Tuning in to an eclectic mix of sounds

British saxophonist Iain Ballamy has played in a broad range of jazz ensembles, while Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Stian Carstensen’s musical interests range from bluegrass to Balkan folk.

He’s equally comfortable playing bagpipes, guitar, violin, mandolin, banjo and a Bulgarian flute called the kaval. Together they form one of the more unusual musical pairings, the Little Radio.

Although restricted to just tenor saxophone and accordion, together the pair add vivid new shades to a surprising repertoire of songs. As with most unlikely partnerships, their meeting was entirely fortuitous.

Back in the late 1990s, Ballamy was a sideman for British keyboard player Django Bates when the bandleader decided to expand the group to include a percussionist, a guitarist, and an accordionist.

“We had our first concert up in the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and Stian was there,” recalls Ballamy. “We didn’t know each other then, and by good fortune, or silver lining or whatever you want to call it, all the electronic gear broke down.”

Realising it would take some time to fix, they repaired to a backstage room.

Ballamy continues: “And then to pass the time we started playing and almost immediately we realised that the sound of the saxophone and the accordion was a fabulous fit in the room we were in, and also that we knew tons of the same kind of tunes across a wide variety. We liked a lot of the same stuff, like classical things and trad things, romantic things, bossa novas and pop songs.”

The pair ran through a bewildering array of songs, ranging from John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ to the Whitney Houston standard ‘Saving All My Love For You’.

“So musically we found we got a big cross-section of music that we just love. We found we just wanted to play music that we liked without it having to be jazz or a particular genre. And somehow or other the sound of the button accordion and tenor saxophone sort of gelled so well. With the right performance and the right delivery it seemed to be able to cross all those types of music and bind it together by the sound.”

On their first album, recorded in 2003, the pair bring their inimitable style to numbers like ‘Danny Boy’, Satie’s ‘Je Te Veux’ and ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’.

“It’s a very silly thing for two grown up men to play,” says Ballamy of the latter track, “but everybody loves it.”

Together the instruments play like a slow tango where one doesn’t always shadow the other, taking license to peel off and create their own subtle embellishments.

“The thing is Stian doesn’t consider himself to a jazz musician at all, which is kind of absurd considering what a great jazz player he is, with a good grasp of the early trad and swing side of it.

“And as a musician myself, I’m quite eclectic. I tend to see the connections between all types of music rather than borders and differences, so really if it’s a party I can join, musically speaking, then I’m happy. I see it all part of one big thing rather than loads of separate genres or separate styles or something like that.

“And hopefully the thing that comes across is that it’s genuine and honest rather than pretentious and wacky. And if it turns out to be humorous and entertaining as a by-product then that’s so much the better really.”

* The Little Radio, featuring Iain Ballamy and Stian Carstensen, play at Triskel Christchurch in Cork next Tuesday, Feb 4. Price: €14/€12.