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videos: Camerata Ritmata's unique take on Sephardic and Eastern Jewish/Azeri music, as well as a movement from Simon's Cantigas de Santa Maria Suite below.

Reportage video with interviews and excerpts of other performances:

 

 

 

 

Details of the Cantigas de Santa Maria programme here

 

Recent review here

 

Camerata Ritmata..... performs new music fusing some of the most powerful sounds from across continents and epochs with visceral jazz improvisation, the flair for sound of classical music and contemporary currents in jazz and classical composition to create immediate and moving music unique to the group. Camerata Ritmata features innovative classical guitar virtuoso Simon Thacker and three of the UK’s leading jazz and world musicians, Paul Harrison (piano), Mario Caribé (bass) and Stu Brown (drums/percussion).

 

Both classically trained and steeped in the folk and art music of countless countries from a young age, Simon forges and explores new genres by combining his knowledge and love of music from every corner of the globe: the raw power and spirituality of Native American sacred and secular music; the exotic modality of the Middle East; pulsating rhythms from East Africa; impassioned romances of the Judeo-Spanish Sephardim; colourful raags of India and South Asia; the distinctive melodies and time cycles of Afghanistan's Pashtun, merging each with his own musical language, which draws on contemporary sounds and the incredible musical experiences of all four performers. Further directions are on the horizon so watch this space....

 


 

Music includes.....

Simon's Cantigas de Santa Maria Suite, miracle songs by a 13th century Spanish king reimagined for the 21st century. Most of the movements feature a singer, an instrumental Cantiga is here.

 

Sephardic (Judeo-Spanish) music, with its roots in Spain and influences from the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans.

 

Brazil has featured prominently in performances, including: virtuoso performer and experimental genius Egberto Gismonti; Afro samba by Roberto Baden Powell, often referred to as the greatest ever Brazilian guitarist; the remarkable melodic gifts of one of the most important artists in 20th century Brazil, Radamés Gnattali;  legendary composer and key figure in the bossa-nova movement Antonio Carlos Jobim; Latin America’s most celebrated composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos.

 

Eastern Jewish/Azeri music from the eastern Caucasus Mountains.

 

For several performances, including many at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, singer Daisy Chute has been added to the line up as a special guest. Further collaborations to come.....

 

 

 

 

The musicians.....

Simon Thacker..... is Head of Guitar at Napier University and Honorary Fellow in Music at the University of Aberdeen. He has been nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award and in 2006 was a winner of the 50th Park Lane Group Awards, resulting in his acclaimed solo Purcell Room debut. Simon has performed in Cuba, the USA, Spain, Malta, France and Belgium, and broadcast on Cuban TV and BBC Radio 3. Simon is renowned for his exciting and innovative projects which showcase the guitar in new and groundbreaking ways, moving and entertaining audiences in equal measure, redefining the limits of the classical guitar. More info here

 

 

Paul Harrison..... entered Edinburgh University on a prestigious piano scholarship. After graduating he gravitated towards jazz and was the winner of the Scottish Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition in 1998 and again in 1999. He travels widely with many top Scottish performers as well as visiting international stars and has performed at the Cork, Montreux, and Shanghai Jazz Festivals, as well as in the birthplace of jazz, New Orleans. Often seen accompanying the country’s best jazz and blues vocalists and instrumentalists, Paul is also known for his acclaimed, genre-defying solo projects.


"Simply sublime"

The Scotsman
 

 

Mario Lima Caribé da Rocha.....

Brazilian born, Mario obtained a BA in Composition from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Săo Paulo, Brazil and an MA in Jazz Composition with Distinction from Edinburgh Napier University where he now teaches.

He has experience with all styles of music, from symphonic to salsa, jazz to klezmer, samba to electronic music and has played with many of the leading jazz musicians in the U.K. and abroad, such as Kenny Wheeler, Carol Kid, Norma Winston, Suzanne Bonnar, etc.

 

"The easy going and relaxed style Caribe promotes disguises an amazing technique."
Evening News

 

 

Stuart Brown..... is one of the most active drummers on the Scottish jazz scene. He completed an honours degree at Glasgow University then studied at Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA in 1998. Stuart has worked with many internationally renowned artists, including Barbara Morrison (vocalist with Ray Charles), Dave Gordon (Sun Ra Arkestra), Israeli saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and ex-Talking Heads vocalist David Byrne on the soundtrack to the film ‘Young Adam’ (starring Ewan MacGregor). He was recently nominated for a Scottish Jazz Award and his tribute to composer Raymond Scott has toured to rave reviews.

 

"One of the highlights of the jazz festival"

The Scotsman

 

 

Press.....

 

Bachtrack performance review here

 

“An audience so unexpectedly large that it almost exhausted the chair supply, forcing a slight delay in starting the music, was treated to an imaginatively put together programme... The enthusiastic reception, resulting in a beautifully restrained quartet arrangement of Wild Mountain Thyme, was no more than the four musicians – and Thacker in particular – deserved.”
Glasgow Herald

“Outside the weather might have been whipping up a storm, but inside … a packed audience was basking in sunny, irresistible Brazilian jazz rhythms.”
The Scotsman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home   About Simon   Svara-Kanti   Nava Rasa   ˇCanto vivo!   Camerata Ritmata    Daisy Chute   Gallery   Contact