Joglaresa with storyteller Sally Pomme Clayton Purcell Room 1 June 2003

Belinda Sykes - voice, bagpipes, director
Sally Pomme Clayton - storyteller,
Kim Burton - accordion, Stuart Hall - oud, violin
Paul Clarvis - percussion, Garsaaidi - nay, percussion

Gupurlika Traditional Macedonian instrumental Djirineldo,Djirineldo Moroccan Sephardic song Truth Jewish folktale Yam al abaya Traditional Arabic love song The Tale of Princess Saljan from the medieval Turkic epic Dede Korku Miyyahfi miyyah, Al habib hujib & Ya hamaami Judeo-Arabic lovesongs Ayyuha s-saqi Mystic Arabic lovesong A kasar el rey Bulgarian Sephardic song Ya hamaami Judeo-Arabic lovesong Tahmila Traditional Arab-Andalusian instrumental Manhood from The Thousand and One Nights Onde que tope una queis placiente? & Casablanca Greek & Moroccan Sephardic songs The Courtship of Solomon and Sheba. Dzagh e poonch Traditional Armenian instrumental Al Khadir (an Islamic saint who drank the water of life and appears in many stories) Abenamar, Abenamar Moroccan Sephardic song

This highly expert and versatile group has at least two faces to present to the public. As 'authentic' medievalists they stole the show during one of the evenings at the Early Music Network's weekend in Greenwich ( - - Joglaresa, led by Belinda Sykes, impressed with their dash and flair in Hebrew/Arabic/Spanish medieval repertoire, given in the Chapel. Not every group had such a well-developed manner of presentation to ’get across’ to a large audience - -).

For this programme they admitted accordion and violin - "the triumph of Jewish,Islamic and Christian creativity and sharing" encouraging them to move on. The expertise of Kim Burton and Stuart Hall certainly warranted inclusion of their moderninstruments, and there was a great deal of improvisation, some of it jazz inflected, inthis splendid melange. The lynchpin was the incredibly accomplished and versatile Belinda Sykes, who sings this music as to the manner born (in another incarnation she is a virtuoso baroque oboist).

The story-telling was a delight, and the stories themselves well chosen and just a little updated in turns of phrase. It all made for a delightful mix which enthused a full house.

We would perhaps have liked a slightly more colourful visual presentation, and for Pomme Clayton to have donned Story's cloak of many colours that had attracted an ancient populace, which had shunned Naked Truth - though I appreciate that her plain black dress forced us to use our imaginations to see what she described.

With minor adjustments it has the makings of a fine video or DVD; the players should not hide behind music stands which they scarcely seemed to need - you want to see an oud. The Purcell Room's stage wall is a dispiriting backdrop and more colouful costuming might help.

Joglaresa's (inexpensive) notes were interesting and thought provoking; this programme was built upon knowledge of the 'resilience and flexibility of myth and oral narrative through the ages', and a belief that 'stories which survive need to be constantly re-created by ear and tongue'.

"- - there are no correct versions. There are just versions, of versions, of versions, re-made by each teller for their generation and its particular concerns. By its re-creational nature. storytelling has always been a contemporary art. It has to be. to survive. Storytellers have always needed to creatively interpret the tradition to keep it alive. A.S Byatt links the activity of storytelling to biological time. "We are all like Scheherazade under sentence of death and we all think of our lives as narratives with beginnings middles and ends. Storytelling in general, and the Thousand and One Nights in particular, consoles us for endings with endless new beginnings."

It all made for a splendid evening of live music making, the stories and songs seamlessly linked, with eye contact between the musicians emphasising their listening and reacting to each other.

Hear Jogalaresa in Italian Medieval Christmas Music at St John's Smith Square 21 December