I saw Niall Keegan at a gig in Glasgow on Saturday. Some flute players inspire you to better things, hearing Niall just made me thing “it’s not worth it, I’m just going to give up rather than wallow in mediocrity for the rest of my days!”
Obviously I have a copy of his CD which gives you a flavour of what he can do but, as happens so often, the recording does not really do him justice.
The gig was billed as a “Master and Aprentice” evening with a young Glasgow flute player called Kevin O’Neill (who I saw last year and mentioned his name here as one to watch for the future.) So there was a few sets from Kevin (obvioulsy influenced by Niall when you hear his style), followed by a few sets from Niall, then a few sets together.
The first thing that struck me about Niall was the force of his tone. Not harsh or rough but mighty powerful. Next, obviously, was the amazing and truly outrageous playing. I was there with a fellow flute player and our biggest source of wonder was how he gets back to the tune after tearing off on one of his soaring improvisations.
Two encores comprised The Gold Ring and The Silver Spear. Rarely have I heard such non-standard standards! So, I may not actually give up the flute but it will be some time before I can bring myself to play The Gold Ring or The Silver Spear again.
If you get the chance to see Niall live then grab it. If you don’t have his CD “Don’t Touch The Elk”, then buy it - but have an open mind at all times.
Cheers,
Graham
PS - we are slap bang in the middle of the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow and just to make you jelous I have already seen McGoldrick & McSherry (truly amazing but, as you will know if you have seen either of them before, a bit short on engaging stage presence) and I will be seeing Lunasa on Friday - bliss!
Niall Keegan is certainly an extremely talented player.
Speaking personally though I don’t enjoy his playing much.
I often find some of the most ‘obviously’ technically talented players are not what I want to listen to. My preference tends to be for players who are very technically gifted but use their technical mastery in a way that suits the tune and brings out some quality of the tune. I also like players who play less technically but with good style, lift, feeling etc.
To me an example of a well know technically superb player is Matt Molloy. He has a special ability though not to let his mastery of instrument get in the way of the tune. Whenever he does show his mastery he does it in a way that makes sense within the tune. I don’t feel he ever does something just because he can.
I remember being very impressed by a flute player I had heard a little of. I brought a tape of his (it was a good few years ago )and thought ‘wow’ that’s great playing. I was thinking he was on a par with M.M. as his style, on the surface, is similar. After listening to it a few times and absorbing it more I stated to change my view. For example I often found myself saying wouldn’t that sound a lot better slowed up a tad. The overall ‘feel’ when listening was not as good. I got the impression that too much of the playing was ‘I play it like this because I can and its difficult ’ rather than because that was the sound he liked. I do still occasionally listen to this recording. I don’t find it very musically pleasing. My feeling is here’s a great technical player but I’m not over stuck on his feeling. The fancy stuff ‘sticks out’ too much rather than blending in like Malloy’s does. I think exceptional technical talent has to be used carefully if it’s not to get in the way.
Of course this is personal opinion and other people may find different responses to a flashy player that I miss. I do tent to like ‘traditional’ style playing but also enjoy new styles where I can relate to it on a level beyond pure technicality.
A player does not need to be able to do really fancy technical stuff to be a good artist. To be a showman is different.
Are you playing to be good-- or to express something in your soul?
Just love to play. Then it won’t matter who is better or worse player than you. It is about loving to play, not about being as good or better than somebody else.
David: I am forever indebted to you and this statement…
It seems that lately, every time I feel especially pleased with the way I am playing, I somehow end up listening to someone’s “clip” and then begin this spiral of “why don’t I sound halfway as good as that person by now, after all, I have been playing this darn thing for (x) years…”
Yesterday, I started off with this thought again, then said to myself, “Well, really, who cares? I have enjoyed myself playing this whole day, and feel entirely stress-free right now, plus I have nailed this tune I was trying to learn, SO THERE!”
Of course you are 100% right - and I trust that the tongue-in-cheek nature of my post did not pass everyone by. Loving to play should of course be one’s primary motivation and striving to improve must come a close second.
As for Kevin’s comments on the “obviously” technically gifted players then yes, technique is nothing without feeling and a desire to let the music speak. One can be the best technical exponent of one’s instrument without having one iota of music in your soul. I think Niall is a pretty musical guy and although the technique is pretty in-your-face, I think he carries it off well.
David is of course entirely right … but I find it quite a difficult thing to consistently put myself in such a pure musical expression space tho I do try. Unfortunately trying means you don’t go there!
The attitude to fantastic players is to be inspired by them, definately not put off, after all they only show how much of an extremely pleasurable road there is before you!
I’d agree I find Nial Keegan too showy, M,Molloy just seems to get the feeling just right and rarely allows virtuosity to dominate.
Rob
<<Unfortunately trying means you don’t go there!>>
Ah, that’s the mistake. “Trying” is what it’s all about. There is no ‘there’ to get to. When you think you’re there is when you’re not there. When you’re just playing (‘trying’ if you will) and caught up in the music … that’s when you’re right there, in the moment.
It doesn’t mean you don’t care about playing more beautifully. But you have to be in the beauty of your flute as you play it. Your practice must be beautiful. That might mean more or fewer ornaments, faster or slower tempo.
BTW, I really do like Niall Keegan. And Brian Finnegan. Of course, MM. And The Great Rafferty as well. What I don’t really listen to with as much pleasure are contemporary Trad Irish groups that are commercial machines, who play like the hammers of hell, balls to the wall, loud, aggressive, jumbled stuff that is commercially appealing. Give me honest rock and roll any day.
I have to agree that Niall Keegan and Kevin O’Neill were outstanding on Saturday night. It was clear that both lads were thoroughly enjoying their music. For me the technical brilliance did not get in the way. They both played beautifully. It was also good to see two less ‘popular’ makers’ flutes being played; an Ormiston by O’Neill and I’m assuming a Williams by Keegan and both flutes sounded great.
