Category: Night & Day

SATURDAY 11 | Formed in 1964 and regrouping exactly 20 years later, Jamaican ska band The Skatalites, of Guns Of Navarone fame, laid the foundations for modern reggae. Mixing their danceable rhythms with popular jazz tonight are Sebastien Adnot (bass), Greg Lavender (drums), Euan Gray (saxophone) and Alexandre Scarpati (trombone). Known collectively as Jahzad, they promise an evening of ‘infectious beats and tasty horn lines’.

WHO: Jahzad
WHAT: Jamaican ska meets jazz
WHERE: FCC @ The Mansion, corner of Street 178 & Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 9pm January 11
WHY: Infectious beats and tasty horn lines

 

SATURDAY 11 | Before they fell to the conquering forces of Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, vast swathes of central Europe were once ruled by Celtic speakers. They were a raucous bunch: classical writers describe them as fighting ‘like wild beasts’ (and occasionally naked) and they were accomplished head-hunters. Fast-forward through more than 2,000 years of turbulent history and Celtic-speaking peoples are today found only in the British Isles and western France. Now, the word ‘Celtic’ is used to describe not only this branch of the Indo-European languages, but also an extraordinary musical legacy. Enter Kheltica, who offer an ‘entente chordial of musical traditions from France and the British Isles’. Their eclectic mix of songs and dances from Brittany blended with traditional Irish and Scottish folk music is rivalled only by that of the band’s make-up: a singer and mandolin player from Scotland; a British piper; French drummer; Russian guitarist; South African bass player; Malaysian violinist and French flautist.

WHO: Kheltica
WHAT: ‘An entente chordial of musical traditions from France and the British Isles’
WHERE: The Village, #1 Street 360
WHEN: 8pm January 11
WHY: A musical maelstrom and swift-footed circle dancing

 

FRIDAY 10 | Clean-shaven with greying shoulder-length hair, Diego Dimarques could easily pass for a son of Jose Reyes, the world-famous flamenco guitarist whose five sons – Nicolas, Canut, Paul, Patchai and Andre – comprise a majority of the Gipsy Kings. “There are rumours that I was part of the band, the one with the white hair,” Dimarques – also a guitarist – says, dispelling any notion that he might be a long-haired Nicolas Reyes in disguise. “I am not part of their family in the sense that we have no common blood.” But Dimarques is a fellow traveller on the same circuit, a compadre in heart and spirit, and considers Gipsy Kings co-founder Jalloul ‘Chico’ Bouchikhi both a friend and inspiration. “I met Chico when I was playing a hotel in Paris in 2006 or 2007 and he was there to promote his new album Freedom. I was surprised to see him and I went to him to apologise for not playing his songs very well, but he told me: ‘The more they are played, the less we forget the culture.’ We talked together around a Pastis and he told me there was no problem if people thought I was part of the band!”

WHO: Diego Dimarques Trio
WHAT: Gipsy and Latin guitar
WHERE: Equinox, #3a Street 278
WHEN: 9pm January 10
WHY: Our very own Gipsy King

 

FRIDAY 10 | Khleng Ek (‘unique kite’) are traditional kites in Cambodia, celebrated because they produce musical tones as they fly. These kites are flown to give thanks for bountiful harvests, symbolising freedom. And freedom is at the heart of a new project at Ragamuffin House. Called Songkites, it exists to encourage young Cambodian songwriters to express themselves ‘authentically through music’, the aim being for this new generation of musicians, under the guardianship of Australian-born jazz man Euan Gray, to record and release their own material. Tonight, a few of their number make a rousing public debut. Following the Songkites crew is Barbados-born doyenne of funk, soul and jazz, Rhiannon Johnson, alongside Durian drummer Greg Lavender, Barry Speirs on keys and Stephan Routtier on sax.

WHO: Songkites & Rhiannon Johnson
WHAT: All-new Cambodian tunes followed by funk, soul and jazz
WHERE: Doors, Street 84 & 47
WHEN: 8:30pm January 10
WHY: Let your song kite fly

 

THURSDAY 9 | From the sagely political to the gleefully silly, Vancouver-born stand-up Glenn Wool can be introduced in no finer way than follows: “If, like me, you believe that nobody could be much funnier than a cross between Jack Black and Meat Loaf, then you’ll be pleased to learn that such a man exists.” So sayeth the UK’s Independent on Sunday of the man who has appeared on several British comedy shows, including Never Mind The Buzzcocks and 28 Acts in 28 Minutes, and tonight makes his second appearance at the Comedy Club Cambodia (tickets: $5). Introduced by local stand-up Scotty Muldoon, of the PP Punchliners, Wool tackles everything from Franz Ferdinand to the Pope’s contribution to cryogenics and last year released an album with Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle.

WHO: Glenn Wool
WHAT: Comedy Club Cambodia
WHERE: Equinox, #3a Street 278
WHEN: 9pm January 9
WHY: He’s funnier than a cross between Jack Black and Meat Loaf

 

TUESDAY 7 | A rare look at the second most isolated country in the world, novelist and filmmaker Robert Lieberman’s They Call It Myanmar: Lifting The Curtain raises the veil on life in Burma, held in the iron grip of a brutal military regime for almost 50 years.  Scoring 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film was recently described by the Chicago Sun Times as one of the best documentaries of 2012. Writes the paper’s Roger Ebert: “They Call It Myanmar is a thing of beauty… a documentary with all the virtues of a great feature film; its cinematography, music and contemplative words make it… a hymn to a land that has grown out of the oldest cultures in Asia.” Filmmaker Robert Lieberman will be on hand for a Q&A after the screening.

