Frankie Kennedy and Matt Molloy playing styles.

Irish Flute
1

I’m interested in a discussion about the playing styles of Frankie Kennedy and Matt Molloy, differences and similarities. I have listened to but not studied their musics enough, and seeing as I am fairly rooted in the East Galway sound, I would like to hear what people have to say about this area of which I know very little. Feel free to be nice and specific - then going to listen to certain tracks and looking for particular things would be tres cool.

Frankie Kennedy was before my time and though I have heard his music before, all of a sudden it became real to me this weekend with An Feochan.

Also, is it the case that Frankie Kennedy’s flute was a Chris Wilkes?

Heres’ hoping for a bit of technical :slight_smile:

2

Frankie’s last flute was an Olwell, it was passed on to another great flute player (name withheld to prevent further embarrassment) who unfortunately lost it, I don’t know if it was ever recovered. I believe his Bb flute was a Wilkes.

Frankie’s playing was understated compared with Molloy; a lot of people overlook him as a flute player, but in fact he was brilliant. One big difference between the two of course is their repertoire, with Frankie concentrating mainly on Donegal tunes, and his playing had a little more of the Donegal-style articulation to match the fiddle – if you watch a typical Donegal fiddler versus a typical Clare fiddler playing the same tune, you’ll most likely see about twice as many bow strokes from the Donegal fiddler! But his playing was smoother than that of, say, most Leitrim or Sligo flute players and in that respect similar in some ways to Molloy, who is from Roscommon originally but has very much his own style. But Frankie’s playing was simpler overall than Molloy’s.

3

There’s an interesting scene in the Chieftains’ DVD Water from the Well where Altan and the Chieftains are playing together, and yes, the difference in bowing is striking.

4

I use the crude metaphor of a woman dressing up to attend a gala event. Matt Malloy dresses his music in elaborate, flowing gowns, with sparkling jewels everywhere. There’s a lot going on in the tune. To my horror and amazement, when I’ve used my tune-slower-downer-thingamabob, and slowed down his playing, I notice that almost every single note has some sort of dressing. A cut, tap, roll etc.


Frankie Kennedy’s tunes are simpler, yet not lacking in presence. I think it just comes down to: what sorts of dresses do you like to wear (or metaphorically wear). Some prefer the busy dresses, some prefer the simple and elegant. Personally, I’ll take Frankie Kennedy and Jack Coen over Matt Malloy and Seamus Egan in a heartbeat.

ps. regarding the subtheme here about regional styles. I wonder if the tunes associated with Galway are written in such a way as to be different than Donegal tunes (or tunes from any other region for that matter), or is it simply that they are Irish tunes that just got picked up in Galway. In other words, is there something fundamentally or structurally different in tunes associated with different regions? If so, what? Since I’m a huge fan of that mellow East Galway, Rafferty style, what specific tunes are associated with E. Galway?

5

I absolutely love Frankie Kennedy’s playing. There are a couple of ways in which his playing stands out for me, both of which are very hard to describe. His playing was extremely precise – ornaments were crisp, everything he did seemed to have a purpose. The other is even harder to describe. He had a kind of directness, a way that he could begin a tune playing as though it was the middle. Or, to put it another way, even right after a breath, he played as though he was smack dab in the middle of a phrase. This is, I think, one of the aspects of the smoothness that Brad alludes to above. He’s not unique in that, but the degree to which his playing had direction independent of human failing is something I just find mind-boggling.

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There was a power in Frankie Kennedy’s flute playing that was often overlooked or unnoticed, given that he played on stage with two (sometimes three) fiddlers, playing the distinctly non-flute-friendly Donegal tune repertoire, and more than held his own. A lesser flute player would have been lost in the noise in that band, but Frankie was its leader both in his witty stage banter as well as in many ways musically. As good as Altan has remained in every possible way since Frankie’s untimely death almost a dozen years ago, every time I hear them on recording or see them live I invariably think of how much better they were with Frankie. And I’m not just saying that 'cause I’m a flute player, either. It’s a shame that there are no recordings available of him outside of the band (that I know of, anyway). His few solo bits on the Altan recordings are real treasures of flute playing.

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This is great so far. If anyone can think of specific examples of things to listen for I’d love that.

My husband has I think all the Altan albums. I hear them in the car a lot, and interestingly enough, to respond to Jeff’s sub theme, there always seem to be a handful of tunes on each that I recognise after awhile. I mean, tunes that I dont’ recognise when they start but suddenly I go, hey I have that tune. Its just they sound “different”.. and faster..

Chas said:

He had a kind of directness, a way that he could begin a tune playing as though it was the middle. Or, to put it another way, even right after a breath, he played as though he was smack dab in the middle of a phrase.

Can you think of any particular cut to listen for this?

I have started to notice that Frankie Kennedy’s playing was simpler than MM, but not actually simple at all. I wonder if they have each recorded the same tunes somewhere to listen for the differences?

Come to think of it, isn’t there some later Altan album with Matt Molloy, or did I imagine that?

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Yes, I do remember him playing on a track or two of one of their more recent albums.

