Mike Jenkins - Welsh Poet & Author
  • Mike's Blog
  • New Book!
  • About Mike
  • Contact
  • What's the point?
  • The Climbing Tree
  • The Fugitive Three
  • Publications
  • Red Poets

BURUM

8/12/2012

0 Comments

 
                            Hud o'r gegin,
                            hud hefyd o'r tafarn llawn:
                            y blas o'r swn.

  
   The band's name are Burum (yeast) and last Thursday myself and my older daughter went to see them launch their latest cd 'Caniadau' (songs) at Cafe Jazz in Cardiff.
   Before that we went to Cafe Citta in Church Street, a small family-run Italian restaurant and a joy to behold nestled in amongst all those pizza chains.
   Here, in the baking oven heat of a summer finally come, I tasted the power of yeast and dough in the form of the best pizza in town and a tiramisu just right in its moist sweetness, not a bit cloying. My daughter's seafood pasta was equally fresh and satisfying, she insisted.
   The owners are so friendly and chatty you feel you're a regular even for the first time.
   From the plain of a pizza  we walked a  short distance away , to encounter a sense of hills and mountains ; the rising and browning of a unique music from Cymru.
   They are definitely a rising band, if not yet fully risen. They have substance and air aplenty and both qualities are vital.
   The substance comes from the piano, double bass and drums who operate as a tight trio (indeed, they also play as a separate entity, the Dave Jones Trio).
   The piano seems like a messenger between earth and air: a bird which feeds off the land, then lifts up into clouds and currents of flute, trumpet and saxophone.
   The air of the latter often floats on ballads such as 'Lisa Lan', or can be a frenetic storm of tones, as on 'Hen Ferchetan'.
   Their unique nature comes from this reworking of almost exclusively traditional Welsh tunes (or airs?).
   At a time when so many bands appear content to remain grounded and follow well-mapped routes, Burum have taken a bold course by fusing folk and jazz.
   It is risky because folk purists might well long for the lyrics, acknowledge well-known melodies and then become frustrated when they are taken to new heights by the arrangements of band members, especially Daniel and Tomos Williams.
   Jazz buffs however, could well be deterred by the strong folk influence provided by Ceri Rhys Matthews in particular ; more notably on the cd, where he plays Welsh pipes ( for some reason,he didn't live).
   Burum do not always come together. Sometimes there's a jarring between those influences and Matthews' flute doesn't tally  or the brass harmonies are too strident for the overall atmosphere of the song.
   However, Burum are the real thing and Cymru ignores them at its own loss. I was shocked when Daniel Williams told the audience that only one track had been played on Radio Cymru!
   This is a sure indictment of the way radio works, with music having to fit into distinct categories. This is ridiculous when the best music seeks to break down those old barriers.
   What I relish about listening to jazz is the way it can lift you just like that piano-bird, whose call ascends first and is followed by giddy flight.
   The wordlessness of most of the jazz I love releases unexpected images and phrases. As I was listening to Burum I was transported back to the kitchen of my gran in Barry......a keen amateur opera singer, she would have appreciated their Welsh airs.
   I thought of the bread she baked so lovingly and joy of eating her tasty teas. As well as delicious white bread, she specialized in sponges, small almond cakes and 'teisen crwn', a large round cake cooked on a bake-stone and full of apples. In my experience,she's the only one who ever made it.
   Music and memories joined like the two rivers of my childhood home of Aber : Ystwyth and Rheidol.
   'aber' means confluence and also estuary and so much of poetry - for me anyway - happens at an estuary of imagination, a mingling of thoughts and feelings from two directions.
   Freshwater and salt of the sea. The smell of newly-baked bread after the magic of yeast.
   The taste of sounds of a summer evening.


                                             BURUM


My grandmother's knobbly hands
needing the flour and water ;

the simplicity of dough,
fleshy, belly-like, swollen

into the heat of the tavern,
the fists and pummel of bass and drums,

the shaping hands of the pianist
all along the keys

and into the brass basin
of trumpet and saxophone ;

flute a wooden spoon
mixing, beating ; in the oven

of the jazz cafe we taste
the crisp crust, the airiness

of soft white bread torn,
flour shaken from it,

just as my gran would make
in her Barry kitchen, knowing

the score of her recipe
by heart, a familiar song.
  
  
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.



    Archives

    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from johnharveypegg, Dai Lygad, joncandy, victoriapeckham, David Holt London, aeneastudio, fromthevalleys-, Metro Centric, andymag, David Bergin Photography, villunderlondon, @markheybo, joncandy, Martin Pettitt, Between the Shadows, joncandy, johnkell, olivia.barrie, villunderlondon, Lake Worth, MittenStatePhototog, frankieleon, robynejay, joncandy, mcaretaker, Thomas Leuthard, Knight Foundation, joncandy, Joybot, brownpau, Iburiedpaul, villunderlondon, amit_gaur, abegum, simonw92, beeveephoto, Aislinn Ritchie, Shannon Green Photography, joncandy, Nick J Webb, Vish Menon, AberCJ, gcoldironjr2003, joncandy, World Can't Wait, jonl1973, Watt_Dabney, petejam70, Kerndav, MJ Klaver, joncandy, Daquella manera, spratt504, joncandy, ashleigh290, Glyn Lowe Photoworks., afanatochka, r.nial.bradshaw, themendingnews, rikkis_refuge, Matthew Straubmuller, joncandy, onnola, final gather, funktionhouse, marioanima, joncandy, Dai Lygad, joncandy, Guttorm Flatabø, brittreints, garryknight, villunderlondon, wonker, Martin Pettitt, joncandy, tnarik, AJC1, simonw92, wardyboy400, joncandy, Bombardier, joncandy, Cargo Cult, joncandy, joncandy, SeanOConnor2010, Feral78, comedy_nose, Abode of Chaos, mkairishstudies, joncandy, avail, Jörg Weingrill, Gwydion M. Williams, Leshaines123, KiltBear, eisenbahner, Capt' Gorgeous, Francis Storr, New Chemical History, Matthew Black, jc.winkler, Gwenael Kere, Karen Roe