Strathclyde Suite, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 02 February 2008

The Nedyalko Nedyalkov Quartet

THE MAIN feature of this show was a new collaboration between the Scottish and Bulgarian quartets led respectively by multi-instrumentalist Fraser Fifield, and flute player Nedyalko Nedyalkov. Both groups take a comparable jazz-inclined approach to their native traditional music, with their Celtic Connections date offering a foretaste of their forthcoming joint Tune Up tour, starting later this month, and of the album they’re recording together.

A presumably cut-down version of that full-length performance proved a rather bitty, patchy affair, which failed to develop anything much in the way of momentum. At a guess, the programme on tour will include individual slots by each band, before both play together, whereas on this occasion it was a mix of all three elements throughout.

Besides Nedyalkov’s kaval, a traditional wooden flute, the Bulgarians’ line-up also features Stoimenka Nedyalkova on vocals, Angel Dimitrov on tamboura, a kind of long-necked mandolin, and Georgi Petrov on gadulka, which also resembles a mandolin, but has ten or more layered strings and is played upright, plucked or with a bow. The Scottish team, meanwhile, featured guitarist Graeme Stephen and percussionists Guy Nicholson and David Robertson, alongside Fifield’s bagpipes, whistles and soprano sax.

There were some memorable moments where all these diverse instruments and styles genuinely gelled, as in a brilliantly nimble high-speed duet between Dimitrov and Stephen, or Fifield’s composition ‘Traces of Thrace’, meshing Celtic and Bulgarian dance rhythms amidst a vibrant, full-bodied blend of colours and textures. Nedyalkova’s singing, too, cast that eerie Bulgarian spell, with its intense tone and Oriental shadings.

For what felt like long stretches, however, the prevailing impression was of downbeat noodling, and a distinct dearth of energy onstage. The musical interaction going on between the players was doubtless very interesting, but communicated only sporadically to the audience. The very last number suddenly delivered all the attack, urgency and drama that had largely been missing, but by then it was too little, too late.

As you’d expect from a onetime featured soloist in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance show, Irish fiddler Cora Smyth’s opening set was slick, catchy and strong on pizzazz, her vigorous bowing and resonant tone framed by a six-piece band on accordion, double bass, keyboards, guitar, drums and trumpet. Arrangements cross-fertilised with rock, pop, reggae and jazz influences certainly did the business for most of the audience, assisted by Smyth’s dynamic stage presence, but to this listener came across as both mannered and lacking in originality.

© Sue Wilson, 2008

Links

• Celtic Connections