I have an old LP recorded some time in the seventies called Joe and the Gabe, which features the sean nos singing of Joe Heaney and the playing of Gabe O’Sullivan. Gabe plays Flute, fiddle and whistle but it’s his Flute playing which stands out.
In the notes he talks a lot obout the Ballinakill Ceili Band, and about the unique style of their flute players.
Later I became very interested in the Ballinakill style of playing, also of East Galway. The Ballinakill players made thier first recordings back in the late 1920s: two fiddles, two flutes and a piano. It was their flute players, Tommy Whelan and Stephen Maloney, who made the huge impression on me. I listened very extensively to their wonderful old 78 records, so you see I have always played in what you would call an East Galway style, not a North Galway style at all. The East Galway style is very slow, very old, very traditional, and very very beautiful.
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[about the Ballinakill Ceila Band] Indeed it was the flutes which made them so special. Their breath control, their fingering, their timing, but above all they employed a very hard way of blowing, which, honest to God, the modern players now haven’t a clue about. They always blew a very hard low D and went up to their tune from that, and the living echo of that hard D was right through their music. There’s very few people outside of East Galway I’ve heard able to do this, and indeed nobody these days even tries. So that’s it–that music shaped my being. It’s my whole reason for existing.
Does anyone know whether the 78s he talks about have ever been rereleased?
Or what he means by a “hard low D” that few people are able to blow?
And finally, did O’Sullivan ever record anything else that’s available?
Various 78s Balinakill Traditional Dance Players (the actual name of the group) have been reissued on Topic’s Irish Dance Music, Past Masters of Irish Dance Music, and Past Masters of Irish Fiddle Music. And maybe on the Round the House CD too? You can hear Stephen Moloney’s son Eddie at the flute geezers tape website, various tracks available for download - very punchy playing. Grey Larsen said that John McKenna of Leitrim also had a hard D going on his 78s. Gabe O’Sullivan lived in London for a good long stretch so I’d imagine he got to hear lots of flute players. I only have the cassette of Joe and the Gabe, I didn’t realize the tightwads at Green Linnet had dispensed with the LP’s liners but it doesn’t surprise me, Shanachie did the same thing.
Gabe also made a record with Tommy McCarthy (concertina) and someone else on fiddle, set dancing music, quite quick and lively. Don’t even know the name of it, I hear it won an award or something. Gabe and Tommy can be seen playing together on the Come West Along the Road video, too.
I’m surprised that the hard D was associated with East Galway. I don’t here Jack Coen or Mike Rafferty hitting that hard D in the CD’s I have of them. The D note in their playing - or so it seems to me - is given equal weight as the other notes.
It’s in the playing of people such as Conal O’Grada or Marcus Hernon that I really hear the honking D.
If anyone knows how to reach Gabriel O’Sullivan, please let me know. I have a phone # (ending in 536) which is never answered. I don’t believe either James Carty or Mick Mulvey have seen him out for a couple of years. I’ve been trying for at least all this year with no luck.
Kevin - I have a video tape called “Come West Along The Road” - a compilation of archive recordings presented by Tony McMahon, and I don’t recall Gabe O’Sullivan and Tommy McCarthy appearing on the tape I have. The tape I have includes musicians like The Furey family, Sean Maguire, Fred Finn & Peter Horan, Miko Russell and Kieran Collins. Is that the same tape as you have, because I’m wondering if they’ve maybe released another tape in the series, and if that’s the case, I’d definitely be looking out for it.
Sorry, brain fart! The tape I have with Tommy and the Gabe was stuff taken off the tube in Ireland (the TV, we sometimes call it the tube in America, it’s not a subway), some program hosted by Nicholas O’Carolan, it’s them playing for some sort of documentary of London working class, it also has Seamus Ennis playing the whistle and pretending to be a dock worker! Not commercially available alas.
Tony MacMahon MUST by all means get another one of those tapes out!
Are you sure you’re not thinking of the four tapes Tommy did with Eamonn McGivney and Michael Tubridy for the sets, produced by Larry Lynch? More brainfarts in other words?
I asked about that awhile ago and I think someone said that there is a post from Conal O’Grada somewhere on the forums that gives some instruction on how to get the hard low D… or am I imagining that?
And isn’t there a LP from the Ballinakill Ceili Band on the back of Mike Rafferty’s cd booklet? Alot of the tunes are from them aswell.
tighten the hole being formed by your mouth to focus the air
marginally increase the pressure of the air stream
focus the air downward into the flute more so than other notes
hold this focus and pressure absolutely steady while playing the note
The above is my approach when playing a sustained hard D such as would be found for example in an air. The note is played just on the edge before it breaks the octave. "
:lol::lol:
