The first thing that strikes me about Micho's playing is his use of space in the tunes. The way he phrases and pauses seems to be unique to no one else but him.
I remember when I first heard a recording of him I found his playing literally humourous to listen to. I just couldn't believe that he was just leaving space here and there. I wasn't used to it, yet it all made sense musically.
What I was wondering was, since Micho was such a celebrated and respected whistle player, why doesn't anyone take after him stylistically? I've never heard anyone so boldly leave spaces in the music as Micho has. (or is it that Micho ran out of air often and had no choice but to think of innovative ways to manipulate the tune so he could breath?)
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Eldarion on 2003-01-08 08:52 ]</font>
Micho Russell's Usage of Space
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Cayden
It is often said Micho was unique in the sense that man and music were a seamless extention of eachother. If you'd listen to Micho's speech patterns you'd find he had the same halting sort of way producing a sentence. Maybe it was just how his mind worked, that said Micho was as cute as the next man and he knew very well what he was doing so I suppose he used a thing that came natural to him to enhance his music.
As for influence, you can distinctly hear Micho in Mary Bergin's playing, Donncha O Briain was influenced by him too and there are elemnts of his playing in loads of people. I heard Michael Hynes play the whistle during a play written about Micho and while he wasn't imitating Micho he really had the essence of the style down. There are a few players in the area that share elements, fluteplayer Gerald O Loughlin from Liscannor has elements of that music and ofcourse Micho's contemporary whistle player John Killourhy [who was ninety last week] still has it too. But some traits were so personal to Micho that you just wouldn't go imitating them.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2003-01-08 10:00 ]</font>
As for influence, you can distinctly hear Micho in Mary Bergin's playing, Donncha O Briain was influenced by him too and there are elemnts of his playing in loads of people. I heard Michael Hynes play the whistle during a play written about Micho and while he wasn't imitating Micho he really had the essence of the style down. There are a few players in the area that share elements, fluteplayer Gerald O Loughlin from Liscannor has elements of that music and ofcourse Micho's contemporary whistle player John Killourhy [who was ninety last week] still has it too. But some traits were so personal to Micho that you just wouldn't go imitating them.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2003-01-08 10:00 ]</font>