Re: [scots-l] Tony McManus 4/15 Berkeley, CA House Concert
Sally Greenberg wrote: Scottish guitarist Tony McManus is returning for the 3rd time after 2 previous sell-outs to perform a concert at my house on Sunday, April 15th. For those of you who don't know Tony, he is incredible. In 1996 I received a call from an Edinburgh music shop saying 'you like celtic guitar, come and have a beer, we've got a demonstration by this incredible player' - Tony. I hadn't heard of him then but I had heard his name mentioned. So I went along and was completely converted. I even forced him to play crap guitars (Takamine or something) instead of his handmade job and to abandon the PA. I just had to be sure that no aspect of the remarkable sound he produced was only to do with instruments or set-up; of course, it isn't. He can do it on anything, and since then I've met Tony several times in different contexts - workshops, houseparties, summer schools. He has proved he also can do this while he should be asleep, and can drive a guitar under the influence of Old Sheepshagger 'drawn from the wood'. If you play fiddle or pipes, it's probably fair to say you won't very much like what guitarists do with your timing, ornaments, modes and harmonies etc - in fact, most guitarists will either hamper your own playing or provide a very inadequate imitation on the wrong instrument. This is where Tony is totally different. He will persuade you that tunes YOU thought were written for the fiddle, whistle, smallpipes or even the Great Highland Pipes have been since their birth destined for the guitar. So it isn't just guitarists who need to hear and see Tony (to mend their ways) but other traditional Scottish/Irish/Cape Breton etc players who can gain insights. Tony will be playing back home in Scotland at the Wynd Theatre in Melrose on June 15th - sadly he won't be doing a workshop, as he must fly out to Italy the next morning. But at risk of overdoing the praise, this is one guitar player you must hear if you think you have no interest in guitar players - and one player that 'celtic guitar' players should hear to reassess their approach and standards. David -- Icon magazines: http://www.freelancephotographer.co.uk/ Music CDs and tracks: http://www.mp3.com/DavidKilpatrick Personal website: http://www.maxwellplace.demon.co.uk/pandemonium/ Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[scots-l] [Fwd: BOUNCE scots-l@: Non-member submission from [Alasdair MacGillean amacgillean@hotmail.com]]
From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Mar 31 12:46:56 2001 Received: from hotmail.com (f142.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.142]) by argyll.wisemagic.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA02147 for [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Sat, 31 Mar 2001 12:21:31 -0800 Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Sat, 31 Mar 2001 11:29:57 -0800 Received: from 142.177.236.41 by lw12fd.law12.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP;Sat, 31 Mar 2001 19:29:57 GMT X-Originating-IP: [142.177.236.41] From: "Alasdair MacGillean" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Tony McManus 4/15 Berkeley, CA House Concert Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001 15:29:57 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-OriginalArrivalTime: 31 Mar 2001 19:29:57.0252 (UTC) FILETIME=[F8341C40:01C0BA18] Tony McManus is a great guitar player ,but to my mind I don't agree that there are non comparable in a Scottish music world that includes Dave MacIsaac , J.P. Cormier , Scot MacMillan , Gordie Sampson , and John Allen Cameron. The very best get together including all of the above (McManus as well) at the guitar summits in Judique during Celtic Colours. This is not a contest to see who is best, and that may be a matter of personal oppinion, but they are all certainly comparable ,as anyone who has been there will attest. From: Sally Greenberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],Cape Breton Music Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Tony McManus 4/15 Berkeley, CA House Concert Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 22:54:32 -0800 Hello to all in the San Francisco area, Time to get the taxes or extension filed early... And come to a very special Easter Sunday 7:30PM concert! Scottish guitarist Tony McManus is returning for the 3rd time after 2 previous sell-outs to perform a concert at my house on Sunday, April 15th. If you've seen/heard Tony perform with Alasdair Fraser, or at Valley of the Moon, or solo at my place, I probably