Acoustic Delight:Morwenna Lasko & Jay Pun
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Acoustic Delight: Morwenna Lasko & Jay Pun
Here’s our first acoustic feature, and it’s a good one. Morwenna Lasko and Jay Pun are a fiddler and guitarist from Virginia who record and perform both as a duo and with larger ensembles. They work in that Shengen zone of music that combines many styles in a hybrid that exceeds all music of origin. It’s energetic instrumental hard-folk that follows in the footsteps Michael Hedges, Pierre Bensusan, Darrell Scott, and Natalie MacMaster, with a liberal infusion of blues and jazz. Guitarist Jay Pun has true-North rhythmic instincts and very disciplined playing; on most tunes he fulfills a support role that belies his first-rate fingerstyle chops (listen to the studio version of “Atip Ouypron” on their Facebook site). And Morwenna, to put it in musicological terms, just freakin’ gets down on the fiddle. Her live performance of the Hendrix Star-Spangled Banner induces out-of-body experience.
To be young, good-looking,and prodigiously talented would be an ego trap for most. Yet these two gifted performers are far too busy encouraging other musicians and getting lost like dervishes in the joy of their music for that. When world-renowned musicians like Corey Harris and Pierre Bensusan choose to record with young artists it behooves the rest of us to pay attention too.
Facebook Page for Morwenna Lasko & Jay Pun
http://www.mojamusic.net/home.html
(Source: jaebberwocky.blogspot.com)
