Come West along the Road

tt327 · Post by **tt327** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 7:58 pm

Hi all:

For those of us in NYC, today was a great day. Niall Keegan, Joanie Madden, Mike Rafferty, Jack Coen, Dermot Grogan, Fintan Vallely, and Brian Holleran all appeared onstage together at this festival/conference (with the tune title above) at NYU. They all played a few tunes together, and each did a set separately. Fantastic to hear them all. Each also revealed the instruments they play, which was interesting. Only Mike plays an Olwell. Joanie plays a silver flute, as is well known; Jack a Grinter; Dermot a R&R; Fintan a Wilkes; Brian a Gallagher; and Niall a Williams. All sounded great, but mics can help a lot, of course.

Fabulous.

Tim

David Levine · Post by **David Levine** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 8:35 pm

The fact that all the great players play different flutes means that the flute itself is secondary to the music, of course, and secondary as well to the skill of the player.
The point being that we should all spend more time playing and less time worrying about having the perfect flute.
Too many of us are more about the equipment than about the activity for which the equipment is designed.

andrew · Post by **andrew** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 4:55 am

And I had you down as a keen Rudall & Rose man ,David ! .Of course you are right .I hope that agreeing with you doesn't discomfit a philosopher such as yourself .

tt327 · Post by **tt327** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 5:21 am

Yes, I agree that it's the player before the flute. That's why I listed them all.

Tim

lesl · Post by **lesl** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 9:23 am

This was such a phenomenal concert. Did I meet you there Tim? (I think
not, what a shame.)To me that concert was like a xmas present, all my
heroes on stage at the same time.

The amazing thing was seeing them all play together. It seemed that was
not originally part of the programme, since at least Niall Keegan, Fintan
Vallely and Dermot were not brought up in the East Galway tradition. But
Joanie corralled everyone, I guess, and what a brilliant sound. The
first "everyone set" was a great reel I didn't know, followed by the
Galway Rambler and the London Lassies, the sound echoing up past the
big church organ pipes to the ceiling of the church.

Eamon O'Leary was the main accompanist (on one of those rare small
mahogany Guild guitars). Jimmy Coen accompanied his father on Jack's
solo.

Can you imagine the one guitar and 7 brilliant fluters. It was magic. Then
the solo's were phenomenal.

Brian played the Old Sunny Banks (he had another name for it) and
another reel I forget the name of. Watch out for this guy, he was terrific
and is just getting better and better.

Then Mike played 2 great reels. Fintan Vallely went next with a beautiful
air and then a jig. Jack and Jimmy did a jig and then Niall Keegan went
wild on his Dave Williams flute. Joanie was making funny faces while he
triple flutter tongued and went into chromatics on a Paddy Carty tune and
then a Lucy Farr reel.

Dermot played 2 brilliant hornpipes after that, and Joanie finished up with
a set of reels. Then they played out with the Tarbolton set. What a show!

johnkerr · Post by **johnkerr** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 11:29 am

tt327 wrote: Each also revealed the instruments they play, which was interesting. <snip> Jack a Grinter.

Jack Coen's playing a Grinter now? That's nice to know. Last time I saw him, a couple of years ago now, he was still playing one or another of the old flutes he's been playing since I first met him about 15 years ago. Some of those flutes were real hose-clamp jobs, although Jack always got a great sound out of them. I'm glad he's now got a flute that's worthy of him, but I do hope he's taking care of it correctly. One of the first times I met him, back when I was a flute newbie myself, was when I took his class at the Augusta Irish Week in West Virginia. Our class met in one of the science classrooms at the college, and there was a sink in the room. The first morning, Jack walked into the room, took his flute out of the case, stuck it under the faucet and started running water through it. Then he gave us our first piece of advice, which was "Never, ever, do this to your flute!" I hope he's following his own advice now...

tt327 · Post by **tt327** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 7:04 pm

Lesl, please check your PMs.

Tim

Ronbo · Post by **Ronbo** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 9:24 pm

Is Niall's flute a keyed one?

lesl · Post by **lesl** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 9:48 pm

(Thanks Tim for forcing me to finally figure out how to use the pm's.)

