I was reading a Garry Shannon interview and read this:
“My early hero was Paul Roche of Stocton’s Wing. One of the best. Cannot persuade him to do a solo album. “Where’s the point?”, he says, “if one can’t produce something better than Molloy’s black album”.”
I think there are also other flute players commenting very favourably about “The Black Album”. I have the CD, but I don’t understand why its so highly rated, besides Molloy using crans on the flute, which I suppose was a breakthrough then. This is one of my least listened to CDs. Can someone show me why this is considered such a great album?
Hmmm… well, considering that I think that album is totally unsurpassed by any other flute album, I’m not quite sure how to answer this question.
I guess my first question for you is what DO you listen to a lot? That will help me understand why you don’t like this album much.
I’m just a young whippersnapper (24), but as I understand it (this is where the older folks step in and correct me), this album was absolutely groundbreaking when it was released.
First off, it’s the first solo album by Molloy, which is a big deal in itself.
Second, it’s pure trad from start to finish - just flute and Donal Lunny’s back-up… a flute player’s dream come true.
Third - nobody had ever played like Molloy before, and to this day nobody can do quite what he does… this was a “blow you out of the water” album for a lot of people, much the same way the first Bothy Band album was.
You have to understand that so much of today’s Irish music was profoundly influenced by the Bothy Band and likewise flute players were influenced by Molloy. If you read interviews with most of the famous hot-shot players these days they will almost all tell you that they learned the Black Album practically note for note, trying their darndest to figure out how to do what Molloy does, before they eventually settled into their own respective styles.
The Black Album has no fancy schmancy doumbek, synthesizer and didgeridoo backing, nor any jazz/hiphop/techno fusion to it - just mindblowingly good flute playing with beautifully sensitive and minimalist accompaniment by Lunny. That’s exactly the beauty of it!
My two cents -
Chris
[ This Message was edited by: ChrisLaughlin on 2002-09-22 11:01 ]
I think Chris has it. BTW, I tried & tried to get a track from Matt Molloy’s black album for Wooden Flute Obsession. He doesn’t own it - it’s tied up with Mulligan. I like it precisely because the playing and the production are very raw and honest. Many recent CDs are perhaps overproduced.
Hey Chris! Yeah I guess its important to know what I listen to normally answer my question. For flute players I like to listen to John Creaven, Frankie Gavin, Eamonn Cotter and of course Catherine McEvoy. I have just recently discovered Harry Bradley’s playing and fell in love with it. I also enjoyed the flute geezer’s stuff that Bil put up. Fiddle and flute duet albums like the Crotty/Cullinan one also appeal to me.
Its still not very apparent to me why this album is so highly rated. Maybe its because at the time there weren’t so many recordings of technically-up-there players like there are now? Is it still considered an album to be “wowed” at today?
I probably have to go back a listen to it much more to appreciate it, I don’t know. After all that was what happened with me and John Creaven’s CD, which I now like pretty much. Maybe if I tried to learn the Black Album practically note for note, trying my darndest to figure out how to do what Molloy does, then I might be a hot shot flute player one day
This is just a matter of preferred styles.
It’s all good. I love all those albums you listed as well. In fact, I listen to them much more than I listen to Molloy these days (that didn’t used to be the case). Clearly, it seems to me that you just have a preference for an older, very rhythmic style of playing… which is great.
These days we are blessed by having a tremendous range of available music to listen to, in many different styles, from Lunasa to Micho Russel to the Kilfenora Ceili Band, but before Molloy came along there was really nobody playing the flute like he does. His playing was a revelation to a lot of people. Imagine him as the Jimmy Hendrix of the Irish music world (not stylisticly, but in how different from the norm his music was and how much it influenced the musicians to come). Today we’ve got a lot of people who play a bit like him - McGoldrick, Egan, Crawford - and a lot more who try to play like him. You’ve probably come into the flute world and the world of Irish music very accustomed to Molloy’s playing and accustomed to the other musicians who have been influenced by him and the Bothy’s. Having that as your first connection with Irish music, Catherine McEvoy, Harry Bradley, Josie McDermott, et al must have felt like a breath of fresh air for you! It must have been very exciting to hear them play in a way you hadn’t really heard before. That’s exactly why Molloy astounded so many people - because he did something nobody had really heard before… .it was a breath of fresh air.
Does this make any sense to you?
Chris
The more you give the more there is.
[ This Message was edited by: ChrisLaughlin on 2002-09-22 11:19 ]
Sounds to me like the Black album has, in a way, done something very similiar to what Coleman’s 78’s did back in the '20s: set the standard that all other musicians try to get to and measure themselves by. Of course, Coleman’s influence doesn’t seem directly apparent at all anymore. Interesting how you don’t hear him mentioned much when people are recommending old pure drop recordings. Mostly these days you hear about Seamus Ennis, or Johnny Doherty, etc…anyway, I think I’m off topic…
I share your misgivings about the black album, Eldarion. MM was always very impressive, but I didn’t really like the black album, the technique is there at the expense of good taste, and there’s too much of the ‘playing the pipes on the flute’ thing about it - he sounds like a trad counterpart to James Galway.
In fact it so much prejudiced me against him that for years I resisted the advice of a flute-playing friend to buy his subsequent records. Eventually I did, and was totally converted, his later albums have brought the technique under control and they are all wonderful music. Now he’s probably my favourite flute player, I’ve played holes in all the other albums but rarely go back to listen to the black one.
Wonder if we could use the “black” word to work in a reference to Andr///////////<<<<:::[[[[[////////******]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]\\\\\\\DELETE/////////\\\]]]]]]]]]]]]]]/////////
Yeah, Molloy’s first album left me cold the first few times I heard it, but now I see why people hold it in such high regard. Great playing, good tunes, good accamponienmt, I think someone mentioned the crans which he used which were part of a new style of playing Matt introduced to the world.
However, many albums are up their now with the ‘Black’ album (in influence). Catherine McEvoy made two fine Cd’s, Molloy’s Stoney Steps, Tansey, Conall O Grada(his second album surprasses Molloy’s first album IMO)
Anyone else have similair views on the ‘Black’ album?
I love Creaven’s CD, and I wish he would record again.
Frankie Kennedy and his wife recorded a duet CD - I can’t recall the name, but it’s one of my all-time favorite CDs. The tune names are whacky, but man are they great tracks.
