I’m just back from the festival club at Piping Live - best gig I’ve been to this year.
Fraser Ffyfield then Allan MacDonald with Nigel Richards as accompanist, then Xose Manuel Bodino and his band, and to finish a scratch band based around Jarlath Henderson and Fred Morrison dueting on uilleann and border pipes.
Fantastic!!!. Hey PJ you would have loved this gig, the two of them were just sparking off each other on stage. The grease lightning jigs and reels were absolutely flowing.
The funny thing is, while I really enjoyed the lunacy and pyrotechnics on stage, my favourite tune was Hector the Hero, the harmony and counterpoint between both players showed off the skill of both players wonderfully. (PJ take note here try this tune in your duet - then post it on clips and snips).
I’ve seen Jarlath Henderson earlier this year in January at the Chris Langan weekend 05 in Toronto,ON;Canada. At least to say he is amazing on the Uilleann pipes.
Was he playing the regular stainless - Dave Williams set as he was in Toronto?? If he was they are a great sounding set, in fact I have plenty of video’s to share with you sometime from him at that event.
Jarlath was playing the Dave Williams set - the first time I have seen one in the wood and metal (well you can’t call it flesh). Actually both Jarlath and Fred played it, Fred played a set of reels on it while Jarlath played low whistle. The set sounded lovely, it had a nice rich sound that blended well with Fred’s border pipes. - I want both!!! (where is a tongue hanging out emoticon when you need one).
has jarlath henderson made any recordings?must be very good to be on the same stage as fred. i have a set of morrison border pipes on the way,should have them in a few weeks, cant wait to get my hands on them.received a phone call from ian macdonald the night of that show from scotland ,he told me that he would be talking to fred about my order,and that the pipes sounded awesome . ian has been great to do business with! to call me from scotland while on vacation for the world pipeband championships,is outstanding service.he responded to my e-mails very quickly,stand up guy,all the way.
It was interesting to watch his technique for playing pipe tunes - playing them in D in the lower octave of the chanter, he played the low G notes (technically in D it would be C - using GHB references here) on his regulator by flicking the key with his thumb.
Sounds like quite a gig. UPs and border pipes sound well together. About a week ago I had a jam session with a buddy who plays bellows driven SSPs (A&D) and border pipes (A). We worked out a version of Si beag si mor.
