Adrian W. wrote:As far as Cape Breton goes, there don't seem to be many flute players around here on the island, and I've been asking around.
Johnny Wilmot's
Another Side of Cape Breton compiles several 78s and an LP made in the 50s and 60s for a tiny Cape Breton Label. As the blurb below says, several tracks featured whistle. These are the only Cape Breton 'wind' recordings I know of from the pre-revival era.
Another great compilation from Breton Books and music, Another Side of Cape Breton presesents Johnny's early recordings (1951-64). In addition to fiddle and piano selections (with Margaret MacPhee or Mildred Leadbeater) there are tracks with tin whistle (Chris Langan on a C Clarke whistle) and others with harmonica (Tommy Basker).
Click the pic for MP3s of all tracks; they could be exerpts, but I think the publisher has posted the whole thing on their website because it's O/P.
The second and third tracks below include whitle. The harmonica track is just really good, so I couldn't resist posting, it, too.
Am I bad because "Hand Organ" is making me giggle?
...During this period he made three trips to Boston where he played with, and for, some of the legendary figures of Irish music, including Paddy Cronin and Joe Derrane. Paddy was heard to say that Johnny was the liveliest Irish jig player he had ever encountered.
Musically, Johnny was fluently bilingual. He was one of the few musicians I ever met who had thoroughly digested both Cape Breton Irish and Cape Breton Scottish styles. While his own compositions often straddled this Irish-Scottish fence, his settings of traditional tunes kept the two separate, always displaying personal style without sacrificing the beauty and integrity of the 'original' melodies.
Johnny was exposed to live Irish and Scottish styles of music from the time he was an infant. Starting in the late 'twenties he began listening to the Irish 78s of Coleman, Morrison etc. and and later to the Cape Breton 78s of the Inverness Serenaders. He played most of the 'mainstream repertoire' including the majority of tunes recorded and played by other Cape Breton fiddlers between 1930-65. Many of these tunes were found in easily available books such as Cole's One Thousand Fiddle Tunes, J. Scott Skinner's, The Scottish Violinist, The Scotch Guard and The Skye, O'Neill's and Kerr's Collections.
