It sometimes surprises me that this board isn’t used more to spot new CDs. Somne six weeks ago Breda Smith’s Basil and Thyme arrived on the market and I expected rave reviews here as I thought it would be the thing for a lot of you guys [not necessarily for me though she did a nice job on it]. Go 'wan check it out you lazy buggers.
I just picked up Happy to meet by PJ Crotty [flute] Carol Cullinan [piano] and James Culliinan [fiddle] in Custy’s.
Produced by Kevin Crawford [who rattles a bit on the bodhran as well] it sound s very similar to In good company [on which James C was also featured]. Great fiddle/flute duets you can’t do without. Go get it today.
[The grapevine has it PJ has just about finished recording another project at Matt Purcell’'s studios in Ennis but maybe I shouldn’t say that yet in public, one to look out for anyway.
Should I have posted this on the flute board I wonder. Maybe.
Funny you should mention Breda Smyth, Peter. I just placed an order today. I only know Breda’s playing from the Matt Molloy’s CD, but obviously Basil & Thyme must be a great recording. Maybe you want to post a review?
Peter,
I think it’s a great idea to announce new recordings here. Being there on the spot in western Ireland you know what’s new before we (at least I) know here in the not-quite-midwest, not-quite-eastern United States.
On 2002-06-20 08:12, ChristianRo wrote:
Peter wrote: I rarely buy piping cds and I somehow don’t think I’ll be running to the shops to get this one.
But he plays a very nice Rogge B set;-)
I had that one deleted within the minute Christian, I made it sound different from what I really meant and thought that would send out the wrong message. It was not meant to say anything about Sean Og’s playing. I have stopped buying piping cds altogether, if I 'd find one I 'd really enjoy I would probably get it but in general I stay away from them, for various reasons.
I listen a lot to fiddleplayers and concertinamusic. I immensely enjoy the above CD of fiddle and flute. I get a lot of mileage out of that music.
I understand what you mean, Peter. Fair play to Sean as well. He’s a nice person and a piper of great skill. Stylewise, it’s all about taste, of course. Personally, I’m not too much into his or Robbie Hannon’s high-tech piping. I lean more towards the relaxed stuff like Brian McNamara or Maire NiGradha.
A musician friend who is working in Las Vegas of all places (no, not playing for Céline Dion) told me in an email that she was recently in a session with two superb fiddlers, one of whom also played the whistle “like a goddess” and was a sister of Sean Smith. The writer is no slouch on the whistle herself, so I sat up and took notice.
So what’s the CD like? Is it new-agey? flooky? gooky? plain old-fashioned trad? or what?
Out of interest, Peter, why are you avoiding CDs of piping?
As far as whistle CDs are concerned, I’m always curious to hear what people are doing, but these days I feel I consciously want to avoid being too greatly influenced by other whistle players or being tempted to try to copy styles I hear on record.
The last two CDs of solo whistle players I bought have hardly been listened to. For myself, I’m really enjoying listening to solo pipers these days!
Christian, I’d buy Maire’s. But let’s not start any rumours here now
On 2002-06-20 10:36, StevieJ wrote:
Breda Smith - is she a sister of Sean Smith?
By jaysus Steve you posted yours while I replied to Christian. I better edit you in here.
Breda S is sister of and I think she was doing Riverdance in Las Vegas and yes she plays the fiddle as well. I think she spent time in CA specialising as a doctor. I am not really into her whistle playing I saw her on tv recently pulling out all the stops, sounding a bit like Seamus Egan on ecstacy. Tastewise, Yuk. The few tracks of the CD I heard were not like that. Not my thing but well done. That’s why I thought this board would rave about the project, newly composed bits, fancy arrangements not too hard-core.
And as far as piping is concerned, it’s a bit close to home. Too easy to pick up things I don’t want to pick up in my playing, too much close listening [ooh don’t like that] too many awful sounding sets of pipes. I do listen to things though even if I don’t buy them. You’d want to see what the others are doing. I found however that the piping CDs I did buy get listened to a few times, enough to get the tunes off them, only to remain on the shelf unusued after.
Fiddle and flute. I can listen to that any time. Nice.
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-06-20 11:12 ]
And as far as piping is concerned, it’s a bit close to home. Too easy to pick up things I don’t want to pick up in my playing, too much close listening [ooh don’t like that] too many awful sounding sets of pipes. I do listen to things though even if I don’t buy them. You’d want to see what the others are doing. I found however that the piping CDs I did buy get listened to a few times, enough to get the tunes off them, only to remain on the shelf unusued after." endquote
I felt that way about classical guitarists and their records for years. I reached a point where I hated just about every concert I went to with occasional joyful exceptions. You’re listening so closely that its hard not to be judgmental about technical and musical solutions and sublteties.
It just gets so personal when you dig in. The paradox is that we publicly perform as a way of life, yet the total ascetic approach of locking yourself in a room and creating your own world with your instrument is what makes you a great player, ultimately.
It’s starting to happen a little with whistle to me now. I used to only want to play with guitarist and fiddler, yet now I am committed to sounding perfectly whole by myself then look forward to delayed gratification of playing with others when I am “there” which may take years.. Other players on records often sound gimmicky to me, especially the most celebrated ones. Others play too damn fast or have predictable techniques.
I can’t remember the name of it, but there was a great movie with the playing of Jordi Savall, the early music cello (or viola da gamba) guy. He experienced a personal loss then locked himself up in a cottage and let his girls kind of go loose while he became a legendary master of his music.
