Ken Hunt News August 2000

August 2000

Vilayat Khan, it was announced on 13 July 2000, one of the greatest living musicians of the Northern Indian classical tradition has "entered into an exclusive relationship" with the London-based Navras label. Vilayat Khan had illustrious forebears. His grandfather Imdad Khan (1848-1920) and his father Inayat Khan (1894-1938) were role models he could aspire to emulate. His father died when Vilayat Khan was young but his spirit has imbued Vilayat Khan's playing ever since - and that of his brother Imrat Khan. Born in Gauripur, now in Bangladesh, in 1928, Vilayat Khan had begun to emerge as one of the most eloquent sitarists in the Hindustani firmament by the 1940s. He never looked back.

According to Navras, the label will be releasing a series of live recordings These releases will trace "the evolution of this master musician decade by decade" from the 1940s to the present day. Additionally, Vilayat Khan is planning to make new recordings of "some of the rarest and greatest compositions associated with his gharana". Gharana means 'house' and by extension a school of playing in the Northern Indian or Hindustani musical system. No details were available at the time of posting this news, as to when the first releases will appear on the market.

Deaths: Antonio Moreira da Silva Malandro is a tradition in Brazil. Loosely translated, a malandro is a bad cat or loveable rogue. And Antonio Moreira da Silva, who died on 6 June 2000, in his trademark white linen suit and panama hat was a character who exemplified malandro style. In 1937 he was performing "Jogo Proibido" (Forbidden Game) when he spontaneously broke off to deliver a rap - in the old sense of talking. It became his trademark and something called sama do breque (break samba) was born. He would continue to perform this style of music until his death. He was born on 1 April 1902 in the Tujuca district of Rio de Janeiro, so it was a style that lasted. It proved adaptable enough for him to create an alter ego called Kid Morengueira, a streetwise, cool customer living the life of a Rio gangster for the edification of his audience. He recorded extensively but maintained his day job as an ambulance driver until the day he retired and thereafter lived on the small pension from his employer. Like the old story, he never got paid commensurately with his fame, such as it was as the inventor of sama do breque.

Johnny Duncan The British skiffle movement threw up many names, a few of whom, most notably Lonnie Donegan, went on to enjoy international success to varying degrees. All over Britain people adopted fake American accents and sang worksongs about the railroad or picking cotton. Johnny Duncan was an exception. He had been born in Oliver Springs near Knoxville in Tennessee in September 1932 and he did not have to mimic an American accent. While doing national service in the US Army he was posted to Britain in 1952 and married a local girl the next year. Though they tried to make a go of it in the United States after he was 'demobbed', Betty became ill and they returned to England. In 1956 he went to see Chris Barber's jazz band at the 100 Club in Oxford Street in London and his timing was very good. Donegan had grown dissatisfied with his billing in the band because skiffle was the happening thing and he had a big ego to feed. Donegan had just departed and Duncan was recruited. Duncan moved on in 1957, convinced that he could up his wages away from Barber and formed the Blue Grass Blues - a name lifted straight from Bill Monroe's band back home in the States. Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys landed a deal with Columbia (not to be confused with the US record company of the same name) and released their first single "Kaw-Liga" (the Hank Williams' song). The next single, however, put them into the charts. It was called "Last Train To San Fernando". The song, originally one of the Mighty Dictator's calypsos, was like a calypso on wakey-wakey pills (as speed had been fondly nicknamed by Allied servicemen during the Second World War). It was a massive hit. Heard everywhere, it also took on an extended life as a children's playground parody. More singles followed but nothing matched "Last Train To San Fernando". Duncan became a regular on the youth programme of the day, BBC-TV's 6.5 Special show and even got a radio programme of his own called Tennessee Songbook (and made an LP on the back of this for Columbia called Johnny Duncan's Tennessee Song Bag. Although nothing compared with his greatest hit, he was able to continue a career in music as a singer and guitarist and was recording into the 1970s. After The World of Johnny Duncan in 1973, he emigrated to Australia and it was there in Taree in New South Wales that he died on 15 July 2000. In 1996 the Bremen-based Bear Records label released a 4-CD boxed set of Duncan's work called, inevitably, Last Train to San Fernando

Ken Hunt, August 2000