Sat 23rd August 2014 – FREE ENTRY
Charlie McMahon
With Pasko Schravemade as Gondwana keyboard player.
KATOOMBA RSL CLUB
86 Lurline St, Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Australia
Didgeridoo legend Charlie McMahon will present a mix of music
and stories about the instrument’s history in a great visual show.
Charlie McMahon (deservedly referred to as Bone Man) is an ARIA award winner, and Australian didgeridoo legend, who is best known for his bone shaking didgeridoo riffs such as the “wobble” and “ride”. Playing didgeridoo for 59 years makes Charlie a most senior didgeridoo player, and he is referred to by Didgeridoo Virtuoso, Mark Atkins, as ‘tjilpi’ which is the desert word for elder.
Releasing his first album Terra Incognita in 1983, the first full length album of didgeridoo based music, Charlie was ahead of time and his music prefigured world music by a decade. Charlie has released 10 (mainly band) albums since Terra Incognita, and the didgeridoo samples software “Rythym Organizm” through UK company Zero G.Charlie has toured in every continent on the planet, and has played some very high profile performances, including playing with Midnight Oil, and Jane’s Addiction, as well as with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack.
Charlie and his band, Gondwana, also played as the opening act for Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating’s seminal Redfern speech at Redfern Park in 1992, which paved the way for reconciliation in Australia.
Not only an acclaimed musician, but a renowned inventor of didgeridoo concepts, Charlie is also the creator of the Didjeribone™, which he makes in Australia in conjunction with Indigenous Player, Tjupurru. The Didjeribone™ is a pitch variable “slide” didgeridoo with sales of 14,000 and is popular worldwide, for the way it makes the didgeridoo fit readily with any music.
Charlie’s love of experimentation also lead to the creation of the “face bass”, a seismic sensor that picks up sound from inside the mouth and produces an electro – didge sound. The “face bass” enabled Charlie to produce some of the most unique, and dynamic didgeridoo frequencies for his 2012 album “Bone Man”. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Charlie is also the creator of the “Didj Horns” concept for the much loved Tjilatjila (1996), and Didj Heart (2012) Albums.
It is well known that no other didgeridoo player has done as much as Charlie in the way of inventing didgeridoo concepts to make the didgeridoo effective in many genres of music. Maningrida elders Djelkera Wood and Djana recognise Charlie as the leading creator of didgeridoo concepts, and have complemented Charlie for inventing ‘complex and interesting ways of playing didjeridu’.
Although Charlie is a self taught didgeridoo player, he learned didgeridoo lore and craft in Arnhem Land with didgeridoo legend David Blanasi. He worked for quite some time drilling water bores for the Pintubi Tribe, and within his work in 1984 he ventured so far in to the desert that he came across a group of nine Pintubi, who had previously never experienced contact with the modern world and are, reliably, thought to have been the last Aborigines to be living a fully traditional way of life. This event made headlines worldwide and these Pintubi were referred to as the “Lost Tribe”.
Pasko Schravemade joins Charlie as Gondwana keyboard player. Charlie and Paul met playing music as an activity for people with people with autism syndrome disorders.
FREE ENTRY!
Show Starts 8:30pm