Chieftains

Tune in to JazzSpec tomorrow afternoon between 1 & 3 Irish time

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Tomorrow afternoon, Monday 4th. Sean Brophy will be including a Wanman & Floyd track in his show Jazz Spec on Dublin City FM103.2 (also online stream) – Sean has a classic selection of artists lined up including Curtis Fuller, The Chieftains, Booker T & the MGD, Procol Harum and lots more. We are truly honoured to be played in such esteemed company.http://www.jazzspec.blogspot.com/-Tony Floyd McKenna.

I am putting up a little bit of promotion for my friend Sean Brophy (and Tony). He actually commented on my Sinead O’Connor video post. It is nice to see someone responding to your youtube post in facebook especially when it is about  Irish singers. Anyway, talking about his show Jazzspec, I have listened to it before. Very interesting and informative..and yes good music! More here: http://www.jazzspec.blogspot.com/

Here is the Sinead video:

Matt Molloy is not Mortal!

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I was chatting with a friend about triplets in traditional tunes and then he sent me a link to this Chieftains video featuring Matt Molloy. It was beautiful but things started picking up around 1:10. This man is no mortal!

How can you play two sounds with one instrument? Listening closely will tell you at not only he is playing in a breakneck speed, he is also able to make the flute sound as if there is a fiddle there.

Triplets add bounce to the sound. And if it is played skilfully the way Matt does, oh boy it really sounds amazing.

Jacob McCauley’s Bodhran Techniques

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I admit I was baffled by all the bodhran designs I see these days. It has evolved from a traditional instrument  to a stylish one capable of different flavors. The styles have now became varied as the younger generations introduced their own way of playing .

  Jacob McCauley is from Toronto Canada( winning the Toronto Fleadh Music Competition, March 2008). He incorporates a lot of styles but his favorite tempos  are the 7/8 and 13/16.He is in the middle of working on his  Bodhrán Instructional DVD , an experimental album with guitarist Santiago Dobles & bass player Alan Goldstein of progressive Metal band “Aghora” and several other projects. Whoaa! Metal meets folk.

Being a versatile player, he already shared the stage with The Chieftains and Lau(award winning Scottish band). What makes looking at his instructional videos rewarding is his charismatic personality, and easy way of explaining and demonstrating.

I am starting to enjoy listening to the bodhran without other instruments. It is a very expressive percussion. It is capable of delivering many shades and even nuances that can never be found in other percussions .

The Greatness that’s Judy Collins(August 20, 2006 )

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This is from my old MySpace blog in August 20,2006.I am putting it here because I found my thoughts at that time so funny.

I remember as a child when my mom would put the radio by my side because she said I can’t take a nap without the music on. Yes I grew up in a family that likes music .I joined both the church and high school choir which enhanced my love for harmony. If only I had been motivated more I would have been the next Leonard Cohen mwahahahaha!

Anyway, I remember hearing a pure soprano voice singing “Send In The Clowns’ which turned out to be Judy Collins. There were strains of the 60’s when I listened to the radio as a child and I get to hear songs like ‘Both Sides Now’ and other folkie stuff from the late 60’s to the mid-70’s and I was not even in grade school yet.

I never knew the full caliber of Judy’s artistry until I got to watch her Christmas special on TV a few years back and then her 2000 concert at the wolf trap caught on film. It’s amazing. She can really play the guitar and the piano and has been a very influential person on the human rights movement as well as the folk scene. If I grew up in the 70’s I imagine I would still find my interest…

Judy Collins’s repertoire is wide…apart from original compositions; she also rendered traditional Irish music like Danny Boy and He Moved Through The Fair.

Well Enya would not have been there yet but Clannad was already making records, and I guess I would have ended collecting not only Judy Collins albums but bands like the Chieftains,Planxty and Renaissance; a band led by Anne Haslam.There were good bands then like the Fairport Convention led by Sandy Denny and other female singers.

Celtic Spirit was already alive and well in the 70’s. I would not mind being left there.

Sissel Kyrkjebø and Howard Shore

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Been listening to a lot of Sissel Kyrkjebø‘s stuff lately and to be honest I really like the quality of her voice. I also read that she toured with The Chieftains so it’s no wonder that she has been embraced profusely by the Celtic world.She also toured with Howard Shore on his Fellowship of the Ring tour.To be honest I have never forgiven Mr Shore for his poor reception of Enya on the soundtrack recording.

I have read most of the interviews and I could say it is easy to read between the lines.It’s obvious  that he was not please being on the same project as her.It is OK not to like Enya. I mean all of us have our preferences. But to treat your fellow artist like that is just pure insult, not to mention bad taste .Mr Shore is not a gentleman.Though he worked with  many film directors, it’s still a fact that he’s  an A-hole.

Maybe it’s difficult to have an artist on the same project that eclipses even your popularity. Consider this: Enya has sold more than 75 million records and she is not some puppet singer you can just write tunes to and expect she’ll wail for it. No no no, she is a composer at par with  the greatest composers who ever lived.So it must have been a blow to his wimpy male ego to take all these things. Poor Howard. You might be talented but you are no better than the a-holes out there.