I have some session and concert tapes that feature Frankie’s playing a bit more; I’ll see if I can digitize a few bits and post some clips here later this week.

Edited to add a link to this (2.6 megabyte, sorry) MP3 file of Frankie and Mairead, accompanied by Daithi Sproule, recorded in Minneapolis some years ago (pre Altan).

http://www.firescribble.net/FrankieMaireadDaithi.mp3

The intro gives you a sense of Frankie’s dry wit, and he takes a flute solo for the reel in the middle of the set (which incidentally sounds quite Molloy-influenced to me; I think Frankie’s style became more distinctive in later years), then Mairead joins in again for a reel composed by Tommy Peoples. It’s funny, I play the reel in the middle (the one that Frankie takes solo) but can’t remember it’s name…it’s a very well known tune but I’m blanking on it so maybe someone can post the name here.

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This is great Brad! More please when you have the inclination!

It’s funny, I play the reel in the middle (the one that Frankie takes solo) but can’t remember it’s name…it’s a very well known tune but I’m blanking on it so maybe someone can post the name here.

hmm, ditto… ! uh.. oddly enough the same setting, too. ?

I did just locate the album with MM but not as I had thought, MM’s just a guest and played along with a couple tunes on it. So on all the rest of the Altan recordings the flute was Frankie K. I think this was my confusion, I thought some of them were MM and couldn’t tell them apart. .. Esp. on that reel I can hear how remarkably different he sounded.

Please chaps more stories about Frankie Kennedy. :slight_smile:

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Frankie’s playing doesn’t sound ornamented but it is. They are more articulations than ornamentations.

Just about all of the Altan albums with Frankie (I think Island Angel was the last) have a few bits where the fiddles let Frankie take the wheel. “Ceol Aduaidh” is a great CD for listening to just Frankie and Mairead.

Cheers,
Aaron

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Isn’t that Ambrose Moloney’s? Never too sure myself.

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Bingo! And I knew Lesl would know that tune because (apart from the fact that it’s an E. Galway tune anyway), in my mind’s ear I had Mike Rafferty playing it. In fact it’s on the Road from Ballinakill album.

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I too hadn’t truly appreciated Frankie Kennedy – ditto on the not really hearing him under the fiddles, although I didn’t listen to Altan much in the first place – that is, until I heard him burst through like a veritable flute tsunami on ‘New Ships A Sailing’ (2nd tune in the first set) on their ‘Harvest Storm’ CD. That was a revelation for me. And oddly, though the tune didn’t sound that complicated – it’s his straight-ahead, b***s-to-the-wall style that makes me love it so – I’ve tried and tried to play it like he does and inevitably wipe out the 2nd time round the B part – the spot where he tosses off a very simple variation, but with such ease and elan it’s just brilliant.

:swear: It makes me feel like such a girl. :frowning:

Since then I’ve started listening a lot harder to the few Altan things I have (all early), and I really do love his playing; it’s right up my preferential alley. He’s got the lift, he’s got the drive, he’s got the sheer foot-stompingness that I just love. And you’re right; that Donegal stuff is tough. It’s fiddly, it’s rhythmically a bit funky, and sometimes it’s even tuned up a bit, isn’t it?

Once again, all my criteria for great dance music. Thanks for posting the mp3, Brad, and thanks for starting this thread, Lesl!

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The first tune on the first Frankie and Mairead album (Ceol Aodh or some approximation) is one that I think typifies this. It sounds to me as though it could be the second tune of a set or the second or third time through when they start. Nothing, then BOOM. Of course, Mairead’s fiddling is just the same.

Brad, thanks so much for posting that clip! I’ve heard a lot about Frankie’s humour, but had never even heard him talk. It’s times like this that I get depressed that such a talent and overall wonderful person died so young. It’s people like him that should live into their 90’s and die suddenly in their sleep.

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Hello

First of all it should be said that Frankie was a perfectionist; he wouldn’t play out until it was spot on.

His introduction to music was a lot different that MM’s though. whereas Matt grew up steeped in the tradition and surrounded by music Frankie had absolutely no interest in music until he met Mairéad. He was visiting Donegal for the first time where he met Mairéad for the first time. He was older than her so they carried on their friendship (by writing to each other) until Mairéad had left school. He took up the whistle to surprise her and to play with her in sessions. He couldn’t hear himself above the fiddles so then took up the flute. He hadn’t been attracted by the sound of the flute or by the emotional experience of the music. He was in love with Mairéad and wanted to be with her and play music with her.

His motivation so, coupled with his perfectionist tendencies ( plus talent and a natural aptitude for the music) and his access to Donegal music is what made him the player that he was.

Regards

John Moran

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Nice story! :slight_smile:

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that is a nice and easy tune, the first one that they play. I downloaded it to my PC here at work and played along to it very quietly on my flute that I keep concealed in a drawer of my desk. :slight_smile:

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From Blooming Meadows by Fintan Vallely and Charlie Piggott:

Mairéad and Frankie met when she was fifteen. ‘He was about eighteen and didn’t play a note.’ He was spending the summer in Donegal before he went to Queen’s and just came into the session. Mutual attraction blossomed. Frankie wrote to her ‘and between the summer and Hallowe’en at Andersonstown sessions he had met friends who told him, “If you’re going to be going out with Mairéad Mooney, you’d better start playing whistle or something!” So he got a whistle and taught himself.’

