I was just listening through Eliot Grasso’s “Standing Room Only”. And two things hit me. First he is one of the fastest players I have heard with lots of ornamentation. Second… It was almost too fast a tempo for me. One track has “hag at the churn” as the second tune in a 3 tune medley that just seemed to fast. I was more familiar with the Paddy Keenan’s Bothy Band version. I compared the two… same tempo?? So I went back to listen to all the Grasso tunes that I thought were too fast and now they sounded great… And I think one of the differences is Grasso’s inclusion of more or different ornamentations, that at first made the song sound like it was a faster tempo and upon second listening just sounded great.
I guess I should keep listening to see what else I discover… maybe get his other CD’s
You know Elliot lives down in Corvallis, right? Not that he seems to make the rounds exactly. Funny thing, the other day I met some mandolin player from down there, plays at a weekly session they have in a coffee shop. I asked him if Eliot ever dropped by. “Who?” I can relate to that.
Anyways I know some of the pipers down that a way have taken lessons from him and maybe you could as well if so inclined, although Eliot’s a father now and might be too busy. I’m assuming he’s still living in Oregon in the first place, too.
Eliot Grasso had a day job at the University of Oregon up until 2011. Dunno about today. His advanced degree is in Ethno-Musicology, both a U of O and Limerick. He presents papers all over. If anyone was at Fort Worden they might have more recent info.
I can confirm that Eliot still works at UO… I’m a freshman there, studying with him. He doesn’t session though - too busy working at three different colleges, teaching/performing, and presenting papers though. He’s a really fantastic piper, I’m excited to be taking lessons from him!
Its great that pipers can all sound different. That’s one of the best things about irish trad music.
The Hag at the Churn version Eliot plays is from Seamus Ennis I think. I like how it is different to the more conventional “session” version we hear and play.
Eliot was heavily influenced by Robbie Hannan as you say, but also by others on both sides of the pond. He has great technique and knows how to use it.
Very interestingly, you can hear him as a youngster when still developing his sound on a CD of new young uilleann pipers “A New Dawn” released by NPU circa the start of the new Millennium. Steady and deliberate pace then, and apparently slower too. He grew in a particular direction (as we all do) and arrived at an interesting place.
I can confirm that Eliot still works at UO… I’m a freshman there, studying with him. He doesn’t session though - too busy working at three different colleges, teaching/performing, and presenting papers though. He’s a really fantastic piper, I’m excited to be taking lessons from him!
Hi all there’s an album by Eliot Grasso & Dave Cory called ‘North by North West’ I think it shows Eliots diffrent style compared to ‘Up Against The Flatirons’ & its nice to hear a more tempoed style it just takes piping away from the norm ( but that’s an opinion of mine! ).
To paraphrase the old Finbar Furey chestnut, Eliot may sometimes play so fast because he can. I haven’t listened to his albums lately, but I do recall that he took some tunes at an exceedingly rapid clip.
A few have mentioned the Robbie Hannan influence. The last time I heard him play, I was struck that he sounded less like Hannan than I expected or previously remembered. I think probably some of the fastest piping I’ve ever heard was Robbie Hannan & Paddy Glackin’s album Séideán Sí (aka “The Whirlwind”). It’s deceptive because Hannan’s B-ish pipes have a particularly soft-edged, mellow sound, but an excellent fiddler I know once told me that he tuned his fiddle down and tried to play along but found it impossible to keep up. It’s a fantastic album though, even if you don’t normally like your tunes on the frenetic side. (These days, I usually don’t.)
How fast you’re playing tends to have a lot to do with who you play with (if you’re not playing alone). I recently started playing regularly with a fiddle player who’s new in town and tends to take double jigs at a faster clip than I normally would. Doesn’t seem like it would be that big of a deal, but it took me a while to re-orient and find the groove, so to speak. (His tempo for slides, though, is absolutely perfect, which has been a lot of fun.) Anyway, we were also playing with a great piano player a few days back and got to talking about céilí band playing versus session playing. It seems to me that there are more than a few people who can be very show-offy and ludicrously fast and flashy in a session environment, but they fall apart when they’re playing for a céilí. For me, playing for a céilí for four hours and keeping the dancers’ feet unstuck to the floor may still be one of the biggest tests there is as a musician.
I found Séideán Sí unlistenable. LOVE each of these guys on their own, and in other contexts. But together? Did not work for me. Felt they were racing each other to the finish.
The speedy playing on Seidean Si is typical of the Donegal fiddle style, which is an apparent influence on both players. I’ve always considered speed key to regional dialects. I’m from Tyrone myself, on the Tyrone/Donegal border, and we tend to pipe with considerable lash up here.
My brother is a great fiddle player with the Donegal style and I do notice my piping picks up pace when duetting. When playing solo i consider myself a moderately paced player.
Robbie’s particular playing style does tend to have more notes & staccato triplets can make it sound faster than it actually is.
Seidean Si is a frantic foot tapper of an album in any case. If its too fast to listen to I can recommend Paddy Glackin’s solo affair, Rabharta Cheoil, which has two Robbie/Paddy duets at a slower pace than Seidean Si.
To me Eliot plays fast but doesn’t sound rushed and that is the key. I agree that it has to sound musical and the secret to that is to not exceed your personal comfort level, which Eliot doesn’t. It is fine to play slow but that doesn’t rule out playing at a clip that many people would not be able to maintain. It is interesting to me when listening to archived 78’s of the older masters we site as examples of “the old way” they quite often play at a faster clip than Eliot. Such people as: Coleman, Sweeney, McKenna etc. There is a difference to me between too fast and too fast for me. I personally can’t play at that speed without feeling that I am on a runaway train, I can reach that fast speed but I can’t slow it down during play which is the runaway train aspect. Fast is not my natural speed which is more of a dancing speed. That doesn’t mean if someone plays faster it is too fast or not musical, it is just that they can easily pull it off.
I can relate to that.