Musicians of The Dance Album

Robert, Maria and Kristo during the recording sessionSo I needed somebody to play the early music percussion, to clap hands and play castagnets, somebody who could get a samba groove out of the guitar and a cellist.

To find somebody that is good with early percussion is easy in Estonia – you have just two choices. I chose both but started with the reknown early music group Rondellus. A few years ago their Black Sabbath tribute CD “Sabbatum” was a real triumph. It is still selling good, I guess. Anyway, Robert from Rondellus was my lute teacher and when it comes to the lute music, I always try to get an opinion from him. He has also studied the medieval percussion in Denmark so he and his wife Maria from Rondellus played the early music stuff (Galilei, Besard and Dowland).

Handclapping and playing castagnets should be done by somebody who knows the flamenco dances. So I invited Anne Anderson who did the recording. Later on in live programs, Maria Rääk has been my companion instead.

Jorma Puusaag is a fellow guitarist with whom we work together in the Tallinn Guitar Quartet and also our guitar duo. Since he is playing a lot in the pop music scene, he is always the one that reminds me that rhytm is all that matters! Listen to his rhytm section in the track no 12 (Danza brasileira). He doesn’t play a single note, just percussion on the guitar.

Cello part in the Estonian dance is done by Ardo Västrik, a fellow from our Academy of Music. We were once working on a complete Estonian folk music program and had a nice crew of “academical folkers” combined with the “real ones” 🙂 Playing folk was new to him and me, too. But I think we finally got the groove of the flatfoot (the oldest Estonian dance) and even didn’t cut out his little squeak in the end of the piece. The other take was lacking the “going”.

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