so you can listen here to some of his old clips, an album he made roughly 30+ years ago. Very distinct style that you can pick up a few bits that are clearly Kevin Henry’s influence.
Can’t speak much for the two “newer” tracks. Not my thing.
But the others are pretty interesting listening.
I believe the origianl album cover (real album, not a CD or tape!) title was: And Then There Was Flatley
I do know the CD (issued in 1995) became simply “Michael Flatley”
There are 13 tracks on the original.
I love this from the liner notes that Flatley wrote (his emphasis):
“I recommend that this album be played LOUD for maximum effect and listening enjoyment!”
Gotta love it.
By the way, it’s his brother, Patrick, playing bodhran.
the CD is #BUACD 9501 from Claddagh. He’s widely credited with having won ‘numerous’ All-Ireland titles on flute although I haven’t seen his name in the (incomplete) published lists of winners. Impressive player anyhow.
At the age of 17, Michael became the first American in history to win the World Championships for Irish Dance, thus crowning a competitive Irish dancing career in which he won 168 consecutive first place dance championships in competitions worldwide.
He won the first of his All-Ireland Flute Championships. More would follow on the road to becoming a celebrated flautist.
Which seems carefully non-specific, given that this is supposed to be a list of awards and honours, things usually denominated in the particular.
This list of Fleadh champions records that Josie McDermott, Deirdre Collis, & Peig McGrath were the 1974 through 76 all-ireland champions on flute. '75 was the first year that fluted slow airs were recorded as a separate championship, and the winner was one J Lewis. The word ‘Flatley’ occurs nowhere on the page, in any category. I’m smelling a rat.
It’s difficult to work out how many ‘more’ junior titles one can win if the first was at 17, however. I suppose you can still compete as a junior once more at 18, but that’s when it stops. If “All-Ireland Flute Championships” means the junior title, and ‘more’ means ‘one more’, it might be technically correct, but it would also be carefully misleading.
yes, what exactly is the nexus between what you MIGHT like and the question of greatness of a particular musician?
Did you mean to imply a nexus between the two?
??? No. Virtually none - maybe a few strokes at the very beginning, and some glottals in places, but otherwise virtually none. He does use a lot of taps, though - is that what you’re hearing?
@ Ben - well, I’ve just listened to a few of the album tracks on the website and while I’m not keen on his (as you’d expect, OTT) interpretation of slow tunes, his technical abilities in the fast stuff are unquestionable - fine tone, good rhythm, all the technical tricks… can’t fault his playing other than maybe for showiness - but he’s no showier than, say MM in Moving Cloud etc. If one heard some of those tracks blind without knowing who the player was… like 'em or not, I don’t think one would (or sensibly could) say other than that they are the work of a very fine player. And I’d far rather listen to Flatley being pretty trad than to some other “big names” fudging around…
Ultimately, I suppose it’s like his dancing - one may not like his flashy style or his persona, but one can’t deny his underlying ability or the hard work he did to achieve those standards. Unlike some successfully flashy performers whose act is all gimmick with no grounding, Flatley really CAN do stuff - but in admitting that you don’t have to like it/respond like the fans who make him wealthy!
Yes thanks Jem, I have had a better listen to it now and got the flute out. Its those rolls (are they all rolls ?) on almost all the consecutive same-pitch notes that I don’t like and was thinking ‘bad’ of. I really don’t like that chopping every single note up into bits on a slow tune. Trouble is, there is something enticing about it and once I had tried it on some of them I started doing it -after a fashion .
It does. The pic taken on the right has the flute rotated more inwardly (a dynamic shot, the flute being raised and about to be played, and note BTW the knowingly piquant expression as if he’s on the Food Network and about to savor something delicious on our behalf while we can do no more than watch, salivating) than that taken on the left (which is held in a less dynamic, easygoing I-may-or-may-not-play-it-but-here-we-are repose, the expression matching the body language but also somehow more evocatively wistful than the other shot. The diptych is a tour de force of wooing the camera, if I may be so bold). If I squint really hard at the righthand pic I can just see the embouchure side of the lip plate peeking over, and it’s more shadowed, making it easy to miss. Looks the same, but on the same side of wondering if it’s the same flute, one still can’t tell: on the about-to-be-played shot the endcap’s hidden by the flute’s angle. Will the mystery ever be put to rest?
I couldn’t say, not being a Chicagoan; the source I found the pic on went no further than simply stating “Chicago skyline” or something to that effect, as I recall.
.