Joe Adambery - page 5

Could anyone not connected to the world of poets and poetry, recited or sung, prose or rhymed have come up with a better title for an album? The silver thread that connects the medium of poetry to an image of decadence and excess has been used to wrap a new CD offering from Gabriel Moreno. The powerful image of decadent angels corrupted by words and whiskey shared with poets sets the tone for the dialogue upon which we embark in this month’s feature. 

Gabriel Moreno is releasing a new solo album with some contributions from the ‘Quivering Poets’. It was conceived before the pandemic but no doubt tarnished and probably invigorated by the lockdown in London which saw the live ‘Poetry Mondays’ in Hackney relegated to virtual gigs, relying on sponsorship, contributions and crowd funding just to bring food to the table. 

This is a story of good news coloured by the hard times that befell an artistic community whose life blood is creating and performing poetry every week in order to keep body and soul alive whilst remaining relevant by writing about our culture in new and challenging ways. 

The life of a poet has never been easy but the lack of awareness about poetry in today’s society is dismal and a balance, if there is ever to be one, has to be restored so that art can continue to flourish and we can look back on ourselves with pride and say “we rescued poetry”. 

Can we rescue poetry and ramp it up a few notches in awareness? ‘Quivering Poet’ Gabriel Moreno does not hesitate with the answer.

“I think that it is poetry which is rescuing us rather than the other way round. These times of isolation, reconfiguration and reflection have taught us that there are lessons in humility, wisdom and beauty that are to be found in the archives of poetical creation. William Carlos Williams claimed that we would never find the news in poetry but that many people died daily for lack of what could be found there. We have to learn from poetry because in it we find the fusion between philosophy and language which informs us of the process of human consciousness and its constant evolution. 

“We must reflect on our lives and the mistakes that we are making as human beings. Poetry helps us to reconsider. It provides us with an alternative point of view; not from the ideas we express but specifically from the way innovative language is formed. We have to learn from newness and beauty. The lesson is clear; consumption in art or life was not the solution. Nature is being ravaged. We can’t exist merely to accumulate wealth. Poets have been saying this for years. It is now our duty to spread this message widely. Hopefully we can raise more awareness on this issue”. 

Maybe the community has been enriched by the isolation, or has the lockdown been detrimental to development?

“There have been many examples of our poetry and music community getting together to help and provide comfort during isolation. I‘ve experienced many benevolent and altruistic actions and I believe we have realised how important we are to each other in terms of survival and also in terms of our pursuit of recognition and happiness. There is no plenitude without the other. There is no point to excellence without our peers. We have realised we need each other to shine and make sense of poetry and music. It has been instrumental to our psychological development but quite detrimental to our economic survival. Loss of work has been devastating. We are still trying to figure out how to survive though we know we shall not stop writing or performing. 

What can London poetry take forward from the last four months that is worth keeping?

“The need for communal action, a deeper recognition of our shared ambitions, the idea that we must include a political angle to our artistic efforts and the gratefulness for many events and tours we have been able to share together. These are some of the things that we think are worth preserving from the lockdown. Now I know that we were on the right path to feeling satisfied with our work because we had the chance to share these moments and creations. Like always, we learn to appreciate what we have when it is taken from us. We hope not to commit the same mistake in future”.

How has the lockdown impacted on the making of the new album? 

“Lockdown has made me concentrate and focus exclusively on the creation of new tracks. The impossibility of rehearsals and shared recordings have forced me to create a more intimate and acoustic album which probably reflects the mood of this period, but also includes a lot of hope as I have seen how we could collaborate and create even from a distance.

‘Quivering Poet’ Pablo Yupton and I were in touch daily from Barcelona to London. I worked with QP Adam Beattie on some songs too. However, lockdown also helped create a more intimate and SOLO album. I had to postpone the performance aspects of our music and hopefully have been able to reconnect with my own creative process. My way of keeping up hope and not being defeated by anxiety and doubts”. 

Will the QP be picking up the threads again working together as a touring unit?

“We are already getting offers for the winter to perform in Germany and Italy. The break has meant that audiences have valued our previous trips and concerts. QP Pablo Yupton is moving to London soon and we shall be able to perform and tour again. We have also collaborated with QP Pablo Campos during the lockdown and he has been recording from his studio in Figueras and sending us some of his work. Unfortunately, QP Basha Bartz has had to concentrate on teaching violin in order to survive so we have not worked with her much during this period”.

Given that we have been witnesses to a uniquely horrible period in our lives have the poets that you know been capable of capitalising on these circumstances to enrich their work? 

