Links & Reviews
What the media and listeners have to say about Jon...
Review of Latitudes in The Irish Times Feb 2006:
"Music can shed light on the delicious intricacies of multiculturalism far more adroitly than spoken language. Jon Sanders is a Dingle-based English guitarist who's continually pushed the boundaries of traditional music, and this time is no different. His is a genteel guitar style, drenched in a love of obtuse rythms and melodies whose provenance is owed as much to Iberian haughtiness as to multi-layered minutiae of Indian and eastern European music. Collaborating with Polish jazz singer Gosia Koscielniak on the Betty Blue-esque Marienetki, and with west Kerry piper Eoin Duignan on Garvey in Galicia, Sanders has ignited a fire whose embers would burn happily in the quiet corners of a jazz cafe or in the hearth of a snug in Ballyferriter. A canny musical curiosity that refuses to be boxed in" Siobhan Long.
"Jon Sanders should be cloned and a copy offered to every guitar player..Mark's fiddle style is fluid, lovely, has more of a hint of Scottish in it, and together they're a powerful combination."
Review from Wellington Folk Club, gig Tuesday 6th April 2004. Sue Iken
"This is pure magic! A blending of Irish musical tradition with primarily Spanish and Latin stylings, it touches the soul with the welcome of gentle rain after a drought. It's hard to pick any track as being particularly outstanding, but mention must be made of 'Poor Wayfaring Stranger' featuring the vocals of Eilis Ni Chinneide, which has been especially popular with listeners on this station. The rest of the album is of equal calibre, superb playing, great melodies and a blance of styles and dynamics that will stand the test of time."
Gayle Cresswell, Radio Woodville.
"Following a characteristically welcoming entree..Jon sanders and Eilis Ni Chinneide inhabited every ecclesiastical nook and cranny with their sinuous pairing of guitar and vocals..
Sanders and Crickard have forged a heady partnership with their salsa-tinged partnering of guitar and fiddle. Crickard, all Northern edginess and quick-fire wit, has found his perfect foil in Sanders' laconic Kentish personality, each of them fired with an appetite for the impish (The Nine Points of Roguery), the impatient (Paidin O Rafferty and Langstrom's Pony) and the unapologetically mournful (Matrin Wynn's slow reel.)
Dezzie Kelliher joined the melee later, banjo in hand armed with a fiery set of tunes and a comfort with improvisation that wouldn't have been lost on the most freewheeling of jazz musicians. Jousting with Sanders on a set that swing-shifted from cracking jig to careening two-step, we were left with no option but to succumb to the free-spiritied madness of it all. Guitar and banjo entered a sublime synchrony in which only the truly comotose could have failed to delight."
Review from Irish Times, Tuesday August 24th of concert in St James Church, Dingle.
"The music was superb and the 40 listeners were buzzing at the end of it. Mark and Jon then did that lovely thing of mixing with the crowd and signing albums and showing clearly how down to earth they are despite being awesome musicians. Watch out for them and the album, they are due to head off to New Zealand in February to tour the album extensively there and lets hope they return to the studio before too long to give us more of that sort of summer."
IRISH MUSIC MAGAZINE (VOL 9 NO 5)
Sub-titled "Music from Ireland and other Atlantic shores", Salsa Summer is a lot more than its modest title suggests. Casting a line towards Portugese, Brazilian, southern US and Donegal shores, guitarist Jon Sanders and fiddler Mark Crickard share an eclectic taste for the more sublime tunes to be found skirting the Atlantic . Crickard's fiddle travels a languid pathway through the Brazilio-Portugese opener, Rumba Negra and the robust Donegal reel, The Nine Points of Roguery. Jon Sander's intricate accompaniment is a delicate cross-stitch that demands repeated listening to appreciate its breadth and depth. Fellow west Kerry musician Eilís Kennedy lends faultless vocals too. A refreshingly original collection which, judging by their recent live performances, excels in 3D.
THE IRISH TIMES
SIOBHAN LONG
Jon Sanders & Mark Crickard - The Cobblestones: Dublin
"West Kerry rarely enjoyed such tropical highs before. Kent guitarist Jon Sanders and Belfast fiddler Crickard has spent long years inhaling the infusions of Corca Dhuibhne, but here it was the rhythms and melodies of Portugal , Spain , north Africa and Brazil that shaped their session. Fiddle and guitar have long been cosy bedfellows in the tradition (witness Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill), but the Sanders/Crickard axis brings a whole new flavour to this particular duetting and duelling combo.
From the minute they kicked off with Rhumba Negra to their closing Wildlife Set (featuring The Swallows Tail, The Otter's Den and The Bucks of Oranmore ), Sanders and Crickard didn't so much break boundaries, as blithely skip over them on their journey from Slea Head to Lisbon via Barcelona and Budapest, with a brief interlude outside the Four Courts.
From the opening chords, Crickard engaged in sotto voce communion with his fiddle, tucking not just his chin but somehow, his entire being inside its curvilinear frame. He fiddles with the intensity of a player who's been lately reunited with an old acquaintance, engaging impishly in hiccupping two-toned couplets, while Sanders traces intricate pathways alongside him on Spanish guitar.
With their first album barely off the presses, they resist all temptation to limit themselves to its decidedly fine repertoire, choosing instead to marry its exuberant title-track, Salsa Summer , with a goose-stepping Romanian borrowing, a vastly expansive meditation, King Size Blue (that would surely be right at home soundtracking Annie Proux's Montana landscapes) and an angular evocation of dancing bears in Crickard's tune titled, eh, Dancing Bears"
THE IRISH TIMES GIG REVIEW
SIOBHÁN LONG
Links to other websites
Pacific Bespoke - www.myspace.com/pacificbespoke
Eilis Kennedy - www.eiliskennedy.com
Benny O'Carroll - www.bennyocarroll.com
Akki Schulz - www.akkischulz.de
Tim Edey - www.timedey.com
Toni Geiling - www.tonigeiling.de
Gosia Koscielniak - www.gosiakoscielniak.pl
Dave Alley - www.davealley.co.nz
Eoin Duignan - www.duigo.com
SandersAlley - www.myspace.com/sandersalley
Buchanan Solutions website design - www.buchanan-solutions.com
