Give the 'Edge' to This Boston Trio
CEOL
By Earle Hitchner
[Published on November 24, 2004, in the IRISH ECHO newspaper, New York
City. Copyright © Earle Hitchner. All rights reserved. Reprinted by
permission of author.]
We New Yorkers can get immodest, spoiled, even complacent about the
Irish traditional musical riches in our backyard. But when it comes to
top trad playing, Boston doesn't have to take a backseat to any other
city in America or Ireland.
For proof, listen to "The Boston Edge," the CD debut of 2004 National
Heritage Fellowship-winning button accordionist Joe Derrane, fiddler
Séamus Connolly, and guitar-mandolin player John McGann. Residing or
working in and around the Boston area, this trio have created something
altogether rare: an album showing no restraint in individual musical
expression yet cohering as a well-rehearsed, mutually sensitive and
responsive unit.
In that respect "The Boston Edge" is a significant improvement on
"Ireland's Harvest," a Mapleshade CD made in 2002 by Derrane, fiddler
Frankie Gavin, and pianist Brian McGrath. I picked it as the fourth-best
trad album of that year, but with this caveat: "A sonic imbalance among
box, fiddle, and piano (the latter two instruments are too high in the
mix), some odd choices in tunes (e.g., 'The Minstrel Boy'), and the
personal tangents taken by producer Paul MacDonald in his liner notes
prevent this release from placing higher."
The seat-of-the-pants, strut-my-stuff approach to playing by Gavin in
"Ireland's Harvest" did generate some heat, but it also resulted in more
dueling than dueting with Derrane. Technique trumped teamwork and partly
undercut both Derrane's trademark preparation and the trio's overall
effectiveness.
"The Boston Edge," in contrast, shows what can happen when three
musicians who have been gigging from time to time during the past five
years put their heads as well as their talents together in the recording
studio. It's obvious that the music has been mapped out with meticulous
care but also with enough flexibility to allow inventive flourishes.
Those qualities combine viscerally right from the album's opening
track, "The Curragh Races/The Skylark/The Reconciliation." This medley
of reels breaks out of the gate like Secretariat: strong, spirited,
sure-footed. The synaptic sparks and symmetry between Derrane and
Connolly are extraordinary, each feeding off the other's virtuosity and
energy, each performing with, not at, the other.
Some accompanists in Irish traditional music can lapse into metronomic
rigidity or tepid vamping, and for critics with a blinkered appreciation
of rhythm, an unnoticed accompanist is a good accompanist. John McGann
has refused to wear this silly musical straitjacket. He brings plenty of
chops and imagination to the CD, laying down a rhythm that can be
percussive and driving or finely brushstroked behind Derrane and
Connolly. From time to time McGann tucks in his own nimbly picked
passages of melody, and in "Whiddon's/The Nightlight/Hannah McGann's"
hornpipes, the last two of which he wrote, McGann showcases his
exceptional soloing skill on mandolin.
Backed by McGann on guitar, Derrane offers a jaunty hornpipe-clog
pairing, "Miss McLeod's/Petticoat Promenade," as his crisply played
solo. The clog is the button accordionist's own tune and vividly
conjures up a scene of Irish girls in rustling skirts out for a night of
dancing at one of the five ballrooms dotting Dudley Street in Roxbury,
Mass., during the 1940s and '50s.
Accompanied by McGann on guitar, fiddler Séamus Connolly takes a
different tack on his solo, "Remembering Curly/The Twins/Mordaunt's
Fancy." The initial slow air, his own composition, is a moving threnody
in which Connolly explores, not exploits, honestly felt emotion. It
eventually segues into a hornpipe that he plays with more joyful verve,
and the medley finishes with a capering jig that reveals another side of
the master fiddler's touch.
Above all, true teamwork gives this album its finely honed edge. "The
De'il and the Dirk/The Trip to Windsor/Brumley Brae" reels, "The Humors
of Lisheen/McMahon's/The Merry Old Woman" jigs, and "The Dash to
Portobello/McFarley's/Geegan's" reels represent three-part instrumental
playing of the highest order.
