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There is no new way to
play Irish music There is no new way to play
Irish music
Paddy O’Brien from Co.
Offaly is
not just one of the most famous Irish accordionists in the world but
also a man
who had developed so many abilities that one can hardly put into
practice in a
lifetime. He
is also a recognized musician, collector, composer and even a poet.
Above all, Paddy is a little bit of a philosopher and a very
outstanding
figure. In Ireland and in the USA they speak of him like we of Peter
Mamonov -
"a
mystery-man".
But everything
he got
from life – from
his name to the instrument he wanted to play - could have made his
career very
difficult from the very start. It is not a big secret
that an accordionist called Paddy
O’Brien could have become a prominent and influential figure in Irish
music
just as well as Ivan Smirnov in Russia, for example. More to say, due to the irony of
fate one of
the most elder famous accordionists had the same
name and
surname.
Paddy O’Brien was born September 13, 1945 in Castle Barnagh, Co. Offaly. He started learning
accordion on
his own. When
he was young, Paddy traveled Ireland a lot playing sessions with
various older
musicians, to
name a few prominent: legendary fiddler from Donegal John Doherty, fiddler from Co. Antrim
– Frank
MacCollum and Paddy Fahy as well. A good experience that
proved useful in creating his own
manner of play was his cooperation with some pipers, for example, Tom
Nolan. From
the older musicians he tried
to get a special attitude to music – not to look at it as a job but to
consider
it to be a lifestyle. And he surely managed to remember dozens of
dances from
those musicians. At the late 50-s, and the beginning of 60-s in Ireland, the radio
played a great part in
stimulation of interest in traditional music. Paddy was especially
keen on
programs like «Céilí House» and «Job of
Journeywork».
Paddy O’Brien first played in public in 1966, when he was in a band
with Peter
Kilroe, Dan Cleary, and
others from Ballinamere.
In 1968
he decided to
go on his first trip to America and toured the eastern United States
with Seán
and Kathleen Ryan.
They played traditional music in community halls and clubs. After
returning in
April 1969, being already experienced, Paddy moved to Dublin to attend
regular
pub and club sessions with fiddlers: first of all - John Kelly and Joe
Ryan,
and also Seán
Kean from Chieftains and Tommy Potts. James Kean, who later moved to
the USA,
was the accordionist who influenced O’Brien most of all. For Paddy all that
seemed kind of
informal lessons, augmented by various stories about the music and the
people
who played it. Those
lessons were a great value to him. Bars became his
universities, as for the majority of
Irish traditional musicians. He still speaks about
session rules as a good training
saying, "lots
of bartender girls turned hard of hearing in my lifetime".
Young Paddy O’Brien
got many good advises, important records, etc. Living in Dublin, like the majority of the
musicians, above
sessions, in
order to develop his sense of
rhythm and to feel dancers on stage, he began playing in ceili-bands at
large Irish
dancing parties. It
was the time when Paddy finally managed to settle down on Dublin music
scene. For
several years he played with
two bands at the same time – the famous Castle Céilí
Band since 1969 and Ceoltoiri
Laighean (or
Leinster
musicians) since
1971. Each of the
bands made records, which were a success with the critics. Both groups
were
active on TV, radio, gave numerous concerts in Ireland and abroad.
Then O’Brien’s recognizable style of accordion playing was already
coming
forward. "The
way I’m playing is not very delicate", he says. Many would agree that
Paddy
O’Brien’s music is remarkable due to its simplicity, clarity and
confidence in
every phrase. There is time for every note in every ornament under
moderate
tempo even in the fastest dances, which however doesn’t
make them less dancing and slow, but
even clearer, stable
and especially rural. And that also gives a
feeling of the continuity of the dance. In that skill of "hustling unhurriedly"
without any bustle and
unnecessary notes, as
Paddy puts it, is
hidden the connection with the old masters’ art, with the very thing
they left
us with the dance tunes.
It is probably not a fortuity that considering such an attitude in
combination
with perfect knowledge of the origins of the Irish tunes, the music performed by
him was
added to the book «Melodies
and dances of Ireland» (Ceol Rince
na hÉireann) by
Breandán Breathnach – the foremost scholarly
work on the
Irish music. Tearing up with the famous scientist and collector brought
Paddy
lots of new records.
In the early 70-s Paddy went all the way up of a professional Irish
musician
from the lower classes – the road of regional
contests and festivals. His skill of playing
two-row
accordion or as they call it in Ireland, "button box", was rewarded: he won many contests, for example Oireachtas - four times. The main goal for every
Irish
musician or dancer is always a victory in the open championship of
Ireland (All-Ireland),
in fact the most
difficult, and
not proclaimed all over the world championship, which gathers together
the best
artists once a year. It opens the way to new
prestigious contracts and gives a professional
status. Also
a victory in All Ireland or Fleá Cheoil championship in Ireland stays
with the
musician forever, like
the Olympic champion title. The All Ireland of his
own Paddy O’Brien of Offaly won in 1975 in Buncranna.
