Info about Tom Morrison?

[LorenzoFlute]

Thanks Harry. Some time ago I was comparing your and Tom Morrison's version of the reel Ballinsloe Fair. Really cool technique on those C triplets and octave jumping, I'm still trying to get it right...:

http://www.archive.org/details/TomMorri ... commonReel

Do you have access to more of his music, or better quality recordings than the ones available on the website above? And are there recordings of his pipe playing?

[Harry]

Hi,

I don't really hear the hiss and crackle any more, just the music, so slightly better quality isn't something that I worry about much unless it's very very bad. That's GOOD quality compared to some of the wax cylinder piping stuff!

I have bits and pieces of old players on tapes lying about the place. I need to organise it, and digitise it. I don't have a very clear picture of what I've got and what I've not got... and I have a bad memory to boot.

I've never heard of a recording of his piping.

Regards,

Harry.

[BrendanB]

The Comhaltas archive has a fair number of recordings of Tom Morrison - around 50 or so. I haven't had a chance to look through all the links you posted, but if you are interested, you may want to check and see if there are recordings you haven't heard yet. http://comhaltasarchive.ie

Brendan

[dunnp]

Love this track of Mckenna and Morrison with flute and piccolo on the London Lasses.
http://comhaltasarchive.ie/search?tab=t ... racks/3481

[LorenzoFlute]

Thanks! There you go.
Why is there some ringing sometimes when I listen to the tracks?
EDIT: oh I see, "watermarked". Quite annoying...

[BrendanB]

Thanks! There you go.
Why is there some ringing sometimes when I listen to the tracks?
EDIT: oh I see, "watermarked". Quite annoying...

I agree that the watermark can be disruptive, but I think it's a fair protection for the artists who are in the archive. It's really a great online resource.

I think you can build playlists and ask Comhaltas to send you the tracks on a CD. You may need to pick it up in person, I can't remember. Worst case scenario, you have an excuse to go to Ireland.

Brendan

[dunnp]

It used to be more disruptive and louder like a whip/chuck noise. The new watermark is not bad just a blip. Where else can you hear Micho Russell play the Bucks? After a few hours on there you don't even notice it.

[kenny]

http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/544
Track 23 on the re-issued CD, with "bonus" tracks, previously unreleased.

[colomon]

The liner notes only say that "Tom Morrison was from Riverstown, Co. Sligo and was the brother of the famous fiddle player Jim Morrison. He made several records including The Rakes of Mallow in duet with his old neighbor, Michael Coleman. His playing has the aggressive, punchy style typical of the area."

I couldn't understand how I could possibly have not know that Tom Morrison was James Morrison's brother, so I double-checked in Grey Larsen. According to Grey, Harry Bradshaw says Tom Morrison is from Co. Galway, and is no relation to James Morrison.

Anyone know the real score?

[kkrell]

The liner notes only say that "Tom Morrison was from Riverstown, Co. Sligo and was the brother of the famous fiddle player Jim Morrison. He made several records including The Rakes of Mallow in duet with his old neighbor, Michael Coleman. His playing has the aggressive, punchy style typical of the area."

I couldn't understand how I could possibly have not know that Tom Morrison was James Morrison's brother, so I double-checked in Grey Larsen. According to Grey, Harry Bradshaw says Tom Morrison is from Co. Galway, and is no relation to James Morrison.

Anyone know the real score?

It does appear that the Tom Morrison we usually refer to is from Galway, and a different gentleman, than the one mentioned in the text taken from Harry Bradshaw's account, that I had linked to . http://www.morrison.ie/Story.htm

Harry Bradshaw discusses James Morrison's brother Tom Morrison, who played the flute, who also moved to America, had a band, etc.

I leaped to an incorrect conclusion (been doing that lately), based on Reg Hall's liner notes, which I had quoted directly from the LP earlier, and the additional coincidence of names, approx. birth-dates, and not realizing how common names repeating can be with all those large families.

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

I uploaded all the Morrison to archive.org. The dubs were given to me by Phillipe Varlet, who contributed the Irish section Dick Spottswood's discography, so I doubt we're missing any tracks, or better quality versions of them, as Phillipe's a very diligent record collector. In the Spottswood book a couple sides of Morrison/Coleman duets are listed, but these haven't turned up as of yet. They were on the O'Bierne De Witte label of Boston, recorded December 8, 1926:

Three Merry Sisters; The Star of Kilkenny - Reels
Clamping the Turf; The Hills of Connemara - Jigs

And then at the same session Morrison recorded these solos:

The Jolly Tinker; The Ballinrobe - Reels
The Piper's Back Stitch

This last title is intriguing; backstitching is a staccato piping ornament used by Patsy Touhey and other pipers resident in America who hailed from Connaught.

Morrison's actual name was Morris, there was another Tom Morris in the apartment building he was living in and their mail kept getting mixed up, so the flute player changed his name! Forget where I read that; wasn't there a webpage with an article about him?

Tom Busby learned tunes on the pipes from Morrison after Tom's first teacher, Mike Carney, passed away. Tom said he'd learn these on the tin whistle; Morrison would write everything out. Some of these were obscure tunes from Carney, who was renowned for his unusual repertoire.

I doubt the Comhaltas stuff is anything but more dubs of the same material I uploaded, of lower quality and with the watermarks; but keep checking. They do have a couple sides of solo flute attributed to John McKenna, which are a mystery. Are these really the Leitrim man who made the 78s, recorded at home? Another flute player with the same name? A misattribution?

[LorenzoFlute]

Thread resurrection, just to make people new to Irish flute aware of the existence of this guy.
I've uploaded a video on youtube of Tom Morrison playing his Dunmore Lasses set. I hope the background picture is of the man himself, it's the only one I could find.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-blZR7M ... re=mh_lolz

PS: maybe a mod can correct the thread title (info instead of infos...)

[MTGuru]

PS: maybe a mod can correct the thread title (info instead of infos...)

Sure. Native speakers of Romance languages always make that mistake.