Ríona Sally Hartman
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An Seisiún

19/7/2018

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I did lots of things last year that I loved and completely forgot to update this blog about...I  guess I was too distracted making music! So here we go, over the next few days I'll write some posts filling in some blanks, here's one from last year:

An Seisiún was a radio show where they put groups of musicians in a recording studio overnight to write and record three new songs, in Irish, over a twelve hour period.

For each episode, music producer Karl Odlum (The Frames, Ham Sandwich) worked through the night with the musicians, who were deliberately grouped together with those from very different musical backgrounds. 

So I was on the show and I was paired up in the studio with Rónán and Colm Ó Snodaigh (Kíla) and Aindrias de Staic. It was a blast, lovely people, lovely music...I only wish I spoke less nonsense! I was loving all the music making and then there'd be interview portions where my mind would just blank...have a listen to the show at this link right here (give it a few seconds when you click through to load the show) and just skip by my nonsense chatter and listen to the tunes :)

The show was presented and produced by Cian Mac Cárthaigh and Lisa McGeough. 
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Oh Lord Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

20/11/2017

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I'm reading a biography of Nina Simone at the moment; a brilliant page turner of a book and a brilliant page turner of a life! The highs and lows of Nina Simone's life are enthralling. One second she's got a hit in the charts but she's broke and working as a maid, the next she's a rich socialite in Liberia with more suitors than she can keep track of, the next she's an old crank living in France sneaking into her neighbors swimming pools to go skinny dipping and getting her gun out to shoot at their kids when they make too much noise. 

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Watch It!

12/9/2017

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I haven't written any blogs in a while...I'm very inconsistent with this blog! But something exciting is happening right now that you should know about; Esperanza Spalding is creating an album from scratch in three days and she's live streaming the whole thing. It's absolutely thrilling to watch! I'm not sure if it'll be possible to watch back after the fact. It's the jazz super bowl...watch along with me;
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SomethiNg Old Something New

10/10/2015

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Something New: ERA by Umiuma 

I came across this song by Japanese band Uimiuma about a year ago and ever since I find myself craving it from time to time. Whenever I'm feeling pissed off it makes me feel better. The cocky guitar riff, the fresh-green-leaves-in-springtime vocals, the optimistic snare marching along on the verse...it all adds up to just under a minute and a half of mood enhancing, confidence boosting good times. The lyrics sound like maybe they're about someone being defiant while simultaneously nonchalant but I actually have no idea, which is a bit of a blessing because it means I can pretend she's singing about whatever will make me happiest at that very moment. 

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Something Old Something New

7/10/2015

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Something New: Cécil McLorin - Wives and Lovers

Cécil McLorin's voice in this tune reminds me of Jeanne Lee; a lovely mellow clear tone and a delivery that's laid back but a little bit cheeky. The video is simple, beautifully shot and the dancer's movement is like a kaleidoscope image you could watch forever. 

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Paper Chase Tuesday

6/10/2015

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,If you've seen my Show Me video you'll know that I love to make things from paper. I never know what term to use...paper art, paper craft, paper sculpture, quilling...it doesn't matter really. I call mine paper creatures!

I've found some beautiful paper pieces, mostly through instagram (which is a brilliant medium completely wasted on photos of cappuccinos and people in the gym) that I'd love to share with you. The first is Rainniuniu who calls herself a 'book artist' and that's all I know about her! 

​Her human figures are like a cross between clean *Japanese aesthetic and sacred aboriginal art. You get a glimpse of all the inner workings, or imagined inner workings, of her human leaves. 

#paperart

A photo posted by 陈粉丸 (@rainniuniu) on Sep 14, 2015 at 2:58am PDT


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Something Old Something New

1/10/2015

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Something New: Stick Stock by Emily Portman Trio

Last summer I got to see the Emily Portman Trio upstairs in Odessa and they were excellent live. Perfect harmonies, accents to die for and banter between tunes about Harry Potter...what more could you ask for? A lot of their songs were murder ballads (my favourite!) and this one was particularly good and bloody. 

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May You Never

28/9/2015

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Some songs keep you coming back for more

Some songs you grow tired of. You listen to them for a while and sing along and when you find them in your CD collection a few years later (yes I still have a CD collection!) you can't really remember what made you love them. You start hearing flaws you didn't hear before or it just doesn't connect. But some songs just hold up forever! Every time you hear them you hear something new that you hadn't noticed before and you fall in love all over again. May You Never by John Martyn is one of those songs for me. 
Sometimes you can tell when you're listening to a song that the lyrics were written based on phonetics rather than crafted to tell a story or convey emotion or meaning. The songwriter will start by singing whatever sounds or feels good, regardless of the meaning of the words, and gradually build the semblance of coherency around that. Songwriting this way can have it's advantages: it’s a visceral, instinctual way of writing so you can wind up writing something very deep and emotional without engaging you analytical ‘left side’ brain and the results are often really memorable and singable. But of course it has it’s drawbacks, like it's easy to wind up falling back on habit and you can wind up with deep sounding lyrics that are actually kind of meaningless ("there's a fire starting in my heart / Reaching a fever pitch, it's bringing me out the dark”! I'm not saying it's a bad song, just that some of the lyrics make no sense or are plain grammatically incorrect!)
One thing I love about a lot of John Martyn songs, this one in particular, is that they sound like one of these songs. The lyrics are so easy to remember, phonetically pleasing and singable that it isn’t till you’re singing it through for the millionth time, not realising you knew all the words, that you actually pay attention to the lyrics and see how beautiful they are. Perfectly constructed and logical. 

I also love his phrasing. He’s got a lovely rolling, continuous drone like way of phrasing his lyrics that lends his songs a sense of perpetual motion. 

I was fortunate enough to get to see him live twice and even though time, and possibly addiction, had definitely taken it's toll, he still had the power to completely transfix an audience. 
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Betty Carter

4/5/2015

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I had planned on putting this post up in time for International Jazz Day but I never was good at deadlines.

You and I might both know that Whiplash was the most misunderstood satirical comedy of our time, but it's still telling sign that the only female character in the movie was basically labeled 'distraction' (I'm not even sure she had a name!) and so I'm always delighted to find female role models in jazz. Everyone needs a role model and mine is Betty Carter. Betty Carter was a masterful singer of course, but she was also a ferocious band leader, songwriter and arranger. Now my music might not sound anything like Betty Carter's but that's besides the point. I don't think imitation is necessarily the best way to learn from a role model, I think understanding their intent can be much more helpful, leading you to develop your own sound (that's not to say you shouldn't be transcribing like mad! I've transcribed loads of Betty Carter and loved every second of it).

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Dianne Reeves in the National Concert Hall

13/7/2013

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It's great to see the National Concert Hall broadening it's programming to include more international Jazz acts. In the last few months we've seen Keith Jarret, Kurt Elling, Brandford Marsallis and now Dianne Reeves.
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    Ríona Sally Hartman

    A blog about all sorts of things like music, books, storytelling and paper art. From time to time I'll interview a fellow musician or review a gig. 

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