don't have to say any more. But in case you haven't, Tony is one of the most awesome guitarists there is. There simply isn't anyone comparable in the world of Scottish music. Tony has the knack for adapting pipe and fiddle tunes to guitar and making them sound incredible. There are still plenty of good seats left, but the concert is 1/2 sold out, so don't wait too long... On the day before the concert (Sat, April 14th), Tony will be appearing live on Folk Music and Beyond at 3PM on KALW (91.7). A text copy of the concert flyer is attached at the end of this message. For reservations, prepayment (to select seats ahead of time), directions, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call me at 510-644-2135. Further information, including html and PDF versions of the flyer, can also be obtained from: http://www.sgreenberg.org/concerts.htm Seats are also still available for all other upcoming concerts: Priscilla Herdman (4/7 4/9 - only 7 seats left on 4/7), Bob Fox (4/29), Ben Sands (5/6), Saffron Summerfield (6/10). Thanks for your continued support! Sally -- TONY McMANUS, Scottish guitarist, will be performing at a House Concert in BERKELEY on Sunday, April 15th (Easter) at 7:30PM Returning after sell-out concerts in '98 '99, it's amazing to get another opportunity to see Scotland's premier guitarist, Tony McManus, perform solo in a small, intimate venue! In only 9 years as a professional musician, Tony McManus has risen from relative obscurity to being the most in-demand Celtic guitarist in Britain today - both as an accompanist and as a soloist. During the past few years he has performed extensively with Alasdair Fraser, Brian McNeill and Alain Gentry, as well as with many other fine musicians from Scotland, Ireland, England, and Cape Breton: Natalie MacMaster, Martin Hayes Dennis Cahill, Sean Keane, Rod Patterson, Ishbel MacAskill, Phil Cunningham, Tommy Peoples, Kevin Crawford, Kate Rusby, Catriona Macdonald, Liz Doherty, Billy Ross, William Jackson, and others. In addition to live performances, Tony is one of the busiest studio musicians in the UK, having performed on over 50 albums to date. He released a duo CD with Alasdair Fraser in May '99 which is considered one of the most brilliant Celtic albums of the past several years. Alongside his work with others, Tony has developed a solo guitar repertoire of startling originality, combining mesmerizing technique with a deep love of traditional music from Scotland and beyond. He is equally as comfortable with driving dance tunes as he is with haunting slow airs. He has released 2 solo CDs, both of which have resulted in rave
Re: [scots-l] Tiny monster
For anyone still surviving my attempts to play instruments which have relevance to anything at all, lend an ear to this one - the Greek baglama. It is best described as a soup ladle which accidentally got strings. The word and the instrument are Turkish, though the Turkish word (it means "tied", referring to the frets) usually applies to a larger size. The Turkish word for what you've got is "cura saz", the first word pronounced like "Jura"; it also means a small shrill-voiced hawk. So perhaps a set comprising "The Earl of Jura" and "The Hawk that Swoops on High" might be appropriate. (BTW, when did Jura ever have an earl? What is that tune about?) This is a little sort of primitive piece I've called 'Out of the Bag' and played on the baglama with a tabor-style drum beat accompaniment. The pun doesn't work with the Turkish pronunciation - BAAlama. It's great for dispersing excess Shetland fiddlers! My current exercise in instrument abuse is playing Scottish tunes on the Black Sea fiddle or "kemence" - long thin soundbox, tuned in fourths D-g-c, flattish bridge so you can't play the middle string without sounding an outer one, hand-tensioned bow so you can relax it and triple-stop at any time, played suspended vertically by the left hand (traditionally, players are also dance callers, and dance themselves, or at least leap about among the dancers, while playing it). It's good for dreich ballad tunes, and pipe tunes aren't too hard (transposed A - D) if they don't use the low G. Should sound dead mediaeval along with a wire harp. It isn't in fact mediaeval: no kemence is known from before about 1880 and its earlier history is obscure, it may have been invented by the Adzhar people of the Caucasus, based on Turkmen and Italian models. I don't propose to inflict an MP3 on the world in the near future. === http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ === Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
