Concert review
Once again, life has been sufficiently busy for LiveJournal entries to become sparse. Posting here is something which is one of the first things to go when I'm busy; I'm not sure why that is but it's probably to do with the amount of time for mulling things over.
On Saturday night, we (Helen was home for the weekend) went to the Hammersmith Irish Centre to hear Colman Connolly (Uilleann Pipes/Whistles), Harriet Earis (Harp), Vicki Swan (Double Bass, Scottish Smallpipes, Whistles and Voice) and Jonny Dyer (Guitar, Piano Accordion and Voice). It was a good gig: they normally play as two duos (Colman/Harriet and Vicki/Jonny) and the performance reflected this, but they had a reasonable repertoire together.
The support act was a real surprise and would merit a concert in her own right. A young lady who won the Hammersmith Centre's Young Musician competition last year gave a stunning performance on whistle - sadly, I didn't catch her name and can't find it anywhere. She was absolutely superb, pulling off lyrical slow airs and precisely executed faster sets. Some of the best whistle playing I have heard.
Colman and Harriet are both extremely accomplished players, but there was a little awkwardness on stage. It soon passed once they started playing, but they stumbled a bit over introductions and took a few bars to really get going. They've got some interesting ideas: whilst they don't write their own tunes, they play in a very arranged style, with introductions, missing beats, frequent time changes and many more innovative ideas. Whilst this really keeps your interest, since you're always wondering what they'll do next, it does disrupt the flow of the music a bit. The parts of their performance I enjoyed the most were those which were most traditional in style: their individual techniques are very complementary and the tunes flow in a very pleasing manner when allowed to do so.
Vicki and Jonny did a couple of sets together, although the concert was billed as Colman, Harriet and friends, so they didn't perform much as a duo. They have a more relaxed and confident stage presence, with some nice sets put together. There isn't quite so much virtuosity there as when Colman and Harriet played, but the music flows a little more freely. I bought their CD, Thumb Twiddling, which is all smallpipes or whistle/guitar, and is benignly pleasant to listen to, certainly showing off Vicki's tight piping technique.
The sets that the four of them did together were great: they did a few songs, which the quartet balanced perfectly, and some lovely sets of tunes where Colman and Vicki both played low whistles. I very much hope that there's more to come in this vein, since it seems to bring the best aspects out of everyone. It was all fairly laid back; fans of high-octane, superfast reels won't find anything here, but with splendid musicality and a lot of elan. I can see them being a huge hit at a festival somewhere in the early evening.
The sound engineering was pretty mediocre, with the balance suffering to the extent where different instruments often got lost in the mix. The vocals were well done, as was the solo whistle, but when all four of the main musicians were playing, it often seemed as if time had been short for the sound check.
Particularly of note was the Guinness! It was the best pint (alright then, few pints) I've had since I was in Ireland, which makes me wonder whether it was the start of imported Guinness after brewing ceased in London. At any rate, it was especially good.
On Saturday night, we (Helen was home for the weekend) went to the Hammersmith Irish Centre to hear Colman Connolly (Uilleann Pipes/Whistles), Harriet Earis (Harp), Vicki Swan (Double Bass, Scottish Smallpipes, Whistles and Voice) and Jonny Dyer (Guitar, Piano Accordion and Voice). It was a good gig: they normally play as two duos (Colman/Harriet and Vicki/Jonny) and the performance reflected this, but they had a reasonable repertoire together.
The support act was a real surprise and would merit a concert in her own right. A young lady who won the Hammersmith Centre's Young Musician competition last year gave a stunning performance on whistle - sadly, I didn't catch her name and can't find it anywhere. She was absolutely superb, pulling off lyrical slow airs and precisely executed faster sets. Some of the best whistle playing I have heard.
Colman and Harriet are both extremely accomplished players, but there was a little awkwardness on stage. It soon passed once they started playing, but they stumbled a bit over introductions and took a few bars to really get going. They've got some interesting ideas: whilst they don't write their own tunes, they play in a very arranged style, with introductions, missing beats, frequent time changes and many more innovative ideas. Whilst this really keeps your interest, since you're always wondering what they'll do next, it does disrupt the flow of the music a bit. The parts of their performance I enjoyed the most were those which were most traditional in style: their individual techniques are very complementary and the tunes flow in a very pleasing manner when allowed to do so.
Vicki and Jonny did a couple of sets together, although the concert was billed as Colman, Harriet and friends, so they didn't perform much as a duo. They have a more relaxed and confident stage presence, with some nice sets put together. There isn't quite so much virtuosity there as when Colman and Harriet played, but the music flows a little more freely. I bought their CD, Thumb Twiddling, which is all smallpipes or whistle/guitar, and is benignly pleasant to listen to, certainly showing off Vicki's tight piping technique.
The sets that the four of them did together were great: they did a few songs, which the quartet balanced perfectly, and some lovely sets of tunes where Colman and Vicki both played low whistles. I very much hope that there's more to come in this vein, since it seems to bring the best aspects out of everyone. It was all fairly laid back; fans of high-octane, superfast reels won't find anything here, but with splendid musicality and a lot of elan. I can see them being a huge hit at a festival somewhere in the early evening.
The sound engineering was pretty mediocre, with the balance suffering to the extent where different instruments often got lost in the mix. The vocals were well done, as was the solo whistle, but when all four of the main musicians were playing, it often seemed as if time had been short for the sound check.
Particularly of note was the Guinness! It was the best pint (alright then, few pints) I've had since I was in Ireland, which makes me wonder whether it was the start of imported Guinness after brewing ceased in London. At any rate, it was especially good.