“The poets that I know have used this time to research, study and reflect on their creations and to be more ‘present’ with their creativity. Of course, we’ve all suffered moments of defeat, where it seemed impossible to ponder on a return to everyday lives, but in general the poets I know have been very willing to continue to write and compose. It’s said that some of the most thrilling and innovative art comes from moments of crisis and this has been one of the most extreme moments we have ever experienced. 

“Personally, I think we shall come out of this darkness with more conviction and self-realisation. It may take some time before we can enjoy the comforts of the past. Now is a time to share thoughts and feelings and to resist the tyranny of capitalist enterprise so that we might be saved from an even more complicated crisis; the debacle of the human spirit.” 

The Album ‘Whiskey with Angels’ is being mastered even as I write in early July but as soon as a release date has been finalised our readers will have all the relevant information on sale platforms and pricing etc. 

The excellent series of Friday Night Live Safe Edition – virtual concerts organized by Dion Mifsud and Nolan Frendo of Jetstream came to a close in early June as the lockdown of the Rock gradually eases back. The last concert on June 5 was introduced by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, who had warm words in support of the great initiative taken by the music community to help people with weekly live entertainment during the at first dark days of lockdown.

What started as modest but good efforts to impress viewers with live performances recorded, was over the weeks refined technically with Zoom split screen presentations and quality video work, matched only by the ‘week on week’ challenges that the artists imposed on themselves to refine their virtual segments and interpretations to benchmark standards. And there were many genres covered and memorable contributions too.

Friday Night Live became the highlight of the week for many viewers, who would also then share the video clips online. Every Friday each performer tried harder and the love shown in the live comments during their performances came back with even more warmth and appreciation. Having watched many outstanding performances during the series, I was prompted early on to suggest to the organisers that this feast of good music cannot be lost and should be properly catalogued.

It is after all history in the making – illustrating how Gibraltarians came together in a time of crisis, and at every level, we were all in support of a common aim. Our selflessness in order to help others and now that the series has ended the unenviable task to produce perhaps ‘a gift set of the very best of FNL’ in aid of charity falls on the organisers. There are copyright issues involved of course but perhaps with a charity angle (Calpe House or RICC – there are many others) the rights to sell the FNL compilation as a keepsake of the lockdown can be waived.

Already there are noises of staging a real ‘Live’ concert, whenever that may be possible, to celebrate the FNL artists’ achievements and who knows it might also be the best time to launch the suggested compilation gift set if we manage to get the product ready on time. We have plenty of time because even the autumn doesn’t yet look clear as a time when mass gatherings such as concerts might be allowed locally. 

There were far too many artistic contributions over the series and it would not be fair to highlight some and ignore all others and so no names have been mentioned here. However the organisers posted a credits list on their Facebook page (@Friday.Night.Live.Gibraltar) with names of artists, sponsors, technical facilitators and a host of others who together rose to the occasion and put on a weekly showpiece of musical history in the making.

Long after the lockdown is forgotten the ‘Friday Night Live’ virtual concerts will live on in the memory of the many who stayed glued to their screens and watched gobsmacked at the sheer quality and professionalism coming from ‘the class of  2020 music community’. They are all in our hearts already and maybe they can be on our shelves too. We have time to flesh out this project and turn it into reality, recorded for posterity.

Two expat Gibraltarian poets and a local musician took part in an awareness campaign after Turkish journalist Ege Dundar reached out internationally to highlight the plight of Ibrahim Gokcek, a prominent Turkish musician who went on a long hunger strike when his band ‘Grup Yorum’ were arrested and thus prevented from performing concerts indefinitely, following the peoples’ uprising against the country’s oppressive regime.

Local poets Gabriel Moreno and Jonathan Teuma were invited to submit words that could inspire Ibrahim Gokcek who had been on a hunger strike for over three hundred days and was already dying by early May.  In April a female member of his band had died after two hundred and eighty eight days of hunger strike. 

Gabriel Moreno immediately wrote a poignant song for Ibrahim which was posted on YouTube with other international supporting collaborations.  Moreno then reached out to fellow poet Jonathan Teuma who teaches in a Madrid university. Jonathan responded quickly and wrote a moving poem for Ibrahim which was also posted on the ‘Grup Yorum’ YouTube site.

On May 4 after being alerted by Gabriel Moreno, I submitted a poem called ‘Freedom’ which I had written recently and was deemed appropriate for the occasion. It was translated into Turkish by Ege the journalist and posted on the same site. A day later we heard that Ibrahim was ending his hunger strike and was hospitalised. The following day (May 6) Ibrahim Gokcek died from the effects of malnutrition (310 days) and his 30kgs body was handed over to his family. His wife is still in prison as are other members of Ibrahim’s band.

