| 26 July 2010
Take note: some of the world’s best musicians will be in town for the festivals. Mark Fisher conducts a tuneful investigation into who’s top of the pops.
THE BALA BROTHERS
Assembly @ Princes Street Gardens
9 & 16 August, 8pm
Infusing western classical music with the traditions of African song, the award-winning trio create an easy-listening “popera” hybrid that goes down a treat.
BEIRUT
HMV Picture House
22 August, 7.30pm
Put on your Sunday Smile as Zachary Condon and his band turn out their singular mix of Balkan, European, Gypsy and Mexican influences.
BLISS
Festival Theatre
2-4 September, 7.15pm
Picking up five-star reviews in Sydney and Melbourne, this opera based on the black comic novel by Peter Carey tells the story of an advertising exec whose life is turned upside down after a near-death experience.
SIMÓN BOLÍVAR STRING QUARTET
Queen’s Hall
4 September, 11am
South American music plus Bach, Brahms and Shostakovich from a quartet that has emerged from Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra.
ERIC BURDON AND THE ANIMALS
Queen’s Hall
6 August, 8.30pm
With a four-decade solo career behind him and fans ranging from Iggy Pop to Bruce Springsteen, Burdon has more to offer than House of the Rising Sun.
JON CLEARY
Assembly @ Princes Street Gardens
31 July, 6pm
Funk, soul and Caribbean rhythms from the New Orleans piano professor with his Piano, Bass & Drums line-up of Doug Belote on drums, multi-instrumentalist Matt Perrine and James Singleton on upright bass.
THE CORAL
HMV Picture House
26 August, 7.30pm
With an album, Butterfly House, newly in the shops and an appearance at T in the Park under their belts, the Hoylake five-piece are back with their infectious eclecticism.
ALAN CUMMING – I BOUGHT A BLUE CAR TODAY
Assembly Hall
13-15 August, 12am
With a nod to his cabaret routes in double-act Victor and Barry, the Perthshire-born Hollywood star sings some of his favourite songs and tells an anecdote or two.
JASON DERULO
HMV Picture House
24 August, 7.30pm
After a successful career writing hits for other musicians, Derulo scored a major hit with this year’s eponymous debut album and will be generating much excitement with the R&B crowd.
JAZ DHAMI
Big Top, Leith Links
8 August, evening
Part of the Mela, the Birmingham-born Dhami was named best male at the 2010 Brit Asia Music Awards and is putting his lessons from Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts to good use.
THE DIVINE COMEDY
Liquid Room
6 August, 7pm
Producing literate pop with a flamboyant sparkle and an ironic undertow, Neil Hannon is in the middle of a European tour to showcase this year’s Bang Goes the Knighthood album.
DIZZEE RASCAL
Corn Exchange
26 August, 7.30pm
One of the highest profile names on this year’s Fringe, Mr Rascal brings his Mercury Award-winning grime sound to town. Some people think he’s bonkers, but we just think he’s free.
DOVES
HMV Picture House
8 August, 7.30pm
The mournful Mancunian popsters celebrate 10 years as lost souls, with a gig looking back over the highlights of their atmospheric career.
DREVER, MCCUSKER AND WOOMBLE
Queen’s Hall
29-30 August, 8pm
Idlewild singer Roddy Woomble joins Orkney-born guitarist Kris Drever and seasoned fiddler John McCusker for two nights of folk-tinged favourites and new songs.
EDINBURGH JAZZ FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA: SWINGING FOR BASIE
Queen’s Hall
4 August, 8pm
Joe Temperley, Brian Kellock, Dennis Rowland and an all-star cast pay tribute to Count Basie, drawing on the arrangements of Quincy Jones and Buck Clayton.
EELS
HMV Picture House
25 August, 7.30pm
Trading on the acclaim of their eighth album, End Times, Mark Oliver Everett’s alt-rockers kick up a storm after dates in Japan and Australia.
FEEDER
Liquid Room
17 August, 7pm
Revitalised after leaving their record label and returning to the world as Renegades – also the name of their seventh album, just released – the Welsh chart-toppers show why they are one of the country’s best live acts.
ANTONIO FORCIONE’S GREATEST (ALMOST) HITS
Assembly @ Princes Street Gardens
23-29 August, 6.15pm
The Fringe favourite is a simply stunning player, using his acoustic guitar for its percussive possibilities as well as its melodic power and putting on a breathtaking show of virtuosity.
