I am a parochial fan of the aboriginal musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunipingu, commonly spoken of as Gurrumul. Fantastic melodious voice and he mostly sings in the local aboriginal language, including parts of this duet.
He is a very talented muso, and incidently, blind from birth.
Recently while performing as a single gig on the very highly rated French TV music show Taratata just prior to Christmas, he also featured in a great duet with Sting singing the Police classic song -" Every Move you Make". While Sting definitely seems to hog the limelight, there has been a fantastic response from the French audience, as well as locally in Darwin.
He wowed audiences AGAIN during this European tour.........
See it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhPD5b4g5CE . Audio quality is not great hi fi, but adequate!
or watch it yourself:
There are many written reviews about the duet as well, and they will turn up in a Google search.
Showing posts with label Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Show all posts
Monday, 28 December 2009
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Gurrumul Gets a Gong [or several]
I have blogged about the extraordinary music album released earlier this year by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, and sung almost entirely in language ---his language from Arnhem land.
He and the album won several gongs at the Deadly's - the indigenous music awards last week.
But the following weekend, some more seriously upmarket awards - two ARIA awards. These are the most prestigous Australian music awards - equivalent to an American Grammy.
The album is magic.
Gurrumul won the ARIA for Best Independent Album Sunday night 20 October 2008, at the 2008 ARIA Awards. This is his second solo ARIA now, after having won one at the ARIA Fine Arts Awards for Best World Music Album.
Gurrumul also performed, the popular song "Bapa", at the ARIA Awards night.
Click here to view Gurrumul performing at the ARIA Awards.
30 September 2008
2008 ARIA Fine Arts Awards
The album, "Gurrumul" won the ARIA for Best World Music Album at last nights ARIA Fine Arts Awards. The awards were held at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place in Sydney. They acknowledge the achievements made within the Australian Music Industry across four genres, Classical, Jazz, World Music and Soundtrack/Cast/Show.
This is Gurrumul's first ARIA Award and he's extremely excited about it. Gurrumul, along with his band (Michael Hohnen, Francis Diatschenko and Erkki Velheim) were in Sydney to accept the award, before they fly out to perform at China's National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing as part of their inaugural 2008 World Folk Song Festival.
[photo x www.news.com.au]
Friday, 29 February 2008
The Night of a Songbird
We were not going, but then I won two tickets to hear the debut concert. What a night.
Yothu Yindi are world renowned for their music, and their performance at the Sydney Olympics. This young man was part of that, and now has his own band - Saltwater Band, based at Galiwink'u on Elcho Island. But this was not THEIR type of music. This was a solo effort by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu , who is a close relative of Mandawuy Yunupingu of Yothu Yindi.
This music is one of the most hauntingly beautiful, incredibly melodic, evocative and just VERY good sets of music to hit the airwaves in a long time. Reminds me a little of the style of Norah Jones and the impact she made with a very different approach to music.
Blind from birth, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu is a powerhouse of musical creativity. Geoffrey, or Gudjuk as he is also called, is from the Gumatj nation, his mother from the Galpu nation both First Nations peoples from North East Arnhemland.
A former member of Yothu Yindi, this solo excursion highlights his amazing talent as a singer/songwriter/musician, and his beautiful voice singing the songs of his Gumatj country will never leave you.
His solo performances are a rare treat and should not be missed. Geoffrey's own band the Saltwater Band all hail from Galiwin'ku on Elcho Island, NE Arnhem Land are a much loved and most popularly noted Indigenous band, partly because of Gurrumul's influence and guidance. Their music is not this music.
With the release of this his first solo album, Geoffrey highlights the tremendous talent he has to offer Indigenous music. Skinny Fish music who have been involved with this new CD have said they are excited and proud to be associated with this magical project. It is magical.
He sang of the land and his country with colour and vision, all from the mind. He described the jungle fowl and its antics with great clarity, and these animals are regular visitors to Darwin suburbia, so their antics are well known. He opened his heart and conveyed the love of the land.
Yes, most of the songs are in language - his language. A screen was used to provide the words and a translation, but the soul of the music did not need it.
Songs, language and the guitar and double bass said enough. He also played one song accompanying himself on the Steinway piano.
And guitar.......it was ironic that John Williams and John Etheridge were also playing in the main auditorium of the Entertainment Centre, just metres away, two world class classic guitarists. Gurrumul plays the guitar too........left handed and upside down, eg a normally strung right hand guitar, played left handed. Who could learn from who??
Listen to the tracks on my space, and if you get a chance to see him - GO! And remember, he is blind......blind from birth!
http://www.myspace.com/gurrumul
He is a new star.......listen to the three tracks free on his myspace site!
Yothu Yindi are world renowned for their music, and their performance at the Sydney Olympics. This young man was part of that, and now has his own band - Saltwater Band, based at Galiwink'u on Elcho Island. But this was not THEIR type of music. This was a solo effort by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu , who is a close relative of Mandawuy Yunupingu of Yothu Yindi.
This music is one of the most hauntingly beautiful, incredibly melodic, evocative and just VERY good sets of music to hit the airwaves in a long time. Reminds me a little of the style of Norah Jones and the impact she made with a very different approach to music.
Blind from birth, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu is a powerhouse of musical creativity. Geoffrey, or Gudjuk as he is also called, is from the Gumatj nation, his mother from the Galpu nation both First Nations peoples from North East Arnhemland.
A former member of Yothu Yindi, this solo excursion highlights his amazing talent as a singer/songwriter/musician, and his beautiful voice singing the songs of his Gumatj country will never leave you.
His solo performances are a rare treat and should not be missed. Geoffrey's own band the Saltwater Band all hail from Galiwin'ku on Elcho Island, NE Arnhem Land are a much loved and most popularly noted Indigenous band, partly because of Gurrumul's influence and guidance. Their music is not this music.
With the release of this his first solo album, Geoffrey highlights the tremendous talent he has to offer Indigenous music. Skinny Fish music who have been involved with this new CD have said they are excited and proud to be associated with this magical project. It is magical.
He sang of the land and his country with colour and vision, all from the mind. He described the jungle fowl and its antics with great clarity, and these animals are regular visitors to Darwin suburbia, so their antics are well known. He opened his heart and conveyed the love of the land.
Yes, most of the songs are in language - his language. A screen was used to provide the words and a translation, but the soul of the music did not need it.
Songs, language and the guitar and double bass said enough. He also played one song accompanying himself on the Steinway piano.
And guitar.......it was ironic that John Williams and John Etheridge were also playing in the main auditorium of the Entertainment Centre, just metres away, two world class classic guitarists. Gurrumul plays the guitar too........left handed and upside down, eg a normally strung right hand guitar, played left handed. Who could learn from who??
Listen to the tracks on my space, and if you get a chance to see him - GO! And remember, he is blind......blind from birth!
http://www.myspace.com/gurrumul
He is a new star.......listen to the three tracks free on his myspace site!
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