Iain Ballamy and Stian Carstensen, SpArC Theatre, Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, 28/11/2015.

I’ve been an admirer of the playing of saxophonist Iain Ballamy since he first burst onto the scene in the 1980s as a member of Loose Tubes. A remarkably versatile musician Ballamy has plied his trade in a variety of contexts since the members of Loose Tubes went their separate ways in 1990 and I’ve enjoyed his work, both live and on record, with the electro-improvising duo Food (with Norwegian drummer Thomas Stronen) and the folk/jazz crossover trio Quercus (with pianist Huw Warren and folk singer June Tabor).

Together with Loose Tubes keyboard player Django Bates he was a member of the first edition of drummer Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, recording two excellent albums during his relatively brief tenure. Ballamy has also led more conventional jazz outfits, often in the quartet format, including his long running Anorak group. He has also been a prolific sideman, particularly with former Loose Tubes associates, and in 2014 was part of the Tubes’ widely celebrated series of re-union gigs. Ballamy is also an acclaimed educator who has helped to launch the careers of younger jazz musicians such as saxophonist Trish Clowes and guitarist Dan Messore.

Since 2004 Ballamy has also been part of another Anglo-Norwegian musical alliance, this time with the multi-instrumentalist Stian Carstensen. The pair first worked together in 2000 on Ballamy’s quintet album “Pepper Street Interludes”. They subsequently recorded the duo album “The Little Radio” in 2004, the title sometimes being used as a band name.

In the context of Little Radio (or Iain and Stian as they are sometimes billed) Carstensen concentrates on the button accordion, his principal instrument, but he is also an accomplished guitarist and flautist, instruments he plays in his own band Farmers Market, a madcap outfit that performs Balkan style pastiches of other musical genres. Carstensen’s combination of virtuosity and irreverence has led him to being dubbed the “Norwegian Frank Zappa” and humour is a very important part of the Farmers Market sound, for me too much so at times as the clowning around too often gets in the way of the music.

A sense of fun and a musical eclecticism was a hallmark of Loose Tubes too and it’s easy to see how a shared sense of musical humour has sustained Ballamy’s musical relationship with Carstensen for a decade or more. The unlikely and eclectic selection of tunes on “The Little Radio”, many of them still a key part of the duo’s repertoire and many of them given an airing tonight, was totally unexpected and very different from Food and some of Ballamy’s other projects. However his involvement with Quercus suggests that he has always loved a good tune, whatever the source may be, and that he has always had a love of folk and world music alongside his more obvious passion for jazz.

This evening’s performance was presented by the admirable Arts Alive, the organisation responsible for bringing professional entertainment across a variety of disciplines to rural locations in Herefordshire and Shropshire. It was part of a wider British tour produced by SoundUK that had also seen the duo visiting similarly rural locations in Cornwall and Wiltshire.

Part of the remit of this tour was that it was to consist of more than just concert performances. Ballamy and Carstensen had also worked with local people in the communities that they visited, going into schools and care homes and collaborating with local residents with regard to the eventual performance repertoire. Here was Ballamy in his educator’s role again, but more on that later.

The first half of tonight’s performance was drawn from Little Radio’s regular repertoire and began with an unlikely segue of Vaughan Williams’ “Whither Shall I Wander” with the jazz standard “Sweet Lorraine”. Both musicians were seated to play and the sounds generated by Carstensen’s accordion ranged from church organ like hymnal to folk tinged bal musette. His virtuosity allowed him to play bass lines on the accordion as he accompanied Ballamy’s tenor sax soloing and a sense of humour was never far away, as expressed by Carstensen’s zany facial expressions during his own solo feature.

The duo’s take on Erik Satie’s “Je Te Veux” found Carstensen’s accordion mimicking the sound of bird song before the tune merged into “Teddy Bears Picnic”, the much loved children’s song that has become a staple of Little Radio’s performances and which is played at every one of their gigs.  The arrangement combined Loose Tubes style whimsy with the Celtic sounds of jigs and reels and ended in unlikely fashion with the jaunty melody being transposed into a solemn minor key. Great fun, but also very clever. 

