New Matt Molloy CD

The Chiff & Fipple Irish Flute on-line community. Sideblown for your protection.
User avatar
brotherwind
Posts: 356
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2005 7:51 am

Re: New Matt Molloy CD

Post by brotherwind »

Same man though. I simply like them, the man, the photos and the music!
User avatar
pancelticpiper
Posts: 5298
Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:25 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years.
These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format.
Location: WV to the OC

Re: New Matt Molloy CD

Post by pancelticpiper »

Isn't the one with the metal band around the embouchure his Eb flute? I don't remember now why I think that...maybe I saw him with an Eb flute sometime?

About the new album cover, that font is horrendous. The old cover is classier IMHO.

I've not heard the new album, but I will say that I was underwhelmed the first time I heard Stoney Steps… how silly I sound admitting it now... was I expecting the Eb pyrotechnics of the black album?

It took me a few listenings to appreciate its slightly more laid-back approach.
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
Fildafluter
Posts: 88
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2018 9:37 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Learning the Irish flute, asking questions about it, reading topics related to wind instruments. What is the best Tin Whistle, that sort of thing.
Location: Texas USA
Contact:

Re: New Matt Molloy CD

Post by Fildafluter »

pancelticpiper wrote: I've not heard the new album, but I will say that I was underwhelmed the first time I heard Stoney Steps… how silly I sound admitting it now... was I expecting the Eb pyrotechnics of the black album?

It took me a few listenings to appreciate its slightly more laid-back approach.
There, maybe, is a bit of history to that. Matt began in Ballahadereen Co Roscommon, and so sometimes he is bound to sound more like that flavor, others, to me anyway, he sounds really on top of the Sligo style.

Years ago whenever I heard him go at it, with what you call pyrotechnics, I would be thinking of Josie McDermott (RIP) who has strong Sligo style; like Josie did not wait for the bus but always jumped on the back of some passing lorry.

There's a whole generation of players now following that wild streak, I can't hardly pronounce, never mind remember their names. So showing my colors here, I go for the lovely laid back softer style I used hear in my misspent youth of strumming guitars, banjars, and the like, while ignoring my own roots music which, by today's popular taste, it turns out, is far better. Must add that back in the days of wild flute playing in Ireland the wise also played the saxaphone, just in case there was need for R&R, and sure enough Josie McDermott played that too.

I have heard on the FB IrishTinWhistle group a couple of the tracks off of the CD, played live by Matt at its launch. I am very impressed, not by the pyrotechnics, but Matt's massive performance of the old gem, 'Easter Snow'. I think this one track will be the version, the standard of excellence, Irish flute players will aspire to for generations to come; because it is so technically advanced.
Last edited by Fildafluter on Thu Nov 22, 2018 12:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"The more you weigh the harder you are to kidnap,
be safe, eat more ice-cream"

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1298297360297681/
User avatar
Nanohedron
Moderatorer
Posts: 38212
Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2002 6:00 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Been a fluter, citternist, and uilleann piper; committed now to the way of the harp.

Oh, yeah: also a mod here, not a spammer. A matter of opinion, perhaps.
Location: Lefse country

Re: New Matt Molloy CD

Post by Nanohedron »

rama wrote:Appears to be 2 different photos, and 2 different flutes
Entirely so. It just marks two different editions of the "Black Album", and the subtleties are there for those who are paying attention. If you compare the two heads closely it is clear that they are not the same shot. Compositionally identical, yes, but that's all. Just on that count alone, different flutes makes far more sense than going to the trouble of airbrushing, which is way too much added production cost for no good reason; last I checked, there's still no shame in being seen with a banded embouchure, that the photo should be doctored.
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Tribal musician
User avatar
bradhurley
Posts: 2330
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 6:00 pm
Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
Location: Montreal
Contact:

Re: New Matt Molloy CD

Post by bradhurley »

I tend to think of Matt Molloy's style not as "Sligo-Roscommon" but rather "Matt Molloy." There are recordings of him in his teens where he plays in a much more straightforward style that you might more easily class as Sligo-Roscommon, similar to how you can hear a more clear East Clare approach in recordings of Martin Hayes in his teens (strongly influenced by Martin Rochford as well as his father and Paddy Canny) compared with recordings of him in the 1990s through today where he developed and evolved his unique personal style. Molloy developed a personal style that's very different from those of, say Josie McDermott or Seamus Tansey or Patsy Hanley. It's said (and you can hear it) that his playing was influenced by pipers, especially the two he played with most, Paddy Keenan and Liam O'Flynn, but he also listened to a lot of whistle and fiddle players plus he brought his own musical tastes and creativity into the mix. He's one of a kind, really.
User avatar
pancelticpiper
Posts: 5298
Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:25 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years.
These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format.
Location: WV to the OC

Re: New Matt Molloy CD

Post by pancelticpiper »

Were they fluters doing the piping style, for example using the full piper's cran, and the piper's tight BCd triplet, and the pralltrillers on f#, and with a liquid flowing tone, before Molloy?