During the days that I’ve been involved, I checked out the huge open air concerts that ‘Grup Yorum’ were famous for and listened to some of their beautiful music too. I began to understand the perceived threat that their popularity presented the Turkish regime with. I was shocked to learn that Ibrahim’s body was taken by the authorities after the family had barricaded themselves in the morgue hall and legions of fans were chanting support outside. Dramatic video footage of the assault on the barricaded family appeared on social media and I was moved to write an article in their support which I submitted to journalist Ege Dundar on Sunday evening. That article and the ‘Freedom’ poem are published alongside. I have not heard back from the journalist as I write this (May 11). 

Freedom

By Joe Adambery

Freedom is

A fanciful mantra that makes heroes by their uttering of a single word

A tired cliché that still manages to rally the blind before its noisy trumpet is even heard

A poisoned chalice that now melts in the hands of angels who worshipped a blessing so pure

That few would notice their shackled feet and the snarling dogs protecting the magician with the cure

We are never free we were not even free in the womb before this conflicted world with our birthing struggles beckoned

The poisons that we ingested during drip-fed education hardly reckoned

On the damage it would wreak as the spread of flags and beliefs gave way to global corruption

Skilfully disguised tycoons bled the bleeding and subjugated the kneeling with news and distraction

Freedom from the weaver’s loom cries the thread as its colour is stifled in the darker threads’ gloom

Freedom from child labour and abuse

Freedom where there can be found no better excuse

Freedom from taxes levied on the lowly paid

Freedom from bankers and super tankers rotten to the core

Freedom from frustration and empty promises that were made

Freedom from twisted lawyers and accountants who always take more

Freedom from global corruption we do not deserve this

Freedom a noble concept in the hands of noble men defined as wedded bliss

Freedom manipulated by dark forces transmutes into a Judas kiss

Freedom beyond what by our own struggles is ever achievable

Freedom imagined and cascading from fountains pervading

Freedom is so real and yet so intangible.

There is no greater love than the love shown by a man who laid down his life for a noble cause. So that others could have the freedom to sing about their own dreams of freedom, Ibrahim Gokcek gave up the freedom to nurture his own body so that his soul would be purified in the three hundred and ten days of his self inflicted torture in a hunger strike that caused his demise.

His passing will inspire many to dream of better days that surely cannot be far away now. The world is waking up to the reality that there are those who will deny freedom and the right to be happy to many thousands of dreamers who were helped to dream by the inspiring music of Grup Yorum of which Ibrahim was a prominent member. 

Music has a body and a soul. The body is the message that it conveys in melody and words and the soul is the rhythm which sways listeners and allows them to get lost in its message and enjoy a unique experience. Music exists in nature and it cannot be denied to man because it is the oxygen for his soul.

The soul of the messenger is as important as the message because what anchors the message to musical rhythm is the bass and drums which make up the beat of the music. Beat is made up of pulses which capture the heart and the mind of the listener for those fleeting moments during which the music is enjoyed. Those sublime moments when natural beauty and otherness are possible are triggered by music. Ibrahim Gokcek was the bass player in Grup Yorum and he was also an important messenger of freedom.

Importantly freedom is at the heart of all music. Every composer is free to search the universe for inspiration to make music and thereby lift the spirits and feed the souls of listeners. Music will not be silenced, it will rise in glory even from under the boot of the oppressor and its noble message will ultimately be heard and it will continue to inspire and give joy to millions even in their darkest hours.

Those who have laid down their life for the right to perform music will live forever as martyrs whose selflessness has gained them a place in paradise and a special place in our hearts. Past and present members of Grup Yorum and their families are owed a debt of gratitude for the suffering which has been imposed on them. 

The price of freedom can be as high as the stars but the stars shine brighter at night because they are free from the light of the sun. Freedom will always find a way and a time to shine.

The music fraternity and many music lovers on the Rock said goodbye a few weeks back to Philip Valverde, a local music legend who touched so many hearts during his lifetime. If you had never met him you would have known that the name Valverde comes from a family with a rich tradition in entertainment and music. His father Frank was a well known theatrical entertainer who was funny and very artistic. Their household spawned four great musicians in Frank, Hubert, Rosanna, and Philip, the youngest and the most enduring.

Philip was blessed with a natural talent for guitar playing and was equally at home playing electric guitar as with nylon finger style which was his favourite medium and was what he was best known for. He had a knack for picking out tunes and styling them in a very pleasing way which captivated the listener and student alike. He taught many aspiring guitarists and entertained many more as a background musician, but he was much more than that.