WHO: The culturally and politically inquisitive
WHAT: They Call It Myanmar: Lifting The Curtain screening, with filmmaker Q&A
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 7pm January 7
WHY: A tale of hope in the face of adversity

 

TUESDAY 31 |Out with the old, in with the new – year, that is. Here’s where to kick 2013 into touch:
3pm: NagaWorld, Hun Sen Park

Live music, comedy, Khmer boxing and fireworks (free entry).
6:30pm: Himawari Hotel, Sisowath Quay

Live music from the Cambodian Space Project and hip hop show by Tiny Toones, with set menu ($35/$70).
7pm: Cambodiana Hotel, Sisowath Quay

Comedians, dancers, shadow puppets, fireworks and buffet ($49 – $129).
8pm: Dusk Till Dawn, #46 Street 178

DJ Sequence, danbeck (Kimchi Collective) and Phatt Controller spin drum & bass and tech house, while Dr WahWah, Wes-T and Alan Ritchie play punk, funk, dirty house and disco tech (free entry).

 

SATURDAY 28 | When more than a dozen khaki-clad dancers air-stepped, jitterbugged and boogie woogied their way through a 30-second commercial for global thread-peddlers Gap in 1998, they unintentionally turned a new generation of rug cutters not onto affordable casual-fit pants but a certain something called ‘swing’. Called upon to define this Harlem sound by Bing Crosby on national radio, Louis Armstrong replied thus: “Ah, swing. Well, we used to call it syncopation then they called it ragtime then blues then jazz. Now it’s swing. White folks, y’all sho’ is a mess.” Today, swing having been immortalised for the 21st century masses first by JXL in the video to Little Less Conversation then by Robbie Williams’ Swing When You’re Winning album and later in Marilyn Manson’s track, Mobscene, it’s even on the rise in the steaming urban jungles of Asia. “It’s massive in Korea and China, especially Beijing,” says Richard, a psychologist and long-dancing member of local dance club Swing Penh. “I got called as a reluctant stand-in and felt a bit awkward, but then it became like a problem to solve: how do you do this? We don’t do too much of the ‘throwing around’ stuff. We’re middle aged, you know…” Janice Wilson, Swing Penh’s resident instructor, has performed, choreographed and taught dance in 11 countries, touring with Michael Buble and Wynton Marsalis and once opening for Bill Cosby at Disney World. “Swing allows for full immersion. You’re not just listening to the music, you’re living it; breathing it,” she says. Backing Swing Penh’s jitterbuggers tonight are GTS Jazz, featuring Stephane Routtier.

WHO: Hep cats & hipsters
WHAT: Swing night
WHERE: Doors, Street 84 & 47
WHEN: 9:30pm December 28
WHY: “Swing allows for full immersion. You’re not just listening to the music, you’re living it; breathing it” – Janice Wilson

 

SATURDAY 28 | The Underdogs all met at Music Arts School, a non-profit grassroots institution on Street 370. “We started about a year ago, trying a mix of different styles: some Khmer songs, some English songs,” explains leader and singer Sammie. “Then we decided we should specialise in bringing back the old songs from the 1960s. Everyone knows Chnam Aun Dop Pram Moi (‘I’m 16’) and Svar Rom (‘Monkey Dance’), but there are many more songs that we play that are less well known. We want to introduce the young people to more obscure songs that are just as good… We search in YouTube, listen to old cassettes and we talk to the old people who remember the times.” The band members describe their mission as reconnecting their peers with the music of their heritage. “The new songs copy too much; they sound just like K-Pop. We want to make a real Cambodian sound.” The Underdogs have a more traditional wedding-band form with rotation singers: two girls and a boy. “This way we can give the singers a rest, each time they can come on fresh,” says Sammie. Also, it means a wider range of songs. The songs of Ros Sereysothea and Pen Ron are now widely known, but the band can also play tunes by the Elvis/Dylan/Sinatra of Cambodia, Sinn Sisamouth, as well as the wilder singers such as Yol Auralong, famous for Jih Cyclo and also responsible for the drunken raving blues of Syrah Syrah, and the funky soul of Voa Saroun. Long may the dogs run free!

WHO: The Underdogs
WHAT: Energetic Golden Era rock ‘n’ roll
WHERE: Equinox, Street 278
WHEN: 9pm December 28
WHY: Look to the youth to drive the future

 

FRIDAY 27 | Dengue Fever, the Los Angeles-based sextet who take ’60s Cambodian psyche rock and stuff it through a blender, is chiefly responsible for introducing global audiences to a lesser-known Cambodia; the Cambodia long obscured from international eyes by the pall of murderous Maoists. As Mark Jenkins writes in The Washington Post: “Imagine relaxing in a dive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, circa 1965, brushing elbows with off-duty soldiers, local gangsters and Western diplomats as a hip band plays a mix of rock, soul, jazz, surf music, traditional Cambodian tunes and Henry Mancini and John Barry spy-movie motifs.” Powerful stuff, not just on the global stage but where it all began – as evidenced in the documentary Sleepwalking Through The Mekong, which charts Dengue Fever’s first visit to Cambodia as a band back in 2005. During one sequence, filmed in The White Building where the band jammed with residents, a music teacher turns to the camera and says in Khmer: “When I saw them performing with my students I was just in awe. Nothing could compare to it. I knew they were foreigners, but when they played all these Khmer songs there was no class difference. We were all equal.”

WHO: Dengue Fever
WHAT: Sleepwalking Through The Mekong screening
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 4pm December 27
WHY: “Underground people are getting hip to world music, and the world music side is getting hip to how you don’t have to have a dreadlock wig and Guatemalan pants to be cool” – Senon Williams (bass), Dengue Fever