The Commodore was actually co-written by Billy McComiskey and Brendan Mulvihill, back in the day when they played together with Andy O’Brien in The Irish Tradition. I’ve often heard that the F natural in the second part was Brendan’s idea; in my opinion that note pretty much makes the tune. The Commodore in the title was a hotel in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington DC, in the bottom of which sat a pub called The Dubliner in which The Irish Tradition was the house band for many years back in the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s. The Dubliner pub is still there today, and the hotel is too, but it’s now called the Phoenix Park and from what I hear is considerably more upscale than it was when it was The Commodore.
Being that I play Irish music in DC, I pretty much had to learn this tune, even though it’s not at all flute-friendly. I remember trying to figure it out from an Augusta concert tape on an old half-speed cassette recorder over 10 years ago. The Tradition had recorded it on their very first LP (not one of the two that later came out on Green Linnet), but that one was a very limited edition of only a few hundred copies. I didn’t have it then, although I do have a bootleg of it now. AFAIK there were no other recordings of the tune then, and naturally ABCs on the 'net were non-existent. Someone did put an ABC of it up on thesession.org a few years ago that is close to the way I have it but not exactly.
From Brad’s recording, it seems like Claire Mann arpeggiates her way around the long C naturals in the second part. That’s one way around it, although I’m with Brad in thinking that her setting of the tune is not all that great. What I do on that bit is a quick Cnat-D-Cnat triplet. Rhythmically it’s like this in ABC (using that transcription from thesession.org as a starting point):
FAde =f2d=f | e=c(3=cd=c DEG=c |
The triplet needs to be very crisply executed. Some may find that hard to do, but I don’t. Using the oxx ooo fingering for C natural, all you need to do is tap the three fingers of the right hand over the bottom holes simultaneously. Moving those three fingers in lockstep is a good thing to be able to pull off (IIRC that’s how Brad taps his rolls), and with a bit of practice it shouldn’t be all that hard to perfect.
Alternatively, you could shorten up your phrasing there and put in a breath, like this: FAde =f2d=f | ezz=c DEG=c, maybe sliding into the C natural right after the breath by pulling off a B into the half-hole C natural fingering. I guess this would be the Micho Russell minimalist approach to the tune, but one of the things I’m learning lately is that oftentimes shorter phrases are better than long ones anyway.
If I can find some time in the next day or so, I’ll try to record this the way I play it and put it up for folks to listen to. (Although with my luck it will end up sounding like bluegrass, in payback for all my ranting of late…)
Still haven’t got a sufficient workaround for those; the C-tap thing ain’t cutting it against the accordion’s triplet.
), but it’s really neat to hear another perspective – exactly what I was hoping for.
)). It’s scary since it’s the first year and all, but hopefully the weather will be good, it will be a success, and Frank and Philippe will be able to come next year! They’re lovely to listen to.
No, to be truthful, playing with Beverly & Dan is like my favorite thing I EVER get to do, so that’s really what comes first. I just wish I was better at it and got to do it more often!