His charisma and smile was a beacon wherever he went and you could truly say that he could light up a room and easily be the life and soul of any party because he was all heart and a kind soul who you looked forward to meeting and chatting with, but more importantly to hearing him play guitar.  A lot of good tributes have gone up about his demise and I don’t want to repeat all that has deservingly been said about him.

I will just say that he was a ray of sunshine and smiles rolled into a beautiful person who was a joy to know and it was always worth chancing a trip to his music shop in Bomb House Lane even if he  had his ‘back in 10 minutes’ sign on the door. You would always find him in convivial company because he was a wonderful guy who could easily have been a poster boy for Mr Friendship.

I count myself as fortunate to have enjoyed his friendship and privileged to have enjoyed his music many times throughout a long and illustrious music career which has been cut short by his sudden demise. We will not be the same without him and his loss is heaven’s gain where his blessed soul endures and I am sure his music too. ‘Hasta Pronto Felipe’ – go on and Rock those Angels my friend. We all loved you and you loved us back ten times over, we were lucky to live in your times. 

These are not my words, they don’t belong to me you see. They have been borrowed from a fountain source called language and they have all been used before by writers, poets, kings and vagabonds. I just string them together and write them down so that I can tell you a story in words that you can understand. If I weave them carefully and rhyme them they become poetry and the images they may conjure up should respond to a pleasing tempo in verse known as a poem’s meter.  

If I arrange them in a sinister way and use a fantasy to create a frightening or harrowing story I may scare you, but if I use them in a positive way to praise and uphold good and wholesome values, I can influence the way that you perceive them and you may think that they are uplifting and heartwarming. That is a positive way to use words. 

I can tap into your emotions with words that are not mine. I can craft them in such a unique way that will make you feel that they are my words.  Diplomats and politicians are supreme craftsmen with their words ambiguously designed to tell you what they want you to hear without alerting you to the deeper meaning of their words. Politicians sometimes conveniently forget to own up to words that they may have said previously and their defensive jargon conveniently and elegantly skirts around issues of truth – but these are not my words, although they point a finger, they are merely borrowed tools for our communication.  

If I choose words wrong you may feel insulted and you will accuse me of having written words that have offended you. Yet these are not my words, neither are they yours but we all use them to explain our feelings. We can use them, abuse them, confuse them and reintroduce them. Yes, every time we think, speak or write them, words are reintroduced into our language. Beware that we cannot unsay them or take them back with any degree of success, they will always come back to haunt us if we choose them wrongly at the point of saying them. 

We may strive to explain in a clear way what we mean to say, but we still don’t always manage to say what we mean. Yet because it matters how we say, or how we might not say words that need to be said, we are condemned to misunderstand each other in a human tower of Babel where, once our different languages, dialects, oratory skills, pride and beliefs are put into the societal melting pot, what will flow out of it is chaos. Chaos can’t be refined in the universal foundry even if it is poured into molds to contain it. Once it sets this is a hard metal that we can well do without. Universal misunderstanding thrives in our world. 

There is a beautiful word in music called harmony. It is a term used to describe how when the sounds of musical instruments or voices come together in a coherent way, the sound produced is pleasing to the ear. It is not dissonant, nor are the elements that make up the harmony fighting each other for musical relevance. If harmony was easily available from a fountain source like a ready-made language and we could borrow its elements to use in the same way that we use words, then like music, but in a wider more universal way, our lives would be infinitely the better for it.  

Wishful thinking? Yes and ‘you may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one’ (John Lennon -‘Imagine’), the greatest peace anthem of them all. I hope that I have chosen good words to entertain you with this article. If I have achieved that then the credit is not mine because they are all borrowed tools of communication which I have woven into a cohesive pattern called writing. Now there’s a topic for another day. 

I confess that the above heading attracted my curiosity more because of its imagery than because it’s an album title by one of the top touring bands of the last decade, The Script. We were fortunate to see them here at the GMF a few years back and they left a sellout Victoria Stadium wanting more. Today they still have the magic and the new songs to draw sellout crowds into their concerts all over the world. 

The Script is an Irish band from Dublin who came to prominence in 2007. Core members are Danny O’Donoghue, lead singer and keyboardist, guitarist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power. They now have four albums to their name and have sold over 29 million records to date. They have a catalogue of excellent hit songs and their latest album ‘Sunsets and Full Moons,’ which they released last November and are currently touring, is a great album to carry on their legacy and build on it. 

The touring has had to be stopped for the next few months because of the coronavirus pandemic. Already a number of concerts have been postponed until June including UK dates and European shows in Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam. All those cancelled concert upsets won’t stop us enjoying their latest album of nine songs with a little over half hour duration should we feel that way inclined. 