JON FRATELLI
The Electric Circus
22 August, 7pm
The hit-maker puts the Fratellis and Codeine Velvet Club behind him to strike out on his own. Early indications are he has lost none of his foot-stomping melodic gifts.
BENNY GALLAGHER
Acoustic Music Centre
22 August, 9pm
Rare appearance by one half of Gallagher and Lyle, the Scottish song-writing team that came to prominence on the Beatles’ Apple label and had a series of hit albums under their own name.
GOL
Voodoo Rooms
5 August, 10pm
Edinburgh band creating a fusion of dub, jazz, funk and traditional Persian arrangements with sax and samples, congas and keyboards.
SUSAN GRAHAM
Usher Hall
22 August, 8pm
A favourite with EIF audiences, the mezzo soprano performs songs by American composers, as well as pieces by Mozart and Mahler.
TOM GRAY
The Electric Circus
16 August, 7pm
There are so many singers and songwriters in Gomez, it’s not surprising to find them stepping out under their own name.
The multi-instrumentalist will be playing Gomez favourites.
ARLO GUTHRIE
Queen’s Hall
19 August, 8pm
The son of Woody Guthrie has carried on the family tradition of folk protest music, not least in his Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, a song he has been known to string out to 45 minutes.
IDOMENEO
Usher Hall
20 August, 7pm
The 84-year-old conductor Sir Charles Mackerras demonstrates his brilliant grasp of Mozart as he leads the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
BERT JANSCH
Queen’s Hall
26 & 27 August, 8pm
The sometime Pentangle guitarist lists musicians from Jimmy Page to Johnny Marr among his fans.
FREDDIE KING
The Hub
30 July, 8.30pm
The master of bebop and blues appears with Frank Perowsky, better known as Liza Minnelli’s musical director, and a ten-piece band to share his love of Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine.
KRONOS QUARTET
Usher Hall
21 August, 8pm
The San Francisco chamber music ensemble tackles three extraordinary pieces by Aleksandra Vrebalov, Steve Reich and George Crumb.
AMY MACDONALD
Corn Exchange
18 August, 7.30pm
The Scottish singer-songwriter plays to the home crowd with favourites from her multi-million selling debut This is the Life.
MAHLER SYMPHONY NO 8
Usher Hall
4 September, 8pm
Mahler’s epic is one of the largest symphonies ever written. Bringing it to life is the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
MEOW MEOW – FELINE INTIMATE
Assembly @ Princes Street Gardens
5–29 August (not Mon), 8pm
Post-modern kamikaze cabaret from the Australian star of La Clique.
MIKA
HMV Picture House
23 August, 7.30pm
The boy who knew too much is sure to add to Edinburgh’s summer theatricality after touring all year with his falsetto pop stage show.
MODEST MOUSE
HMV Picture House
29 August, 7.30pm
After appearances at the Leeds and Reading festivals, the Seattle band should be on top form with their edgy powerhouse indie.
MONTEZUMA
King’s Theatre
14, 15, 17 August, 7.15pm
Claudio Valdés Kuri, one of the hottest talents in Mexico, directs this Aztec opera composed by Carl Heinrich Graun in 1755 using a libretto by Frederick II, king of Prussia. It’s sung in Italian, just to add to the cosmopolitanism.
THE NEON BIBLE PROJECT
Church Hill Theatre
20, 21, 23, 25 August, times vary
Only on the Fringe could you hope to come across a Canadian high school company using the Arcade Fire’s 2007 album as the basis for a dystopian fantasy musical.
EL NIÑO
Usher Hall
13 August, 8pm
The opening concert of the Edinburgh International Festival is John Adams’ modern take on the nativity story, performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
CAMILLE O’SULLIVAN – CHAMELEON
Assembly Rooms
4-30 August (not Tue), 10.25pm
Fringe favourite O’Sullivan uses her stunning voice to find sultry beauty in songs such as Radiohead’s No Surprises and Bowie’s Rock’n’Roll Suicide.
STEVEN OSBORNE PIANO
Queen’s Hall
31 August, 11am
Joplin, Gershwin, Ravel and Rachmaninov get the dextrous attention of this masterful pianist who will also be treating us to one of his own breathtaking improvisations.
PLAN B
HMV Picture House
20 August, 7.30pm
Disturbing East London tales of sex, violence and imprisonment from Benjamin Drew, who is riding high on the success of this year’s concept album, The Defamation of Strickland Banks.