Jerome Kern’s “The Way You Look Tonight” was subject to a typically quirky arrangement with both musicians packing their solos with quotes from other tunes.

The duo concluded their first set with a “German Medley” beginning with their signature piece “An Den Kleinen Radioapparat” written by Hans Eisler and Bertoldt Brecht and superseded by two Kurt Weill songs, “Surabaya Johnny” and the enduringly popular “Mack The Knife”. The latter saw Ballamy encouraging the audience to whistle the melody as the band paused to assess our efforts. Carstensen also indulged in some quasi cabaret vocalising, of the kind imported from the Farmers Market.

Set two began with a lively romp that took in variety of tunes including “The Charleston” and what sounded suspiciously like Country Joe’s “Fish Cheer”.

Following this came a sequence of four tunes written specifically for this concert. Ballamy and Carstensen had worked with local children and asked the youngsters to come up with suggestions for titles of tunes, the duo would then take the best of these and come up with a composition.

The first of these was “Beauty Sleep”, a piece with an attractive melody that was played by Ballamy on soprano sax as Carstensen feigned yawning and falling asleep.

“The Witches of Bury Ditches”, named for a local landmark, an iron age hill fort, had an appropriately spooky theme and featured the ghostly wail Carstensen’s wordless vocals.

“Fat Whale Blues” was suitably lugubrious with Carstensen approximating the sound of whalesong via the bellows of his accordion while Ballamy blew bluesy tenor sax.

“Olden Days”, composed by Carstensen alone managed to be both jaunty and courtly and seemed to be based on notions of mediaeval dance.

I rather enjoyed this sequence, I’ve always been the kind of jazz fan who likes to hear new music rather than the same old jazz standards or popular songs that have become so familiar that they’ve practically become modern folk music. Jazz may famously have been described as the ‘sound of surprise’ but it has a lot of listeners who prefer to cling to the familiar and predictable. Unfortunately none of the children seemed to be around to hear the performance which was a pity and rather seemed to defeat the object.

Little Radio returned to their regular repertoire with Carstensen’s novelty vocal on “I Love You So Much It Hurts Me”, which rather outstayed its welcome as far as I was concerned as it dragged the duo rather too deeply into the pool of comedy music. There were more cabaret style vocals on the next item which began with Carstensen playing “The Minute Waltz” followed by numerous other classical snippets.

The performance concluded with Ballamy’s “favourite Whitney Houston song”, which was, almost inevitably “Saving All My Love You” featuring Ballamy’s tenor playing the melody above Carstensen’s accordion drones.

A brief encore found the accordionist approximating the sound of the pipes to accompany Ballamy’s tenor on “The Londonderry Air”, or “Danny Boy” if you prefer.

The majority of the audience at the SpArC Theatre seemed to love the duo’s blend of musical virtuosity and aural and visual humour but personally I felt a little underwhelmed by the whole experience. For me the pair were rather “going through the motions”, with Ballamy in particular seeming to be playing within himself. Most of the tunes were pieces that have been in the duo’s repertoire for a long time and have been played often and for me they seemed to lack sparkle. I’d never question the musicianship of either player but the improvisatory fireworks that I’d been expecting from musicians of this calibre never quite materialised with most of the songs seeming to stick pretty strictly to the arrangements and with the humorous moments scripted rather than spontaneous. It was closer in spirit to Carstensen’s Farmers Market than to most of Ballamy’s other projects and despite my long running admiration for Ballamy and his music I could only conclude that Little Radio is never likely to be my favourite context in which to hear his playing. On the other hand the performance by Quercus at the Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton in April of this year was quite brilliant.

The part of tonight’s performance that I enjoyed most was the quartet of original tunes written specifically for tonight’s performance, the duo seemed to be more engaged here and the humour more unforced and natural – plus there was the vital element of discovery and surprise.

It represented quite a coup for Arts Alive to attract musicians of this quality to Bishops Castle and I can’t help feeling slightly guilty for not enjoying this show as much as I’d hoped I would. I suspect that I was probably in a minority, although my companion Richard admitted to being somewhat unconvinced as well. Comments from others who have seen Little Radio on their recent rural tour would be welcome.