April 4th, 2007

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill - - - - - - - Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Hass

Russ and Leah spent the afternoon with Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill, Alasdair Fraser and Bruce Molsky. The 2 hour question and answer session with music was part of UCSB's Ethnomusicology seminars. A fascinating, random run through various tunes (some of which will be on our upcoming CD) played in entirely different styles. We had a conversation and demonstration of regional differences in tunes like Rakish Paddy (Martin's East Clare introspective version vs Altan's Donegal 100 mph version), Flowers of Edinburgh (Alasdair Fraser's gorgeous west Scotland style vs Bruce Molsky's Appalachain barn dance version with completely different timing and form, featuring a notably stretched-out melody).

Alasdair Fraser demonstrated how he bowed according to what the dancers were doing. He likened all his bowing styles to the various dances. While demonstrating a Strathspey two different ways (the long walking dance steps of one region vs the oingie-boingie hopping style of another region) he actually did the steps right in front of us. Martin said he would never think of Alasdair the same way again after watching him dance.

Dennis Cahill demonstrated how he shifts the tonality in the subtlest ways. Sometimes only playing 3 note chords, then changing one note at a time, so the tonality slowly changes along with the melody. He reminded everyone that the chords are implicit in the melody as it is being played, so his job is more coloration, making the music darker (adding a 9th) or lighter (Maj7), thicker (playing all 6 strings) or thinner (playing only 3).

Some of the tunes played that we will be recording on our upcoming CD are: Paddy Fahy's Reel, O'Connell's March, Neil Gow's Lament and the previously mentioned Rakish Paddy and Flowers of Edinburgh.

All of the fiddlers talked about the flattening out of the regional styles with the advent of recordings, traveling musicians, English domination of both Scottish and Irish peoples, radio & TV, and the competitions that judge all players by the same rules.

Most of the audience were doctoral students in the Ethnomusicolgy major. The questions showed their various backgrounds in Gamelan, Korean, Turkish and Celtic music, to name a few. Leah and I were just grateful to see a number of tunes played so beautifully and so emotionally, giving us quite a lift right before we do our next CD. Martin & Dennis graciously accepted copies of our current CD, Galicia, and they wished Leah & I well with the band. It was a great afternoon.

The Highland, Heath & Holler concert that evening was wonderful also. Most of Santa Barbara's traditional musicians were in attendance. The highlight of the concert was the decidedly forward-looking duo of Alasdair Fraser with Natalie Hass on cello. Doing the same sort of ground-breaking duets that Martin & Dennis popularized in the last decade, Alasdair explained how Scottish music (particularly Neil Gow) was always a fiddle & a cello until the English & the Protestants decided to have burning parties to get rid of the instruments. He is on a mission to revive the cello/fiddle duo playing and it added a whole new dimension to traditional Scottish music and the evening.

Martin & Dennis as usual were riveting. Opening with a whisper-to-a-scream, from an air to banshee-sounding reels, they had the audience mesmerized. When all 5 musicians played sets together, they had the audience on their feet and the 2-1/2 hours flew by. Traditional music is alive, well and sonically growing in many exciting directions.

Winter 2006 - Dannsair's CD, Galicia, has been released. See Albums & Books for info or purchase.

Named after the Celtic region of Spain just north of Portugal, Galicia is home to a number of famous musicians, Julio Iglesias (the singer) and Carlos Nunez (the Celtic piper) being two of them.

Russ and Kristen got to perform with Carlos Nunez and The Chieftains on their last swing through Santa Barbara at the Arlington Theater. Some of the images of Carlos stalking the stage while playing his gaita (Galician pipes) still get talked about. Russ was inspired to write a melody reminiscent of Carlos' piping tunes. That haunting melody became the tune Galicia which starts and ends the CD.
A very young Carlos Nunez below is showing his bagpipes to Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains.

Some of the other other sets on the CD include:

The Scandinavian sailing tunes New Rigged Ship - Full Rigged Ship. Karl heard a version of these tunes from the duo Aly Bain & Ale Moller that was very emotional and we've tried to recreate that.

Kristen starts us off on a couple of reel sets: (1) The Sally Gardens - Over the Moor To Maggie - Trip to Durrow. (2) Golden Keyboard - Cooley's Reel - Sheehan's Reel.

A funny side note. The first time The Chieftains allowed us to perform with them we asked them to play the Sally Gardens set with us. Paddy Moloney was so polite, telling us we would have to choose the set because we only knew what we knew. They, on the other hand, knew ALL the sets. When we started playing the tunes everything was going great. Then Paddy started Maggy in the Woods (a Kerry Polka) instead of Over the Moor To Maggie like we had agreed. Total confusion reigned until we all jumped into Trip to Durrow together.

Even when there are 2,000 people in the audience and you are playing with The Chieftains it is still a lot like the pub sessions on stage, you never know what can happen.

Some of Russ' other compositions from his recent trip to Ireland are also featured: (1) Waterloo Piper. Waterloo is a jig melody partly remembered from just outside the walls of Derry. There was a phenomenal piper playing in a pub down the street from the Butcher's Gate. We stopped in to listen, didn't know the tune, but an outline of the melody stayed in Russ' brain. Karl then came up with the thought of pairing Waterloo Piper with some tunes from his fiddle circle - Blackthorn Stick - Top Of Cork Road. The juxtaposition of the flute solo in the 1st tune and Karl starting off the next two is very pleasing.

(2) The Dingle Dolphin is a slip jig composition triggered by watching Fungi (pronounced FOONGIE), the dolphin, jump around in Dingle Bay. Our B&B had the world's tiniest balcony, but we could see across the top of the Dingle Skellig Hotel to the bay and watch Fungi playfully leap around the boats as they travelled in and out of the harbor. That slip jig gets paired with two others: Kitty Come Down To Limerick and Humours of Whiskey. Russ got the first tune from Bridie and Owen while playing with them at Dolan's Pub in Limerick. Humours came from listening to John Doyle (guitar) and John Williams (button accordion). John Dolye was originally in Solas, he now tours mainly as a duo with Liz Carroll, the fiddler from Chicago.

(3) Siobhan's Waltz was written for Russ' daughter. It is in the style of a New England Barndance. Emily plays the flute melody very lovingly.

Soon we'll figure out how to put some of the tune snippets here in mp3 format.

Till next time!