Tradition
records. LP format. a

This may rank as one of the more unus-
ual folk releases of 1989, with the growly-
voiced U.S. folk blues legend Dave Van
Ronk combining forces with one of Bri-
tain’s most melodic and powerful topical
singers, Frankie Armstrong, to produce
Let No One Deceive You: Songs of Bertolt
Brecht.

Brecht was the German singer-song-
writer-playwright who co-wrote dozens of
searing social satires and commentaries
with Hans Eisler and Kurt Weill, accomp-
lished composers who gave his words
unforgettable melodies that come close to
sounding like anthems. Some of these
songs, such as “Mack the Knife” from The
Threepenny Opera have made it big on the
North American hit parade, although
those versions have been generally
stripped of the social content they pos-
sessed in entertaining audiences in Ger-
man cabarets during the Twenties.

The social content is very much evident
on this collaboration, which works. Van

Nolan, Brecht LPs fine new folk fest releases

Ronk and Armstrong, both veterans who
began their careers in the Fifties, reflect the
anger and passion of Brecht with rendi-
tions of “Song of a German Mother,”
“Song of the Moldau” and “What Keeps a
Man Alive?” Top marks go to Arm-
strong’s “Pirate Jenny” and Van Ronk’s
versions of “Mack the Knife” and “Ala-
bama Song.” And while the singers per-
form separately for most of the album,
they come together effectively for the
humorous concluding track, ““Tango Bal-
lad,” a back-handed complement to mar-
riage.

Let No One Deceive You still sounds
“folky,” lacking as it does the full orches-
tration that usually accompany Brecht’s
songs. Here the accompaniment is min-
imal, with Van Ronk providing his own
accomplished finger-style guitar while
Armstrong’s frequent musical partner,
Leon Rosselson, backs her melodies with
guitar and piano.

Brecht fans shouldn’t be disappointed,
while those unacquainted with his work
stand to gain a new experience from this ©
innovative, made-in-Vancouver album.

— Dan Keeton

Katari Taiko marks 1 0 years; Banda Tepeuani

Ten years ago a group of friends, mainly
young Asian Canadians, took inspiration
from a revival happening in the United
States and Japan, and formed British
Columbia’s first Japanese-style drum group.
The rest was history. Katari Taiko has
become well known throughout B.C. and in
several other parts of Canada for their excit-
ing arrangements and compositions. based
on the ancient art of taiko drumming.

To mark that anniversary Katari Taiko is
holding a three-day concert at the Van-
couver East Cultural Centre. The concerts
begin at 8 p.m. and run Nov. 23, 24, and 25.

There will be a reception in the lobby of
the centre following each performance.

Sane

Native actor Margo: Kane will perform
with the Arrow To Freedom Drummers ina
show, Reflections of the Medicine Wheel, at
the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, Nov.
15-16, 8 p.m., with a matinee on Nov. 16.

es Jie ak

Mike Harcourt was unusually provoca-
tive last week, but the NDP leader’s ire was
directed not at the Socreds but at Larry
Kuehn, managing editor.of New Directions
magazine. In the latest edition of New
Directions, Kuehn takes the NDP to task
for failing to link environmental policy with
challenging corporate .power. Harcourt’s
policy “does not add up to the tough pro-
gram required for the next decade — one
that would reduce pollution within a stra-
tegy of control on corporate power while
challenging the ‘growth’ philosophy implicit
in capital’s need for profits,’ Kuehn wrote.
Harcourt’s testy reply on the CBC television
news was that he has no patience for “mind-
less empty rhetoric about socialism. . ..”

To demonstrate that there are plenty of
New Democrats and others who have con-
siderable time for the much-needed debate
on environmental policy and controlling
corporate power, some 100 New Directions
readers turned out on the evening of Mon-
day, Oct. 30 to a fund raiser for the maga-
zine at Vancouver’s Isadora’s Restaurant.
Stan Persky hosted the evening which fea-
tured songs from Bob Bossin and remarks
from editor Bob Smith and Kuehn.

ke eo we

The fight for liberation in fascist-ruled El

Salvador involves more than armed:strug-

10 « Pacific Tribune, November 6, 1989

KATARI TAIKO .

gle'andstreet demonstrations. It also means *
mounting an artistic campaign to prevenrit'

cultural annihilation from the United
States, a member of Banda Papen told
the Tribune recently.

“Not that American culture is bad, but
there has to be a balance with our own
culture,” explained drummer Francisco
Astacio in an interview. His 12-year old
band was in town recently entertaining
audiences with the group’s blend of salsa
and cumbia music, coupled with a few sur-
prises such as a rendition of Bruce Cock-
burn’s anti-contra song, “If I Had a Rocket
Launcher.”

“We face cultural imperialism. The big
radio stations transmit in English and try to
make young people forget about El Salva-
dor...to make them think that the best
things are happening in the U.S.,” Astacio
reported.

Banda Tepeuani — the latter word is
Native meaning “winner of the battle” — is
one of a small but persistent number of
musical groups that draw on El Salvador’s
folk roots to create a sound that is both
politically and culturally defiant. An associ-
ation called Tizon (embers) meets with

artists around the world, including Canada,

. concerts celebrate 1 O years.

for ‘support 3 for the liberation SAlieelc and

El Salvador’s revolutionary culture. The

-association includes people like Salvadoran

revolutionary artist Camilo Minero.

The, group has toured , (Canada, in 1981
and 1988, and hopes to return this summer.
It has recorded four albums, in. Mexico,
West Germany, Cuba and Nicaragua,
where Banda Tepeuani is based. A tape
comprising selections from those albums
plus a new song was prepared in Van-
couver. Called ”...8, 9 y Sigue El Ritmo” it
will soon be available in some alternative
book and music stores in the Lower Main-

. land.

of * *

* Tube talk: KCTS public television pres-
ents “Letters from the Park,” an adaptation
of a story by famed Latin author Gabriel
Garcia Marquez, concerning two lovers
wooing through an intermediary in 1913
Cuba, on Sunday, Nov. 19, 10:30 p.m. for
two hours. Closed-captioned. Also on is a
four part serialization of the Charles
Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities, begin-
ning Sunday, Nov. 19, 9 p.m. for one hour.
The other installments are on the following

Sundays: Part II, Nov. 26, 9:10 p.m,; Parts
Ill and IV, Dec. 3, 8 p.m. It also runs Wed-
nesdays beginning Nov. 22 at 2 p.m.

KCTS also airs a segment of the series,
Say Brother entitled, ““Haiti’s Monument to
Freedom,” concerning the successful slave
revolt that led to the Caribbean island’s
independence, on Sunday, Nov. 19, 10:30
p.m. A one-hour show of highlights from
the renowned Newport Jazz Festival runs
Wednesday, Nov. 22, 9 p.m.

CARMANAH: Artistic
visions of an ancient
rain forest.

$60

(hardcover)

COUNT THE DAYS:
The 1990 Bili Vander
Zalm Scandal Date
Book

,$12.95
(coilbound)

SOVIET HUMOUR:

The best of Krokodil
~ $18.95
(paperback)

Mail orders please include
75¢ per book.

1391 COMMERCIAL DRIVE
VANCOUVER, B.C. V5L_3X5
TELEPHONE 253-6442