Yes Niall Keegan's flute was keyed. In fact it was mentioned to me in the
car home that it is chromatic. So I'm wondering what it was based on -

It is a David Williams flute. If I have the name right, last I heard David
Williams was holding off on making any more flutes and now
concentrating on pipes. But, what kind of flutes did he make
besides 'regular' (whatever that means) keyed flutes? Could it be like the
Paddy Carty flute the Radcliffe? Or is this a wooden flute made by
the "other David Williams"??

Ronbo · Post by **Ronbo** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:06 pm

I expect that it is a chromatic flute. If you have or can get a copy of Wooden Flute Obsession 1, listen to his contribution. In that tune, he is either playing a chromatic flute of some sort, or is doing some strange and possibly illegal things to an ordinary wood flute. I would like to get my hands on some other recordings that he has made.

In the words of Loren, an oft and entertaining contributor to this list, the guy is a "total mutant freak", meant in a very positive and admiring manner.

fluter_d · Post by **fluter_d** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 11:52 pm

Far as I know, Niall Keegan plays an ordinary keyed flute. And yes, he does do strange, possibly dangerous, don't-try-this-at-home stuff on it. His solo cd, Don't Touch The Elk, is pretty incredible in terms of the notes he uses. There are no unused keys on that flute. Having said that, I don't personally love his style, but he is an incredible player.
Deirdre

kenr · Post by **kenr** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 2:10 am

Lesl asked........It is a David Williams flute. If I have the name right, last I heard David Williams was holding off on making any more flutes and now
concentrating on pipes. But, what kind of flutes did he make
besides 'regular' (whatever that means) keyed flutes? Could it be like the
Paddy Carty flute the Radcliffe? Or is this a wooden flute made by
the "other David Williams"??

Dave Williams (I think only his mum would call him David) still knocks out the occasional flute but is trying to clear some of his backlog on uilleann pipes orders. He used to make a Rudall and Rose copy but since about 1986 he has made a flute based on an 1860s Boosey (as played by Matt Molloy on the Stony steps LP). Comparing the original Boosey and Dave's own flute there have been some changes to the pattern over the years and the Williams pattern now has very big holes, so some seriously loud notes and some hard tones to be had. At the same time he has retained the easy blowing feel of the Boosey - so the best of both worlds.

Ken

Gordon · Post by **Gordon** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 7:11 am

johnkerr wrote:
tt327 wrote: Each also revealed the instruments they play, which was interesting. <snip> Jack a Grinter.
Jack Coen's playing a Grinter now? That's nice to know. Last time I saw him, a couple of years ago now, he was still playing one or another of the old flutes he's been playing since I first met him about 15 years ago. Some of those flutes were real hose-clamp jobs, although Jack always got a great sound out of them. I'm glad he's now got a flute that's worthy of him, but I do hope he's taking care of it correctly. One of the first times I met him, back when I was a flute newbie myself, was when I took his class at the Augusta Irish Week in West Virginia. Our class met in one of the science classrooms at the college, and there was a sink in the room. The first morning, Jack walked into the room, took his flute out of the case, stuck it under the faucet and started running water through it. Then he gave us our first piece of advice, which was "Never, ever, do this to your flute!" I hope he's following his own advice now...

This surprised me as well, that he now plays a Grinter (he tended to look for flutes in a less extravagant price range; perhaps this was a gift?) though I think a Grinter is a good fit for his style, and he certainly deserves a higher-end flute. He used to run water through his old flute in his kitchen as well, during my lessons. He gave me the same advice not to do this to mine, too, and he didn't do it to any of his other flutes; the particular old flute would leak badly on some days and even oiling didn't seem to help out, so in a quick-fix, water did the sealing-trick and he'd make it through a session or lesson. But he was well aware that it was slowly ruining the flute, I think more a matter of damage-already-done. So I doubt he'd do it to a Grinter, or that he'd ever need to.
Gordon

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