This is something I some times have difficulty getting over to drawing students, when you are performing at your best you have no sensation of time or self and definately no thought that anybody might be impressed by your efforts… I can after thirty odd years often fall into complete involvement that way without consciously intending to but sometimes the moment won’t happen.
graham,
i know what you mean about keegan. there is something totally refreshing about those wild (jazzy) runs of notes that he does, sort of like going into the stratusphere, and then how he somehow finds his way back into the mudane world (the ‘traditional’ tune) where the rest of us are, waiting and wondering ‘how will he make it back’, or ‘will he ever make it back’, or will he crash and burn…
he’s got such a wonderful solid tone and a command of the instrument; and a complex player, opening up new avenues…more power to him
there’s a player in the states, skip healy, who i sat sat in sessions with. he would go off into wild musical tangents (much like keegan) and then come right back into the tune never missing a beat. i used to marvel at how he did it.
truly amazing stuff…
…me, i’m lucky if i can make it thru a tune without flubbing it up, but i sure put alot of soul into it…
I’m finally undertaking something I’ve heard John S. say time and again … that first you have to know the tune inside out before you can do anything with it. And I mean, inside out. I’m currently working on learning variations, etc. and am realizing how little I really know tunes I’ve played for years – to the point of boredom, even!
Anyway, this is requiring relearning things, but wow, it’s hard sometimes, especially the “unlearning” part. I am, however, finding that as I get more “back of my hand” with a tune the easier it is to wander off it a bit and still find my way back (although for me at this point, an extra triplet, octave jump, held note or flip-flopping roll rhythm is about as exciting as it gets). I’m also finding that few tunes are inherently boring; it’s just my approach to them. And finally, I’m discovering that …
… it takes a lot of trying to get to know a tune that well. And thus, therefore, a lot of trying to make it effortless.
(Now, of course the better you are, the shorter your learning curve, but nevertheless: The harder you work, the better you get. The better you get, the more interesting it becomes. And after that, if any tune is boring, shame on you.)
The only time that I’ve heard Niall’s playing is on his website,and to be honest,it’s not my cup of tea.
I don’t go for flash and dazzling technique-my idea of an Irish flute player is Jack Coen.I think you see where my heart lies.
Curiously enough,I do enjoy Jazz-I suppose that I’m just a bit of a purist when it comes to ITM!
oh yes, jack coen, now there’s another genius, of a different strain of course, hoseclamp and all. i’ll try to quote him…‘sometimes it’s not what you put into a tune, but what you leave out, that makes it great’. instead of playing a tune with ‘listen to what i can do to this tune’ attitude, he seems to exemplify a ‘listen to what i gem this tune is’ attitude. very sweet…
do you mean that i have to actually …ahem..practice once in awhile ???
seriously though, what you wrote is right on. i find there are tunes that i have been ‘learning’ for years now, and then once in a while, there is a tune that i can catch onto almost without effort.
I was at Niall’s “Master & Apprentice” gig in Glasgow too, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Sometimes you just have to laugh at the sheer audacity of his playing.
My take on it would be that Niall Keegan is a great traditional Irish flute player – something he is very sensitive about when people accuse him of playing jazz - with a unique style and outstanding technique. I appreciate and admire his playing very much, but that doesn’t necessarily make him my favourite flute player, and nor does it mean I would want to imitate his style. It certainly doesn’t make me want to give up.
Another way of putting it would be a comment I heard a musician make in relation to another great improviser, Gerry O’Connor, the Tipperary banjo and fiddle player. It was something along the lines of “I wish I had the ability to play like that, but if I could, I wouldn’t”.
I’ve met Niall a couple of times, and a friendlier, more helpful and enthusiastic player and teacher you’d be hard pushed to find. He was one of 3 tutors at a wooden flute week-end in Aberdeen just over 3 years ago, and that was the toughest flute course I, and I believe any of the other 45 students, have ever been through. We came away inspired, and determined to improve, quite the opposite of wanting to give up, so hang in there, BMFW. On the Sunday afternoon, at the end of the course, there was a discussion between the students and 3 tutors – [ the other 2 were Chris Norman and Eddie Maguire ] – and during that discussion Niall stated that his philosophy was that he wanted to explore and push the limits of his chosen instrument as far as possible, something which I don’t think can be denied he has succeeded in, in terms of traditional Irish dance music, [ even though some would probably say that in doing so, he’s gone too far from the tradition].
If you get a chance to hear Niall, do it, especially if he’s teaching. Whether or not you like his music, [ and honestly, if you don’t, just don’t listen to him ] - I hope we would all wish him well on his particular musical journey.
BMFW – I’m sure you’re not serious about giving up, I hope not – please stay with us. It’s not as if there’s that many flute players in Scotland that we can afford to lose even one!
P.S. - One final thing which links in to a recent discussion about using the keys on the flute. Niall suggested a good exercise for using the flute’s keys is to try playing “Jim Donohughe’s” reel in Eb!
No, I certainly wasn’t being serious - but Niall’s playing really was a jaw-dropping experience. I think what the gig did do, was to make me think a bit more about what I’m playing and what I can add to a tune. I’m very guilty of learning a tune and then playing it 3-times, same time, every time, with little thought to variation or, dare I say it, experimentation. Playing in sessions tends to make you a bit lazy that way.
So, I’m not giving up, I am enthused, and I’m off to play The Gold Ring 3 times - differently each time!
FYI, there are two Gerry O’Connors. One is a fiddler and another is the banjo player.
How many truly great multi-instrumentalists can there be? Frankie Gavin, Seamus Egan, Seamus Ennis (who also played fiddle). Players who played not just well, but played very, very well.