Until you become a master player, people will regard the attitude as snotty yet I think its a natural reaction.
I do relate, Peter.
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-06-20 12:30 ]
On 2002-06-20 12:27, The Weekenders wrote:
I can’t remember the name of it, but there was a great movie with the playing of Jordi Savall, the early music cello (or viola da gamba) guy. He experienced a personal loss then locked himself up in a cottage and let his girls kind of go loose while he became a legendary master of his music.
The film is Tous les matins du monde and it is about the gamba master Marin Marais and his teacher Sainte-Colombe. It was the teacher who locked himself in a cabin to play privately, and didn’t Marais crawl under the floorboards to try to discover the secret nuances of his teacher’s playing?
A bit like the young Junior Crehan who hid behind the building where a travelling dancing master was teaching so that he could learn the tune “The Drunken Gauger” from his playing.
Learning music must have been more of an adventure in the days before recorded music. Hell, it was more of an adventure in the 1970s before the web, ABC notation, and slow-downer software. What would Marin Marais have made of people plonking a minidisc recorder on the table during a session (eh, Azalin)?
Future shock reluctance: I downloaded the Slow downer but haven’t brought myself to use it yet. Can’t always jet right up to the minute without pause. That’s when I will discover somebody is double cutting instead of rollin.
I finally got a mic set up with Audacity and made test recording. Getting ready to clip and snip. i bet my mac came with a program to do the same exact thing but I couldn;t find it. I did make a soundtrack with Imovie but it seemed like overkill for a Clipnsnip.
It was so funny. Suddenly, I was out of air and lost my phrasing. Stage fright for the G4…Now I’ll have to feel just right before I blow into the dang machine…Speed b umps on the learning curve.
As for recommending new cds: I think it does happen occassionally, just not formally.
Perhaps some don’t because somebody else will knock it and they’ll feel foolish beause they must not be “trad:” enough or something. I felt a lukewarm reaction to Frost Is All Over on Forum but everytime I listen to it, I hear more and more phrasing and inspiring musical choices.I think more of it as I listen to others who are considered masters. But everybody likes validation…
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-06-20 15:26 ]
this thread reminded me that I have been meaning to bring some attention to a new CD that I think is just fantastic. It is not a whistle album exactly. There are a number of tracks that have some excellent whistle playing (Sidnt whistles btw), but it is primarily a fiddle/accordian affair. It is a debut album from Marie & Martin Reilly who play fiddle/whistle and accordian respectivly and they are a joy to listen to. The tunes that they present seem to come from diverse sources and are just so interesting to hear. To quote Mick Moloney from the liner notes “This debut cd…is a wonderful first recording featuring an eclectic repertoire of highlands, hornpipes, barn dances, Appalachian music and of course jigs and reels”.
Marie is now playing fiddle with Cherish the Ladies, and Joanie Madden plays flute on one of the tracks. Martin performed with Riverdance, the Aoife Clancy Band, Eileen Ivers Band and the Green fields of America. It is also well known that they are two of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. They released this album on their own, independently of any label, so the only way to get it is either to run into one of them (if you live in New York this is not as hard as you might think) or to send them an email at Boxfiddle@aol.com.
Anyone else hear this album…what do you think of it?
I think there’s a lot to be said for posting record reviews on C&F. I only get home to Ireland once or twice a year. Part of the routine of the annual trip at Easter was to go into the record shops and buy any piping record which had appeared in the previous twelve months: they were so rare that it was worth while taking a gamble on them and I also felt I was contributing to create a demand for them.
But now there are so many trad records coming out that I’d like to be more selective. I’ve accumulated an unnecessary number of records that I rarely if ever listen to.
Christian has pointed the way by identifying his preferences, which is a necessary step in calibrating reviews. I would suggest that anyone reviewing a new record should briefly declare where they fit on the taste spectrum.
If Christian likes Brian’s style, I’ll treat seriously any recommendation he makes about any other piping record. I’m delighted to hear him bracketing M Ní Ghráda with Brian, btw, because I haven’t heard anything from her since the piper’s rock, and I was afraid she might have changed. Robbie Hannon used to have a beautiful, relaxed style as a teenager, and I was bitterly disappointed when I bought his CD, it’s dreadful to my ear.
Question to Dale: If the idea of reviews is being taken up, is there any way of labelling them so that they can be easily found when they’re no longer new threads? Or should there be a single “record review” thread on the forum for each of the main instruments?
Funny you should mention Carlos, as I happened to be listening to the Brotherhood of Stars CD as I read your post. He is a very impressive Gaita/whistle/recorder player. I am trying to learn more about Galician music myself as my grandfather came from there. I am even trying to buy a Gaita from the Seivane family, who are the most respected bagpipe makers in the region. Their daughter, Susana Seivane, is also is an acomplished piper whose debut album is out on Green Linnet. I like her album alot, in some ways more than the Nunez albums, but it is probably because she plays at more a more human speed, with less fireworks. I get the feeling listening to her and others like Os Cempes, that with years of practice I could actually play the tunes with the appropriate feeling and style. When listening to Carlos, I feel like I should just give up.
Amanderthad,
Have you bought his os omores libres album. I think it is even better than Broth. of Stars. But it might totally convice you to give up music altogether.
I don’t actually have that one, but it is on the end my list of things to get. Would that the list were longer, for I feel that when I do get to the end of it I shall play no more.
