Silk and Bamboo Your 2001 and Thailand Tour 2002
Hucky Eichelmann , Richard Harvey, with Mauricio Venegas and Rachel Pantin
AMI Records AMI DVD: 2005 – 10
This 117 minute DVD recaptures the live performances of Hucky Eichelmann and Richard Harvey at two different concerts almost 20 years ago performed in Thailand, where Hucky has been living for many years now. Having witnessed a live performance back in September 1999, I know what to expect from his guitar playing, as that concert was one of the most memorable I have ever seen from a guitar player. As for Richard Harvey, it took me a few moments to realize where I had heard his name , as I know that I hadn’t seen his face before, and yet suddenly it came to me that this was the man who wrote Concerto Antico for guitar and orchestra that everyone so loves, and that John Williams recorded .In these two concerts he also proved how versatile a performer he was as he plays all of the following: recorder, flute, dulcimer, bansri, panpipes, clarinet, wode, mandolin, ocarina, Irish whistle, bowu, ukulele, klui, xylophone and various percussion!
The Silk and Bamboo Tour is the two of them on their own, and the repertoire is nothing if not varied, as it goes from the opening Juliette, by Maria Linnermann, to Traditional Italian tunes, to a phenomenal wind solo by one Jacob Van Eyck, called Wat Sal, that left me open –mouthed in shock, to Irish traditional melodies, and to not surprisingly several Thai melodies, a Chinese traditional tune, and finally on a completely different scale, four rags. Hucky Eichelmann is finger perfect and flies around his fingerboard seemingly without any difficulty whatsoever, as does Richard Harvey on his multitude of instruments, sometimes more than one at once. For example several times he was playing a wind instrument whilst tapping his feet, which had bells attached to the shoes, or even playing his wind solo one handed whilst using whichever percussion instrument he needed to play, with the other hand. Phenomenal technically, and engrossing to watch and listen to throughout.
The second half of the DVD has Mauricio Venegas, a charango, panpipes, guitar and percussion player as well as a vocalist who provides a unique Latin- American slant to much of this concert’s repertoire, and violinist and harpist Rachel Pantin, who often takes the solos in a number of the pieces. Only one piece is on both concerts, the rest being a substantial amount of Venegas’ work, which add a lovely upbeat feel, along with Irish, Chinese, and English traditional music as well as a set of Village Branles that open that evening’s set.
Both concerts have lovely pieces of music, all the performances are first rate and both last for just a few moments short of an hour .The camera work is fine, although there is no flying around with shots, as everything tends to just focus on the players themselves without any technical trickery, which is absolutely fine, and therefore if you want to look and listen to a master guitarist playing a lot of quite rare material, or if you want to see a phenomenal wind player at the very height of his powers, or both, then this DVD is the one for you. Wonderful stuff!
Chris Dumigan