New World Music Venue in London
08/09/2006 08:00AM
Contributed by: TJNelson
Half The World is a new venture for London, an occasional season of
live world music gigs being staged at
Live On The Park below the Pizza On The
Park on Knightsbridge (next to Hyde Park Corner tube station) in association
with
fRoots magazine.
With a capacity of just 100, an intimate atmosphere, excellent sound and
lights, and good food at affordable prices, this is almost the perfect venue at
which to see first class world music artists up close. We intend that this kind
of season and other short residencies by associated artists will become a
repeating feature here, and that audiences will enjoy coming back regularly.
In its first season from 11th to 19th August 2006 Half The World
has programmed:
- Fri 11th August: from Senegal in West Africa, songwriter/ guitarist
Daby
Balde with his band.
- Sat 12th August: from Syria, qanun master
Abdullah Chhadeh with his band Nara.
- Sun 13th August: from Brussels, Belgium, multicultural rootsters
Jaune Toujours plus their North African
project
Arabanda .
- Mon 14th & Tues 15th August: from Marseille, France, the UK debut of
Moussu T e lei Jovents, recently
championed by Andy Kershaw and fRoots. Read the fRoots feature on
Moussu T e lei Jovents
here.
- Weds 16th August: Sephardic songs meet flamenco, tango and gypsy
rhythms with
Los Desterrados.
- Thurs 17th August: English multi-instrumentalist
Andrew Cronshaw with Armenia's Tigran
Aleksanyan on duduk. Read the fRoots feature on Andrew Cronshaw
here
- Fri 18th & Sat 19th August: Two nights of
Natacha Atlas.
Reservations via the venue,
www.pizzaonthepark.co.uk,
phone 020 7235 5273. (You can book without any
obligation to eat, but most people do dine - it makes for a pleasant evening
out to combine food and music, and means you don't have to rush a meal
before it. Service is sensitive and unobtrusive, so eating doesn't distract
from the performance. The first set usually begins at 9pm, but most people
arrive around 8pm so they can eat and chat before it).
World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20060809080008726