Most music fans nowadays have ‘Spotify’ so there is instant gratification in downloading any album at no cost other than the annual subs. Why I recommend this album is quite simple, because few bands nowadays have the gift of writing great tunes and words for them and even fewer bands manage to constantly reinvent themselves without losing their mass appeal. These guys have it all. 

The Script tick many boxes and recently in a TV appearance on ‘Dancing on Ice’ I was reminded that in Danny O’Donoghue the band have an iconic singer who can really sell their songs well. Much like U2 with Bono, both front men have bags of charisma and leave an indelible stamp on their live performances. They are both original and quirky and they both front great bands which have an uncanny knack of becoming huge hits as they resonate with the public. Oh, and they’re both Irish as I write this on St Patrick’s Day which this year has had to be rather mooted in celebrations because of aforementioned CV pandemic.

You will enjoy this album as it has already spawned a couple of hits which you probably have heard often enough on Radio Gibraltar but failed to make the connection to The Script if you missed the announcement by the DJs. Sample the album with an open mind and perhaps like me you end up downloading it as the songs quickly grow on you for their freshness and vitality. I had forgotten how good they are in albums.

These guys are up there with Coldplay, Maroon5, U2 and other giants of the concert arenas and if you check them out online and read their reviews and tour information you will discover that The Script are still moving forward with the times in spite of the title of their mega hit ‘I’m Not Moving.’  

Her new CD after six years

The last time we heard from this talented local singer songwriter was her seminal album ‘Pure Blue Green’ and then when she performed at our second Jazz Festival in 2013. That was over six years ago and now she is a mother to Ray who at nearly six has provided her with the new focus and freedom to continue her interrupted artistic career. 

One listen to these nine tracks on ‘Moonbird’ will suffice anyone who knows Kirsty Almeida and her music that it almost seems as if she never left. None of her charm and magic, as well as song writing skills, has been dented by life. She got together again with her band ‘The Troubadours’ and with her fellow co- producer Matt Owens set about recording this fine bunch of nine songs into which she poured her heart and all her creativity. 

Five times Grammy award winner record producer Jerry Boys (Buena Vista Social Club) was tasked with mixing the recordings and being the master that he is, has painted with sound an incredibly beautiful picture of Kirsty’s tuneful and whimsical songs into an audio feast. It’s immersive if you listen to the album on good headphones because none of the subtle brushstrokes which enhance the listening experience will be lost by distractions.

Musically there is so much going on in each track and nothing is lost. My best recommendation is that if you were ever into Joni Mitchell’s legendary song productions then you are in the same audio ballpark here. Good songs well sung and played, beautifully arranged and elegantly produced sonic landscapes to embellish them. This is not a Rock album and there are no thumping beats and wild guitars. Instead there are complex layered vocal harmonies, sensitive arrangements of romantic ballads which tell good stories and all the fairy dust which our songstress can weave into a musical tapestry. There is a rousing New Orleans jazz flavoured song titled ‘I’m going to love you’ which for me should have been the closer, but that is all I would have done differently. 

Some highlights to point the way for you now. The opening track is called ‘The Fire’ and is in the key of ‘heart-warmer’, it brings back the best of Kirsty the songwriter and singer so that you are immediately surrounded by good music brilliantly captured. ‘Dance with me’ is the new single and there is a video clip online which was shot here on the Rock last year featuring local Dance wizard Nathan Conroy which is a must-see. The song is deceptively simple and tuneful and soon grows on you with its swirling choruses which will draw the listener into the magic world that Kirsty plucks out of her soul. ‘Josie Brown’ is a lovely story of a child who helps an older person once a week and lights up her world. The lyric melts the poignant story and Kirsty puts a masterful stamp on what, for me, is a standout track in this collection.

The title track ‘Moonbird’ is awash with atmospheric bird calls and a South American flavour helped along by a syncopated double bass and Kirsty’s plucked parlour guitar, always her trademark. Judicious dollops of reverb on choruses and echoes bring the rich mix together with an always interesting and developing orchestration. Just to have come up with this stellar track justifies our long wait for Kirsty’s overdue return.

If you like your music in concept albums this one has a gravitational pull that will satisfy you as you will discover ‘new things’ in the imaginative song arrangements and polished performances from the lady and her band. If you know her previous work, you are sold already. If you saw her tantalising live performance here, even more, but if you are willing to engage with her music now you are in for a treat. Buy ‘Moonbird’ now and post your happy comments on social media – she is totally deserving of them and will love that.