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I listened to those first Tommy Peoples’ reels Chas referred to as example from Ceol Aduaidh (and was surprised to find I had the first tune!) - there’s just the faintest pause at the first note and away they went. No ramping up to speed - boom, just as Chas and John Kerr said.

But also, - and this is not an accurate comparison, but in my limited experience - it reminded me of John Skelton’s power of attack. Starting ‘head on’ very strongly and maintaining that feeling of urgency. What do you think Cat? I bet you will have disagreements here!, being so familiar with JS’s style. I can’t find the Harvest Storm, it must be hiding in Bill’s car, that one will be next.

I was also wondering about their pitch as Cat mentioned. Some of the tracks seemed the same as my flute but others I could not find on the instrument, were the recordings sharpened up?

Btw on their website the “Altan” cd is not linked, but there are many copies on Amazon’s “used and new” section and I just ordered one (as well as the new cd for my husband.)

I love John Moran’s and the Blooming Meadows anecdotes from Craig!

As for my own anecdote, the fueling of my sudden mania, what did it for me was an odd coincidence. My husband Bill had been trying to find someone to play a particular set of reels with, from the Horse with a Heart album. Meanwhile, my teacher has a tape which I had unwittingly put into the car this past Friday. It turned out to be a 1989 concert in Staten Island NY which included Altan. - from when that same album first came out. I definitely took this as “A Sign”.. (and I was very taken by the 3 Scones of Boxty last night, from that set).

Since this discussion, it also came flooding back that it was Island Angel and then the earlier Ceol Aduaidh recording which were both given to me on tape in the mid 90’s, before I learned to play. It was directly after that I quit the “Celtic Music” and started to learn the pure drop in earnest. I’d completely forgotten.

A ps about Ambrose Moloney’s on Brad’s clip - unlike what I’d thought, that 2nd part is rather different between Mike Raff and Frankie K, isn’t it! (It seems I wasn’t actually given this tune but osmosed it - except for that 2nd part - ha!)

I definitely have MM and Frankie Kennedy separated now, but would love to hear more about Frankie and his flute playing. I’m ready to go for slowdown and study how he played. (Well, first getting through today’s business of course..)

Carry on!

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Since you asked, Lesl, I’ll put in a few of my reminiscences of Frankie here, since I was lucky enough to know him a bit at the end of his life. Back in the late 1980s-mid 1990s, I was one of the organizers of an Irish trad music festival we used to have here in Washington DC. We grew the festival from small beginnings in 1986, and by 1992 (a year that I happened to be the festival director) we had it to the point where we could actually think about bringing a band over from Ireland to play the festival. We considered it a major coup that we were able to book Altan. Of course we dealt with their booking agent in setting up the gig, but once the band was in town Frankie was their acknowledged leader so he was the one we worked with in setting up sound requirements, performance logistics, etc. A more gracious man could not be found. Huge performer egos are thankfully rare in the Irish trad world, but even given that Frankie was unique in giving us the feeling that we were doing him a favor by hosting the band for the weekend, when really we were the ones who were grateful for their presence at our humble little festival.

It was actually at that festival that the first inklings of Frankie’s cancer were felt. Altan had been in town several months before for a Paddy’s Day gig, and at that time Frankie was having some shoulder pain. When they came back for the festival he was still in pain, so Frank Claudy (a fine flute player known to some of you, who also happens to be a doctor) prescribed some painkillers for him and also suggested that he get an MRI when he got back to Ireland. It was that MRI that uncovered the tumor.

Altan came back to our festival the next two years (1993 and 1994) and also did one or two other gigs here each of those years, so we got to see Frankie during the course of his battle with the cancer. At first there was hope as it seemed to be in remission, but by the time they got here in May 1994 for the festival things were not looking good. Frankie was undergoing chemo and was obviously weak and wearing a multi-colored skullcap since he’d lost his hair. But despite that he was his usual ebullient self. Offstage, he’d handed the reins of the band over to Ciaran Tourish, but onstage he was still in charge. Altan did one set on a tent stage in the afternoon, and headlined the big evening concert in an outdoor theater in front of thousands. Except for the skullcap, you would not have known Frankie was ill. But just a few months later, in September 1994, he was gone. Somewhere I think I still have a recording of their set at the festival - I should try to find that.

It was Frankie’s desire that the band keep going without him, so they were back on the road not long after his death and are still there a dozen years later, going strong. I know he’d be very proud of that as his legacy.

Frankie’s father actually died just a few months before him, and of a cancer that was very similar to the one that felled Frankie. Belfast being an industrial city, I’ve often wondered if maybe there was something in the environment there that contributed to that.

I wish I could tell you about some flute bonding that I had with Frankie, but I can’t. I was only just starting to play back then, in fact it was at that same 1992 festival that I got my Olwell flute, since Patrick was always a crafts artist at our festival. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was at one of our festivals that Patrick and Frankie made the connection that resulted in Frankie getting the Olwell flute he was playing when he died.