PROFESSOR GREEN
Liquid Room
20 August, 7pm
Championed by Mike Skinner and Lily Allen, Stephen Manderson brings his sharp-talking East London raps to Edinburgh with his second album, Alive Till I’m Dead, freshly in the shops.
REFUGE TRIO
The Lot
7 August, 6pm
Progressive rock meets avant-garde jazz as the Grammy-nominated Theo Bleckmann throws new light on old favourites in the company of keyboardist Gary Versace and drummer John Hollenbeck.
RHAPSODIES IN RED, WHITE AND BLUE
Usher Hall
14 August, 7.30pm
Gunther Schuller conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and pianist Steven Osborne in music by Copland, Gershwin and Ives.
RHYTHM, DRUM AND DANCE
Venue 150 @ EICC
7-22 August, 6pm
Mainstream dance show powered by a bank of drummers bashing out a specially written percussive score. Developed in Berlin with an eye on the global market.
RHYTHMS OF THE DRUM: SOUNDS OF THE CICADA
New Town Theatre
5-29 August (not 10, 24), 1.40pm
Miao-wood drum dances and Dongzu love songs from the Guizhou Ethnic Arts Ensemble, celebrating the culture of the minority Dong and Miao peoples.
ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA
Usher Hall
30-31 August, 8pm
Two programmes by the formidable Dutch orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons.
SHOOGLENIFTY
The Famous Spiegeltent
11-13 & 26-27 August, 7pm
Call it “acid croft”, call it “hypnofolkadelia”, call it what you like, but make sure you put on your dancing shoes as this pioneering Scottish band break down the musical barriers.
SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR
Assembly Hall
18-30 August, 5.30pm
Breathtaking gospel music from the two-time Grammy Award-winning choir making an unexpected – and certainly very welcome – visit to the Fringe after saying last year would be their last.
MERCY, MERCY, MERCY! COLIN STEELE QUINTET
Jazz Bar
19-22 August, 9pm
The award-winning trumpeter, who is influenced by Scottish folk as well as jazz, is joined by saxophonist Martin Kershaw in this tribute to the music of Cannonball and Nat Adderley.
STORNOWAY
Liquid Room
5 August, 7pm
Despite the name, they’re from Oxford, but we won’t hold that against a band that sounds this good. Recalling the euphoric sound of James, they hit a compelling folk-pop groove.
SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Usher Hall
1-2 September, 7.30pm
Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts Australia’s leading orchestra in two concerts featuring Elgar, Sibelius, Ravel and Strauss, as well as Australian composers such as Ross Edwards, Peter Sculthorpe and Matthew Hindson.
THE TIGER LILLIES – LIVE IN CONCERT
Pleasance Courtyard
4-21 August (not 11), 9.45pm
Outrageous, scatological and a lot of fun, the Tiger Lillies always find a ready Fringe welcome for their singular lowlife, late-night cabaret and gypsy-influenced tunes.
TINCHY STRYDER
HMV Picture House
13 August, 7.30pm
Another helping of East London grime from possibly the only man to go straight to number one with a song called Number One. look out for his third album, Third Strike, which is out later in the year.
TAZ
Big Top, Leith Links
8 August, evening
The lead singer of Stereo Nation and a pioneer of British-Asian pop fusion, showcases his newly released album, Twist and Shout, at the Mela.
TREASURES AND TRADITIONS AT GREYFRIARS
Greyfriars Kirk
16-20, 23-24 August, 5.45pm
From as early as the 15th century, European composers took inspiration from South America. Early-music specialists including the Tallis Scholars and the Sixteen reveal the cultural collisions.
FRED WESLEY AND THE NEW JBS
Assembly @ Princes Street Gardens
31 July, 9pm
With a track record that ranges from helping define the sound of James Brown to playing with Ike and Tina Turner and the Count Basie Orchestra, Wesley knows everything there is to know about funk. Discover why this veteran is so respected by his peers.
WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS
Liquid Room
21 August, 7pm
With the best name ever, the Glasgow-based, Edinburgh-formed four piece have been steadily picking up a loyal following, not least through touring with Frightened Rabbit in the USA.
ANDY WHITE
Acoustic Music Centre
13 August, 9pm
The much-loved Belfast singer-songwriter will be playing from his most recent album, appropriately titled Songwriter, and a back catalogue that stretches to the mid-1980s.
LLYR WILLIAMS PIANO
Queen’s Hall
28 August, 11am
The pianist performs Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata, in honour of the EIF’s New World theme, as well as work by Beethoven where Ives found his inspiration.
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