Jazz Alley, 7.00pm, RTÉ lyric fm
In tonight's programme, presenter Donald Helme checks out some of the current crop of songsters in jazz, from Liane Carroll to Gretchen Parlato, from David Linx to Aaron Neville. Also a rare big band concert by Italian singer Barbara Casini is reviewed and sampled by our genial man of jazz.
Barbara Casini, (born 1954 in Florence) is an Italian vocalist and guitar player. A pianist, she heard Bossa Nova at the age of 15, which lent a distinct accent on her musical endeavours.
A graduate in psychology from the University of Padova, she became a well-recogmnised vocal interpreter of Brazilian music and jazz in particular in Italy.
She has since recorded and performed with Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Leo Walls, Francisco Petreni, Stefano Bollani, Enrico Rava, amongst others and with her own group, Outro Lado.
Richard Ford's Canada: The Book on One, Monday to Friday, 11.10pm, RTÉ Radio 1
The much-acclaimed novel Canada by the supremely-gifted Richard Ford is read by the author al this week. "First, I’ll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.’ So begins Ford’s most recent work which tells the story of 15-year-old Dell Parsons, and the impact that his parents’ actions have on the course of his life.
"Listening to him, sentence by careful sentence, is like watching a car-crash survivor making his way along a hospital corridor, step by careful step. His voice, at once muffled and clear, is remarkably resonant, and devastating in its directness."
Thus wrote John Banville, reviewing the novel for The Guardian newspaper. After you have enjoyed hearing Canada, go to the three Frank Bascombe novels, The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land, featuring the character of that name. You won't regret reading lots of Richard Ford, who is a frequent visitor to Ireland and one who is very familiar himself with popular Irish fiction writers.
