Jo Quail

Along with about 200 others I went along to St. John on Bethnal Green Church on a cold Saturday night in February to see Jo Quail's latest incarnation entitled 'Nocturnes'. This had been a long time in the making, and for this event she had surrounded herself with other artistes and friends for a truly memorable evening of music.

It kicked off with seven short works re-arranged by Jo for a cello quartet (Jo, Raffaele Ottonello, Laura Passey and Anna Scott), later joined by Daniel Merrill on violin, with music as varied as Bartok, Michael Gore, Schein, De Falla, Van Halen, Nine Inch Nails and the anonymously composed 'Vigil', with which she often opens her gigs. She explained that all of these pieces had formed the soundtrack to her life.

Next came two tracks from her 'From The Sea' album - 'Hunter From The East', with violin instead of the original guitar accompaniment, and then Mohan Rana reading his poetry that inspired 'The Colour of Water'. These were followed by 'South West Night' from her 'Caldera' album, but with a twist - Robyn Sellman (of 'Autorotation' fame) providing some improvised lyrics, Al Richardson producing similarly improvised percussion and the whole audience joining in with their own version of sounds from the Australian bush, brilliantly conducted by Jos Pijnappel, who had travelled from Holland specifically for this event!

After the interval we heard an accoustic version of 'The Hidden Forest' from 'Caldera', and were then treated to the Jo that we know and love - she of the electric cello and loop stations! Three more tracks from 'Caldera', and her staple 'The Falconer' from her 'From The Sea' album, each one with some very gentle percussion from Al.

Now to the climax - the premiere of her new work 'This Path With Grace', which can only be described as a 20 minute epic, using all of the artistes previously mentioned, with the addition of the Green Army Choir. This is an extremely ambitious work, in four connected movements, inspired by the work of Michael Fletcher, an Australian landscape videographer. In Jo's own words she used the music to 'try to paint the scenes of the derelict churches, glacial waters and windswept lands'. Somehow hearing this for the first time in a church seemed the perfect finale, but listening to it again in complete silence through headphones enables one to create their own similar images - what an amazing piece of work that will live long in the memories of those present!

The whole evening was enjoyable for performers and audience alike, and the standing ovation was utterly well deserved! It didn't stop until she re-appeared and gave a great rendition of 'Adder Stone'. One has to wonder how Jo can top a rapturous evening like this, but you can be sure that if anyone can, it will be Jo.

The event was managed by Alan Pride and promoted by Kunal Singhal on behalf of Chaos Theory.

AIR ON A 3 STRING

On 26th April I attended the O2 Academy in Islington where the South Korean band Jambinai were to headline. Jo Quail was to provide support with a selection of her best known music (including 'Laurus', 'Salamander', 'Tempo' and 'Gold') to be played before an audience, the majority of whom had never heard her perform before. She began with 'Laurus', the start of which is played 'col legno', where the strings are struck with the wooden part of the bow as opposed to the hair. Within seconds the A string snapped. Being the consummate professional that she is, Jo apologised and left the stage to replace the string, returning a few minutes later with the string still missing. She explained that the replacement string had also snapped. With the doctrine that 'the show must go on' she then treated the audience to 25 minutes of completely improvised music, which was received with rapturous applause by the 200 or so people present.

Jambinai are renowned for their use of unusual instruments, including the haegeum, the piri, the geomungo and the taepyeongso, but the evening began with a magnificent performance on the thrello (the three stringed cello). Well done Jo!