There's also some breathtakingly tight dueting by Derrane and Connolly
throughout "Patsy Touhey's/The Gooseberry Bush/Reilly's," with McGann
entering on mandolin just for the third reel. A slice of Django-ish
guitar swing by McGann provides a tantalizing intro to "The Man From
Newry/The Last of the Twins" hornpipes, where Derrane and Connolly
interlock impressively in their ornamentation. The fun of playing
together similarly comes across in another pair of hornpipes, "Chief
O'Neill's Favorite/The First of June."
Not a single moment of weak or mediocre music can be heard on this
14-track recording. "The Boston Edge" is full of tasty tunes, focused
arrangements, unclichéd thinking, transparent communication, and
resplendent playing. These three musicians are a bona fide trio, not an
armchair-impulse gathering. They thrive in each other's company, and I
can't imagine any listener not thriving in theirs. In the parlance of
their beloved Red Sox, this album is a World Series clincher.
"The Boston Edge" (Mapleshade 10332), to which I contributed a brief
essay and bios gratis, is available at 1-888-236-2753 (toll-free) and
www.mapleshaderecords.com.
CAN'T CONTRA-DICT
Button accordionist Joe Derrane and guitar-mandolin player John McGann
don a slightly different, New England-spawned musical style, contra, on
"Fiddledance." It's a new CD issued by Frank Ferrel and Friends, who
include pianist Peter Barnes.
Contra was adapted from old English country dances with subsequent
influences from French, Irish, and Scottish traditions in America. The
word contra is Latin for "against" or "opposite," and that's what it is:
two "longways" lines of dancers facing against or opposite each other.
Fiddler Frank Ferrel describes the punchy music for contra dancing as
"a social, utilitarian genre" whose purpose "is to get people's feet
moving."
Over the years a lot of Irish traditional jigs, reels, and polkas has
seeped into the contra repertoire. On "Fiddledance," for example, are
"Mullingar Races/Joe Cooley's Reel/The Longford Collector" and "The
Kilfenora Set," comprising three jigs learned from concertinist Tim
Collins of the Kilfenora Céilí Band.
Céilí and Irish set-dance devotees often enjoy weekends of intensive
hardwood hoofing in the Catskills and other places. But contra fanatics
frequently engage in a true marathon: a dusk-to-dawn dance. The Eveready
bunny has nothing on the staying power of those dancers or the musicians
who play for them.
"Fiddledance" (Great Meadow Music 2018) is available at 603-399-8361 or
www.greatmeadowmusic.com.
CLADDAGH RECORDS DEC. 2004 New Releases:
THE BOSTON EDGE. Joe Derrane, Seamus Connolly, John McGann. MAPLESHADE 10332. Beautiful music from three experienced musicians. Derrane on accordion and Connolly on fiddle need no introduction, but McGann is a revelation. An expert flatpicker, he adds a new dimension to accompaniment. It’s a relief to hear an accompanying guitarist (and soloist) who doesn’t think he’s a rock star. This is mighty traditional music, with an American twist that is in many cases reminiscent of the great musicians of the1920s.
review from www.Paythereckoning.com
Following Mapleshade's release of accordionist Derrane's comeback
album - Ireland's Harvest, which featured Frankie Gavin and Brian
McGrath - Mapleshade have succeeded in coaxing the National Heritage
award winner back into the studio. In the process they've assembled
yet another "dream team", with Connolly on fiddle and McGann on
guitar.
No mistakes, this is a superb album, every bit as compelling as his
comeback. Despite (or perhaps because of!) his advanced years,
Derrane hasn't lost the magic touch that teases impossibly inventive
ornaments from his box; at the same time he manages to be incisively
precise and crisp in his playing. Connolly, of course, is equally
renowned for his inventivess and McGann is a much sought-after
accompanist, whose chords and runs anchor the tune, but never dominate
his fellow musicians.
So it's no surprise that this is an album, which elevates the senses.
It brims with good humour and abandon. Three master musicians have
chimed in to create a modern masterpiece. Aidan Crossey.