The fluters I was listening to before I first heard Molloy didn't sound like him at all. Their ornamentation was straightforward, rolls and the "fluteplayer's quasi cran" as I call it, and they used their breath to create a bouncy pulse. Then there was Paddy Carty who (to me) sounded unique.

The guys I was most attracted to were the fluters in the 1920s and thereabout.

Then I heard Molloy and that was that- he was simply the best fluteplayer I'd ever heard, by any measure one might make.
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
Fildafluter
Posts: 88
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2018 9:37 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Learning the Irish flute, asking questions about it, reading topics related to wind instruments. What is the best Tin Whistle, that sort of thing.
Location: Texas USA
Contact:

Re: New Matt Molloy CD

Post by Fildafluter »

bradhurley wrote:I tend to think of Matt Molloy's style not as "Sligo-Roscommon" but rather "Matt Molloy." There are recordings of him in his teens where he plays in a much more straightforward style that you might more easily class as Sligo-Roscommon,..... Molloy developed a personal style that's very different from those of, say Josie McDermott or Seamus Tansey or Patsy Hanley. It's said (and you can hear it) that his playing was influenced by pipers, .... Paddy Keenan and Liam O'Flynn, but he also listened to a lot of whistle and fiddle players plus he brought his own musical tastes and creativity into the mix. He's one of a kind, really.
To me he still sounds Sligo-Roscommon, as I share above, because that is my personal image of what I hear, not what everybody else hears. Anyway I am not that far into the forest to be looking at the grain of the wood, nor the bugs in the leaves; more of a forest viewer than a tree inspector, if you don't mind me using the analogy.

But then I am not that educated in playing embellished/variated irtrad to have such a deep understanding of Matt's playing, so I miss most of what you are talking about, embellishments, variations and the like. Yet the phrasing is very advanced and technically out there, because the player is so far advanced for this time.

Even so, I still hear Sligo-Roscommon!

But be aware, partly growing up smack in the heart of the Shannon region, I could not, even if i tried, not be influenced by what was the daily background sounds of my youth, Radio Eireann/Celidh House/The Job Of Journeywork, local Feis/family events/ Sunday morning kitchen musical concerts and the like. IOW the aural canvas - if you like - of Irish culture during that very 'pre' Chieftain/Bothy-Band etc., 1950s Joe Cooley, C&W, Irtrad on accordion/flute etc., era. Matt grew up in it too! How well into that am i ? The story of the blue mohair suit and winkle-picker shoes is saved away for a good laugh later on. Ahem...

Then again, I would never get to thinking that Michael Coleman is so far out there that he is not a Sligo style Fiddler because of his then totally unorthodox interpretation of the tradition. In fact, as history proves, 'the' Sligo tradition became what Michael and his peers presented.

Perhaps Matt is doing the same thing to the Sligo-Roscommon tradition in his generation?

So on balance, I am firmly rooted to the old wisdom, that even if it is highly elaborated one's accent is a lifelong affliction. IOW you can take Matt out of Ballahadereen but you cannot take Ballahadereen out of Matt.

I'l get me hat. PS up Roscommon :D
Last edited by Fildafluter on Fri Nov 23, 2018 9:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
"The more you weigh the harder you are to kidnap,
be safe, eat more ice-cream"

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1298297360297681/
User avatar
bradhurley
Posts: 2330
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 6:00 pm
Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
Location: Montreal
Contact:

Re: New Matt Molloy CD

Post by bradhurley »

Fildafluter wrote:IOW you can take Matt out of Ballahadereen but you cannot take Ballahadereen out of Matt.
No argument there!
User avatar
rama
Posts: 1411
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2003 6:00 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: flute itm flute, interested in the flute forum for discussions and the instrument exchange forum to buy and sell flutes
Location: salem, ma.

Re: New Matt Molloy CD

Post by rama »

pancelticpiper wrote:

Then I heard Molloy and that was that- he was simply the best fluteplayer I'd ever heard, by any measure one might make.
:thumbsup:
Post Reply