Jazzmando.com Review: Bethany & Rufus - 900 Miles

Url: http://jazzmando.com/new/archives/001181.shtml
Sound: http://bethanyandrufus.musicdish.net

Watch the video on YouTube: Bethany & Rufus - 900 Miles (Music Video)

We are always enchanted by artists who can take an instrument out of predictable context and create a whole new way of looking at its function. This is also significant to mandolinists who seek to push the boundaries of its capabilities, and more traditional roles.

We found some great out-of-the box thinking and musical inspiration in this video from minimalists Bethany & Rufus, in their interpretation of the folk classic, Nine Hundred Miles. Bethany Yarrow, daughter of Peter Yarrow of folk legends Peter, Paul & Mary, is joined by ground-breaking cellist Rufus Cappodicia in this enthralling performance. We've enjoyed researching their other CD discography and YouTube entries.

We haven't figured out whether to label this "Techno Cello" or "Folk Trance." Nonetheless, it's terrific.

Bethany And Rufus Roots Quartet To Perform At New York's Joe's Pub

New World/Folk/Roots group The Bethany and Rufus Roots Quartet will be performing songs from their live 12 track CD "Live A Fip" at the New York's Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, one of New York City's most celebrated and in-demand showcase venues for live music and performance. The Roots Quartet includes the duo Bethany and Rufus (Bethany Yarrow and Rufus Cappadocia), along with Fulani flutist Yacouba "Denke Denke" and Afro Haitian drummer 'Bonga' Jean-Baptiste. "Live A Fip" was released in Europe on October 22nd as a co- production with Radio France and Daqui Records.

Bethany And Rufus Roots Quartet @ Joe's Pub
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Joe's Pub
425 Lafayette Street, NY
between East 4th and Astor Place
http://www.joespub.com/component/option,com_shows/task,view/Itemid,40/id,4875

One reviewer describes "Live A Fip," as "like nothing you've ever heard before. Styles from everywhere and anywhere come together seamlessly. One hears distinctly Afro-Cuban rhythms pop under driving bass lines, folksy lyrics and screaming flute. "Death Don't Have No Mercy" is particularly characteristic of this mixing and meshing. The cello is inescapably funky, the bongos complexify the rhythms, the flute line seethes with fiery reverberance, and Bethany's vocals lament the world in a way that only American folk music can."

Bethany as the daughter of legendary 60's Folk singer Peter Yarrow (Peter , Paul & Mary) draws from the many songs that her father collected as part of the seminal folk movement of the 60s. Yacouba has dug deeply into the folkloric Hausa, Djerma, Peul and Songhai traditions of Niger and Bonga is the descendant of a very rich lineage of Vodou ceremonial drumming and song. Bonga has also traveled extensively through Haiti collecting and learning the different manifestations of Haitian song and folklore. Rufus has taken the cello into previously unknown realms and is noted for his collaborations in African, Arabic, and American music forms and also has a solo CD Songs for Cello on the Daqui label. Individually all of the members of the group have been instrumental in expanding the role of traditional forms in their respective musics. It is with this background that they have come together to create a sound that although based around the song forms of American traditional music reaches back to a common root that has inspired everyone involved.

http://bethanyandrufus.musicdish.net
http://www.bethanyandrufus.com/
http://www.myspace.com/bethanyandrufus
http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.aspx?epk_id=152608

To request mp3 tracks for review as well as interview requests, contact:
Eric de Fontenay
MusicDish
bethanyrufus@musicdish.net
+1 718 278 0662

Bethany & Rufus To Perform Two Shows With Peter Yarrow In Ridgefield

Folk music legend Peter Yarrow will bring his vocal and guitar magic to The Ridgefield Playhouse on Saturday, October 17, with two performances: a children's concert at 4 p.m., and an evening show for adults at 8 p.m.

At the children's concert, Yarrow will sing with his daughter Bethany Yarrow and cellist Rufus Cappadocia, the duo know as 'Bethany & Rufus'. "I always invite the kids to come on stage to help lead 'Puff, The Magic Dragon,'" said Yarrow, "and I always find out, much to my delight, that even the three and four-year olds know the words."

The trio Peter, Bethany and Rufus recently released the 11- song CD "Puff & Other Family Classics." Yarrow's children's concert is part of the Pepsi Children's Series and underwritten by Wooster School in Danbury. This show's Union Savings Bank "Arts for Everyone" recipient is Escape to the Arts, which will receive a number of complimentary tickets for their constituents underwritten by the Bank.

The evening concert, which is part of the Doyle Coffin Singer Songwriter Series, will offer selections from Yarrow's repertoire that demonstrates folk music's potency as a social, cultural and political force with its message of humanity, hope and activism.

Peter Yarrow found fame with the 1960s folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow met Noel "Paul" Stookey and the late Mary Travers in New York City's Greenwich Village, center of the mid-20th century American folk music revival. By 1962, Warner Bros. Records released the trio's first album, the eponymous "Peter, Paul & Mary." The album remained in the Top Ten for 10 months, in the Top Twenty for two years, and sold more than two million copies. The group has toured extensively and recorded numerous albums, both live and in the studio. Yarrow has appeared as a performer on 61 various albums, including his daughter Bethany's 2003 CD, "Rock Island."

Drawing from the roots music traditions of America, Niger, and Haiti; Bethany & Rufus with Yacouba Moumouni and Bonga Jean-Baptiste come together to create an unexpected tapestry, weaving the desert winds of Africa with Vodou traditions of the new world and the folk music of America. http://bethanyandrufus.musicdish.net http://www.facebook.com/bethanyandrufus

For tickets ($25 at 4 p.m.; $37.50 at 8 p.m.) and further information about The Ridgefield Playhouse, call the box office at 203-438-5795; tickets may be also purchased online at http://www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Playhouse is located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street.