Young Fathers, On tour
Even in the lucky dip that is the Mercury prize, last year’s victory for Young Fathers – a hard-working, leftfield hip-hop trio from Edinburgh – seemed pretty extraordinary. Impassioned shouting, eerie vocals: their debut Dead has more in common with a student production of The Good Person Of Szechwan than Kanye West. New one White Men Are Black Men Too pushes their music in a different direction again, arguably in the way of TV On The Radio’s driving weirdness. Introverted and interesting, Young Fathers have lost communication with the mothership and are now seemingly out there floating on their own.
JR
Foo Fighters, On tour
The recent HBO series, which showed the Foo Fighters making their new album Sonic Highways, may have done them as many favours as the album itself. In the show, Dave Grohl and his band revealed themselves less as the rather unyielding rock band you will have seen playing loudly in an area of open ground, more a bunch of enthusiastic music fans; a timely reminder that a heart still beats under their rapid commercial rock. In truth, it’s simply the latest in an ongoing process of tweaks to the machine: Dave Grohl certainly didn’t get where he is today without being smart, and is always on the lookout for ways to freshen up what even he must privately admit can be pretty rudimentary guitar rock. In recent years, he’s recorded a Foos album in his garage with Nevermind producer Butch Vig, and even experimented with mellowness. Now, it seems, he’s thinking grandly again.
Stadium Of Light, Sunderland, Mon; Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, Wed; touring to 30 Jun
JR
Fleetwood Mac, On tour
Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em. That, in a nutshell, is the strange tale of Fleetwood Mac. In their prime, a toxic jumble of bed-hopping and divorce, they created in spite of this a harmonious – and lucrative – adult-oriented soft rock, which has kept them together long after the point when relationship counsellors might have told them to go their separate ways. Two years ago, the band celebrated the reissue of their Rumours album, wherein much of their legend lies. This wasn’t only warmly received by their existing fanbase but also by a newer, younger one, who arrived for the myth and drama but stayed for the tunes. After an EP of new material, original member Christine McVie has now returned to bring her own silky brand of misery to the party. Good news for anyone who felt that Lindsey Buckingham was in danger of dominating things completely. Now – as the name of this tour has it – on with the show.
The O2, SE10, Wed & Thu; touring to 30 Jun
JR
Arthur Russell’s Instrumentals, Dublin & London
In the late 70s, Arthur Russell was moving between disco and New York’s downtown experimental scene. He didn’t stick to these two styles, though, recording everything from country songs and naive ditties to cello sketches. His Instrumentals, released in part in 1984 and in a bigger collection in 2006, were composed with Peter Gordon while he was musical director of The Kitchen, to accompany a slideshow by Shingon priest Yuko Nonomura. Gordon returns to direct these performances with an all-star orchestra that includes original Russell collaborator Peter Zummo amongst others.
The Button Factory, Dublin, Sat; Islington Assembly Hall, N1, Sun; Cecil Sharp House, NW1, Mon
JA
Hugh Masekela, Bath
The great musician and political campaigner Hugh Masekela might be 76, but his joyous and moving performances still burn brightly. He also continues to draw audiences to hear his fascinating life story as a black South African artist who helped found the country’s modern jazz scene and was a key presence at Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inauguration. Masekela headlines a diverse music strand at the Bath international music festival’s closing weekend. His flugelhorn phrasing remains nimble and his exhortatory delivery of African songs and jazz remakes of pop hits are the works of a gifted entertainer as well as a unique jazz artist. But it’s Masekela’s theatrical jamming on scat songs, accounts of his anti-apartheid classic Stimela, and sometimes jazz-funk visits to the late Afrobeat hero Fela Kuti’s music, that bring his memorable shows to the boil.
JF
Daniel Barenboim, London
Daniel Barenboim now makes more appearances in London as a conductor than a pianist. He appears regularly to give concerts with the Berlin Staatskapelle and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, but his recitals over the last decade have been few and far between. It’s been four years since he gave a recital at the Wigmore Hall, and seven since his cycle of all the Beethoven piano sonatas at the Royal Festival Hall. This week, though, Barenboim is back at the RFH to begin another typically all-embracing project. Schubert is the focus this time; his four recitals take in all the 11 mature piano sonatas. As with his Beethoven cycle, Barenboim has avoided a chronological approach, but mixed and matched the programmes so that early and late works are juxtaposed, and the final great triptych of sonatas is spread out.
Royal Festival Hall, SE1, Wed & Fri, 31 May & 1 Jun
AC
