THE new season of early music, jazz, world, folk and contemporary music concerts at the National Centre for Early Music in York is heralded by The Carnival Band tomorrow night, when they promise Scandal, Sensation and Sweet Musick.

Welcome to the tabloid world of the 17th century ballad, a world of murder, sex, revenge, heroism and true love in tales of roguish soldiers, glamorous royals, feisty women, brutal husbands, ghosts and dragons, set to exuberant, full-blooded tunes from the golden age of English music.

Shawm, curtal and cittern will be mixed with drums, guitar and bass in a 7.30pm concert that marks the national launch of a three-year project commissioned by the Queen’s University, Belfast, to make recordings of 100 of the most popular ballads of the 17th century.

As part of this initiative, The Carnival Band have been working in residency with Folkestra, the young people’s folk ensemble at Sage, Gateshead. Folkestra, by the way, also will be taking part in tonight’s Singers & Musicians Night at the Black Swan Folk Club, Peasholme Green, at 8pm.

The NCEM will be running a three-for-two offer, in which you can buy tickets for three concerts for the price of two from a selection of six (please note, the tickets must all be bought at the same time).

Two of the concerts are being brought to York by Making Tracks, an organisation that promotes world music. First up will be the March 5 visit of Trio Da Kali, who hail from the Mande culture of Mali in West Africa and perform griot music with a fresh, contemporary voice. They revive a neglected repertoire in songs celebrating life and love in the countryside, performed by vocalist Hawa Kasse Mady, balafon player Lassana Diabate and Mamadou Kouyate on rigoni, West Africa’s oldest instrument.

Making Tracks also presents Mariana Sadovska, the Ukrainian Bjork, on April 16. Born in Lviv and trained as a classical pianist, she now crosses all borders by performing archaic midsummer night invocations, wedding songs and migrant chants from remote Ukrainian villages, transformed into contemporary sounds. Joined by German percussionist and electronica specialist Christian Thome, she will sing tales of love and death, despair and hope, in search of freedom and identity.

The ticket offer also embraces the Budapest Cafe Orchestra on March 13; Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat on June 6; The Whispering Road on June 12 and Jesse Bannister’s Play Out on June 28.

The Budapest Cafe Orchestra perform traditional folk and gipsy-flavoured music from the Balkans and Russia, while sisters Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat are brave and inspiring vocalists from Iran, now prohibited from singing in public in their home country under Iranian Islamic law on account of being female.

Brought to York by the Songlines organisation, after transfixing audiences at last summer’s WOMAD festival, they accompany their singing on plucked setar and frame drum.

Presented by Serious Kitchen, The Whispering Road will be a riotous rollercoaster of folk-tale storytelling by Nick Hennessey, accompanied by musicians Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer in a night of song, music and the spoken word. Jesse Bannister’s Play Out will be led by classical/Indian/Indo jazz saxophonist Jesse, performing tracks from his long-awaited new album in the company of pianist Zoe Rahman, drummer Eddie Hick and bass player Kenny Higgins.

The full programme, performance times and ticket details can be found at ncem.co.uk
Box office: 01904 658338.