Faroe Islands

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On our third night in Faroe Islands, we had the privilege to attend free jam sessions in a small concert hall in front of our hotel in Tórshavn. And to top it all, beer was free as well! We seated on the first floor, thus enjoying a bird’s eye view of the stage. The presenter was Anna Iachino, Italian singer born in Montreal, also a poet in her spare time. She called Debbie Cameron on stage, an American singer with Bahamian origins who pursues a career in music in Denmark. She has a beautiful warm and powerful voice in spite of her slight features. She was accompanied on the bass guitar by the excellent Arnold Ludvig, the MonkeyRat band bassist, who played with most of players during the evening. The musical style was close to the 1960’s-1970’s soul and R’n’B.
After a thunder of applause, Anna came back on stage to call Deborah Herbert, a big and very funny Afro-American woman from New-York. She heaped praise on her, notably about her incredible voice, so powerful that she does not even need a microphone… Yet, Anna was the one to sing on the next song against all odds. And she sang perfectly. Deborah only accompanied her, and moreover her participation was very limited. But, it was self-mockery above all: she was sitting on a chair and contented herself with displaying certain nonchalance, looking into space with no expression, sometimes intersected with some hilarious moves and facial expressions. Notably, when Anna pronounced the name of Jesus during the chorus spreading out her arms quickly, she made the same move. However, instead of doing it in perfect synchronization with her, she did it willingly with a delay time, simulating a moment of lucidity: then, her face lit up with a silly smile and she spread out her arms suddenly, and then she took up again with her lethargic appearance with swinging arms, raising bursts of laughter in the room. Her only vocal performance was limited to a «Say what?» shouted with an excessively deep voice to punctuate each chorus, thus also provoking general hilarity.
After that, a guitarist came to play two pieces, rather in blues and country styles. He was in his fifties, potbellied with a receding hairline. He really did not look like much, and his lack of charisma clashed totally with the artists who performed before him. He looked slow and bumbling, kind of lost. So, Anna came to him and asked him if everything was OK. He answered it was all right, self-confident. Yet, he was turning back to the audience, with his head down, and wrestled trying to untie all the knots he had made with his cables. While doing it, he made a move as sudden as awkward, thus knocking a microphone and its holder down with his guitar neck, which knocked a guitar – also on its holder – down, which hit a cymbal in its fall. It was a real house of cards! Then, other musicians rushed to pick up the whole and keep it safe far away from him. We feared the worst… But when he started playing (finally!), it was magical: he was not the same guy anymore, and his virtuosity was bluffing! He was in his element. He played perfectly and with fineness in spite of his stubby fingers and his lumbering hands, as if his instrument transformed him, transcended him.
Various performances followed on. And to end in a blaze of glory, some players gathered for a great jam session! Anna sang with Debbie Cameron and Deborah Herbert. Obviously, Arnold Ludvig was part of it. At a moment, Deborah went to sit down in front of the drums, and then we were like: «wow! She plays drums too. It’s gonna be great!» We were already imagining a memorable drums solo for the grand finale. But actually, she contented herself with looking at the high-hat with the eyes of a child who sees one for the first time. Then, she lifted the upper cymbal with her two hands to drop it and let it fall on the lower cymbal with a poor noise, looking at it with big astounded eyes. In fact, the grand finale was not a drums solo, but a huge burst of laughter!

Published on January 31st 2021