Chiff and Fipple Forums

I second that, Paul. It's been wonderful!

K

OK then, I have digitised what I have of Tommy's lunchtime recital at the 1989 Willie Clancy summer School. I left my tape recorder beside him and listened in from the back while trying to get some snaps. The tape ran out before the recital did, I heard it go but I couldn't really run to the front to switch the tape without getting in the way of things. That's the way sometimes.

Anyhow, Tommy was nervous and uncomfortable with the set up of his pipes and probably a bit rusty as well, he warms up after a while though. Much to enjoy here, both stylistically and in the way he approached his melodies.

I just let the tape run in one go while doing something else rather than break it up in tracks. Low-ish quality MP3, just short of 29 MB, to keep things manageable on this end. A bit over twenty minutes of it. I'll leave it up for a few days.

The tunes are:

Higgins' [=the Cliff] / Derry Hornpipe
Cameronian / Rolling in the Ryegrass
Sonny's Mazurka
Miss McLeod's / Fermoy Lasses
Kitty's Rambles / Paddy Whack / The Irish Washerwoman
Sliabh na mBan
Spellane the Fiddler ( tape breaks off here)


While the file is uploading, I must add I believe Tommy played quite tight in some areas, perhaps areas where the pipers we are used to hearing would be more open. In other areas he is quite open and also uses runs of open triplets. It is usually explained he learned his tight approach from John Potts and added the open bits later when he learned from Leo Rowsome for a while. How much of that is correct I cannot say. It's a great mix, wherever it came from.

I would agree with PCL 's assessment he has shared elements with Ennis in places. That was something that struck me when we had him playing at Robert's and we coaxed him away from his usual repertoire. I reckoned it was the music of musicians playing in Dublin in a certain period and a common influence shared to an extend. But again, that's speculation on my part albeit (I hope) not completely uninformed. As a case in point, when Rob talked to him about Billy Andrews playing 'Billy the Barber shaved his Father' and Tommy immediately launched into that. Tommy did say he knew Ennis and that at some point in their lives they were quite close. He told us of a man going up to Ennis in later years to ask if he knew a Tommy Reck who played the pipes. 'I know a Tommy Reck who owns pipes' Ennis replied. Tommy could still get a chuckle out of that.


Tommy Reck Lunchtime WCSS 1989

Thank you so much for that, Mr. G.

Tommy Reck is still a huge source of inspiration to me.

Thanks Peter! Smashing.

I am enjoying the recording too , thanks Peter

Loads of listening... thank you.

Fantastic! Thanks for spending the time to digitize and share, Mr. Gumby. I've had it running all morning.

yes, many thanks and all credit to you for sharing. He's a great favourite from The Stone in the Field CD. Now all these new tunes to enjoy.



Pwrt

Yes, this thread keeps getting better and better. Lovely stuff... I love his Irish Washerwoman... but my heart dropped when the tape cut off!

Thank you so so much for all of these recordings.

K

Who made Tommy Reck's B set, is that the Kenna set being played, and where are they now. anyone? Are they still being played?

It's the Kenna on all recordings . It's where it should be and being well looked after.

glad to hear it is in safe hands

A million thanks. Glad I started this thread

That's a terrific recording. Never noticed he played DFAd DGBd in Higgin's.

The 1960 tape is almost all familiar material but Tommy did play one very curious hornpipe on it, which I transcribed as Tommy Reck’s Fancy. I've never quite been able to memorize this one, it's one of those tunes whose phrasing throws you off so it sounds like it has an odd number of bars.

I also transcribed his playing of the Harvest Home from the same set of tunes, so here's the recording itself: Unknown, Dunphy's, Harvest Home.

Didn't Tommy play a pretty strong reed, too? You don't hear his chanter play in the 2nd octave when he wants the 1st.

Didn't Tommy play a pretty strong reed, too?

I don't know. He wasn't coping very well with the set up in 1989. I played the set for a while but don't remember it as particularly hard. I do know that Robert told me he put one of Neillidh Mulligan's reeds in the chanter just before Tommy returned to Dublin. That reed was much easier to play apparently and Tommy was delighted with it and his playing took off immediately much more at ease than he had been in the days before. Typical situation where you get the chanter going well and have the rest just falling in place. And ofcourse he was was close to Tom Mulligan so he felt good about having a Mulligan reed. He didn't squeak on the Harrington either and that was a s light as ever.

That's a terrific recording.

I always assumed you would have that, I sent that to Mark two decades ago. Thought that would have made its way to you.

The 1960 tape is almost all familiar material but Tommy did play one very curious hornpipe on it, which I transcribed as Tommy Reck’s Fancy. I've never quite been able to memorize this one, it's one of those tunes whose phrasing throws you off so it sounds like it has an odd number of bars.

I had forgotten about that one. Anyhow, I think you may be wrong-footing yourself (or being wrong-footed by the tape starting in mid-tune) by having the parts reversed and starting the tune with the lead up, effectively shifting the whole thing out by a half bar. . To me it seems pretty straightforward if you look at it as a (nice, inventive) take on the Wexford hornpipe :

(3ABc|dBDB cAFA| G2 AD GABc|dgfg edge|(3ded BD ABce|d2 Bd c2 Ac| (3BAG AD G ---etc