CD-Review "Celtic Jazz Collective" David O'Rouke & Lewis Nas

Whistle
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I was at Borders yesterday looking for this mysterious CD I heard about in one of thesession.org discussions called “Na Connerys” when I bumped into this “Celtic Jazz Collective”. It had a lineup of Paddy Keenan on pipes, Niall Vallely on concertina, Martin Reilly on accordion and Fiona Doherty on fiddle, and a few Jazzmen. With those guys I thought I couldn’t go wrong, and since I’m both a jazz and Irish trad listener, I decided to pick it up (despite not having the chance to try it out in the store).

Maybe I should have heeded the words of warning at the back of the CD - “You’ll fall in love with their infectious Afro-Caribbean-Celtic grooves”

Despite the probably well-intentioned collaboration, the CD just sounds like Paddy Keenan and Niall Vallely trying to have a session in a corner or a jazz bar while a jazz quartet is playing. Its mostly trad tunes with a jazz band attempting to provide accompaniment. Its bad enough to make me cringe (and cringe and cringe). It seems neither of the players know enough of the the other musical idom to provide a good fusion. (for a really good IR-contempo-trad and acid-jazz/funk fusion, check out Michael McGoldrick’s “Fused”)

Often, the Jazz people accompany the trad tunes in a way that is almost never complimentary. It sounds like the jazz people are just doing their own thing sometimes, without really listening to the tune and spoiling the whole listening experience. Just imagine a Paddy Keenan playing Maid behind the Bar and Woman of the House with a drumkit solo attempted accompaniment. Eek. The piano occassionally provides some interesting chords but (like the drums) always at the wrong timing. And sometimes so overpowering that you can hardly hear the melody anymore.

On the whole while I think it might have been an interesting experience for the musicians, (I don’t know how Paddy and co. felt about being accompanied like that though) don’t waste your money on this one! There are better CDs to buy out there.

On the other hand the CD I was originally looking for, “Na Connerys”, was much more listenable. It had a lineup of:

Paddy and Kevin Glackin: fiddles
Sean Og Potts: uilleann pipes, tinwhistle
John Regan: accordion
John Wynne: flute
Tom McDonagh: bouzouki
Mark Kelly: guitar

But it was rumoured the CD did not list its musicians because of the recording contracts of the different artistes on this CD.

[ This Message was edited by: Eldarion on 2002-11-08 22:04 ]

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Good fusions of style are really hard to achieve. They rarely happen in the way record company executives seem to imagine. Take two stars from different fields. Throw ingredients together in a studio. Shake well. Turn on tape recorder. It is possible to do good fusion this way and the label ‘Water Lily Accoustics’ has made it their business to do exactly this. But they pick their stars carefully and everybody knows what is going on.

Actually each has to work hard to understand what the others are doing, to find common ground and to know when to emphasise one style rather than the other. It takes wholehearted enthusiasm all round and maybe months of rehearsal. Off hand, I can only think of one unqualified success involving Irish music and that’s Moving Hearts—an awesome band who still aren’t getting the credit they deserve. IMO, Kila are very good, but their style is just Moving Hearts warmed over. I wonder if anyone can think of others—I haven’t been trying hard. Oops, sorry. I can think of another. Five Hand Reel were also awesome and, being Scottish (mostly, I think), they fall under the generous C&F definition of Irishness. Well, Dick Gaughan even had an Irish father. Aaghhhh, Dick Gaughan the sound of the finest single malt whisky.

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And then there’s Baal Tinne of Chicago! You can even dance to Toss the Feathers! They are fantastic jazz-Celtic fusion!