Recommend concertina CD as gift

[Wombat]

On 2002-11-21 05:51, Peter Laban wrote:
I know Wombat, I was a bit cranky last night and there is a mechanism on the Chiffboard that works like ‘if you don’t like this or if you say that you’re trad head and we don’t have to take you serious at all because we know better’ that crops up sometimes and I was more responding to that than to what you were actually saying. His music doesn’t speak to all musicians though and that doesn’t make us mouldy..


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-11-21 06:37 ]</font>

Thanks Peter. If you remember my comments on speed, you'd know that I'm not a latest-is-best fiend. I didn't want to hit raw nerves there but I do like to defend new developments that strike me as positive, without pretending that they detract from or make dated the old.

Actually I was trying to add a footnote to my earlier remarks last night when my connection dropped out. (Maybe some internet elf didn't like what I was saying.) What I was saying was that I have the greatest respect for Tony and rate his first self-titled album amongst my absolute favourite box records.

Now, when I reflect on what I like about his playing, I think I can see the source of the difference of opinion here. He plays with a great deal of overt, sometimes searing passion. His playing of slow airs is, IMO, absolutely spellbinding. Now, Niall doesn't play like that and, if that is what Tony wants, he's not going to find it in Niall's music. To me, and to others who admire him, Niall plays with a subtle, light, fleet-fingured expressiveness. I venture to say that Tony, in not finding what he values most, is perhaps missing this.

There is surely room in traditional music for both styles and the musical virtues they display. To say that Niall's playing is expressively empty, if that is indeed Tony's view, seems to me to be a bit like saying that Tony's playing is overblown and melodramatic. I'd just about want to fight someone who said that, and I'm no pub fighter.

I think we can respect a musician without agreeing with the implications of everything they say. We'd better be able to. I actually think we can respect someone whilst having contempt for some of the things they say. I wonder what Tony would have made of Sean O Riada's infamous remark about the accordeon. I have contempt for the remark but not for the man who made it—far from it.

[Cayden]

I would think of Sean O Riada and his opinion on the accordeon in the context of time and place,ask yourself who his big contemporary accordeon players were or indeed the prevalent style.
I doubt is he expressed negative opinions about Joe Cooley’s music and there was an accordeon among the ranks of Ceoltoiri Chualainn. You could look similarly on his remarks about accompaniment and traditional music, having Patrick Kelly play Banish Misfortune solo and then stick a piano under it to illustrate the point. The way he stated it was definitely over the top, but wasn’t he right in many ways?
If you look at the recommended recordings here [and even in the thread asking for unaccompanied music], how many are really just concertina recordings, nearly all are packaged, even solo and duet players get their music tarted up with bouzoukis and the like, most recordings available are more group recordings than anything else.
There are such wonderful old [private] concertina recordings around, at the moment I listen a lot to the recordings of Mary Haren, Micho Doyle, Packie Russell, Solus Lillis, Paddy Murphy even Mary Ann Carolan and wonderful duets like Mrs Crotty and Patrick Kelly, Tommy McCarthy and Bobby Casey, Jacqueline and Tommy together, all of those and more and listening to them I hear powerful music, music that speaks right from the heart. I for one would like to see more of that type of material available. Players confident enough to sit down and do their stuff without backing.

[Jo C]

Mary Macnamara's first cd, definitely. Also Cathy Custy is good IMO. Noel Hill is very accomplished.
Jo.

[Wombat]

On 2002-11-22 07:42, Peter Laban wrote:

There are such wonderful old [private] concertina recordings around, at the moment I listen a lot to the recordings of Mary Haren, Micho Doyle, Packie Russell, Solus Lillis, Paddy Murphy even Mary Ann Carolan and wonderful duets like Mrs Crotty and Patrick Kelly, Tommy McCarthy and Bobby Casey, Jacqueline and Tommy together, all of those and more and listening to them I hear powerful music, music that speaks right from the heart. I for one would like to see more of that type of material available. Players confident enough to sit down and do their stuff without backing.

Peter, how does one get hold of this stuff, living, as I do, on the other side of the world? I've had some success in getting old recordings but quite a few failures as well. For example, I've had no luck so far getting hold of CDs of the Doran brothers.

By the way, good point about taking Sean O Riada in context. The trouble with over the top remarks of course is that, sooner or later, they do loose their context. I wonder if he'd have been exposed to great accordeon playing in other styles—tango, cajun for example. Back then, probably not.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Wombat on 2002-11-24 21:43 ]</font>

[Cayden]

Well, at some point you will have to tap into the ‘samizdat’ of Irish music and get hold of some of the tapes that go around among the musicianers. I am sure there are people in Oz who have that sort of stuff.

The Dorans have no CDs, I don’t think ‘Last of the travelling pipers’ was re-issued by Topic but there is some material of Felix on ‘The Gentleman pipers’. The re-mastered Johnny Doran recordings will be available by the end of the year.

Sean O Riada was a well educated man with broad horizons, who knows what he heard during his lifetime, tango was certainly popular enough during his days but maybe the Astor Piazzollas and the like hadn’t come forward yet then. A quick listen to the Irish accordeon players available then, notably those on the Gael Linn 78 rpms will be enough to make anybody curse the instrument.

Not mentioned here was Michael O Raghallaigh’s The Nervous Man, which is very well done although maybe to my taste a bit OTT. It will work for a lot of people and there are very nice tunes on it.

Was playing last Saturdaynight with concertinaplayer Claire Keville, she’s nice too, she brought out the Bflat/F, myself and Mick O Brien playing the C pipes, Caiominh O Raghallaigh, Henry Benagh and Claire’s sister Breda playing fiddles. Sitting round a scorching fire only maybe a handful of people listening. Hmmm, nice.