His further career, as
well as many other famous Irish musicians, who hadn’t found any
funds for
traditional music projects at home, no support and
understanding from cultural officials, is connected with America. The interest towards
Irish music
was growing constantly in the USA. But its standard still
stayed rather low. Paddy never pinned any
hopes upon
America: "Yes. They
want to play Irish music but the question is the way they are doing it".
Living two houses, being rather poor, Irish
musicians
were to put Irish music and its idea to new high standards in the USA. And they partly succeeded.
In 1978 Paddy
returned to the USA to make an album «Is It
Yourself?» for
Shanachie with fiddler James
Kelly, John Kelly’s son, and guitarist Dáithí Sproule. The trio became known as
«Bowhand». They gave plenty concerts, played at different
festivals in
Washington, Saint
Louise, Saint
Paul,
San Fransisco,
Boston, New York and others - all over the United States. «Bowhand» recorded the second
record
«Spring in the Air» in 1980 and several times
appeared at
National Public Radio in Saint Paul. The project lived about
5 years, was recognized among
Irish music lovers all over the world and is surely worth of another
article.
In
1983 Paddy
O’Brien settled in Minnesota. He began touring the USA
with Cork banjo player Seán
O’Driscoll and Saint Paul singer and guitarist Tom Dahill. That group, known as «Hill
16»,
released an album
of the same name in 1984.
>From the middle of 80-s Paddy toured with
different musicians. In 1988 he made his
first solo
album “Stranger at the Gate” on the Green Linnet label along with Dáithí
Sproule.
Various
dances were included in the album: not only jigs and reels
but also marches and
"highlands"
(an Irish
version of
Scottish dance “strathspey”). Many dances that Paddy
has written perfectly match
the traditional tunes of the musicians of the past.
In June 1992 Paddy O’Brien was
invited to appear on a traditional music showcase «The
Pure Drop» on
Irish
national TV. Along with other musicians, like Clare fiddler Martin
Hayes and
Dublin piper Pat Broaders, Paddy O’Brien in between times became one of
the
anchor musicians for “John D. McGurk’s” pub in Saint Louise, the only
pub in
the USA that can boast Irish traditional music seven nights a week.
Since the
very day not a single large Irish arrangement in Saint Louise could do
without
them.
But having
linked himself with the USA, he hadn’t become an American at all and
continued
to carry out many interesting projects - not only in the States but
also in
Ireland.
In 1993, Paddy
published two poems dedicated to the legendary pipers, Seamus Ennis and Willy
Clansy in
the Dal gCais magazin in Co. Clare.
In 1994, Paddy
succeeded as a teacher. He conducted a weeklong
workshop at the prestigious Willie
Clancy Summer School in
Miltown Malbay, Co.
Clare. He
also made an education program for the school. There he also gave
concerts. That
year he organized a concert
tour all over Ireland, which was a great success.
Among musicians and Irish traditional music collectors Paddy O’Brien
was and
still is one of the most important keepers of the tradition. During his almost
40-year career he
collected more than 3000 different jigs, reels, hornpipes,
marches and slow
airs,
among which
there are lots of rare and unusual ones, and many famous ones exist in
different versions. Not
so long ago his collection hasn’t been recorded at all – with a perfect memory,
Paddy simply
remembered every one by heart! In autumn 1994, Paddy got a grant from
the National Endowment for
the Arts to record and annotate more than 500 jigs and reels from his
wide
repertoire in a compilation called “The Paddy O’Brien
Tune Collection” (unfortunately not in
Ireland,
but in the USA).
Afterwards he spent the rest of the fall and the most part of the
winter to
record 500 selected
tunes to be added to “The Paddy O’Brien
Tune Collection”. It was released in July 1995 and at once has been
hailed as a
precious and indispensable resource by Irish musicians on both sides of
the
Atlantic. In
late
1995, along
with
the famous fiddler Martin Hayes and Aidan Brennan Paddy gave a tour and
a
series of master-classes in Alaska.
Soon afterwards Paddy made a band known as Chulrua (as the legend goes,
that
was the name for one of Finn MacCumall’s dogs from the Irish myths). He
plays
with them till the very day. The project is Irish-American again. It includes guitarist
and singer
from Tipperary Pat Egan and American uillean piper Tim Britton.
Paddy O’Brien is untiring. That man was destined to
be the embodiment of the living
Irish tradition. He
had enough attention, perfect ear and memory, and supple fingers as
well to collect
and adopt the legacy of the musicians and collectors of the past times. He had skillful mind,
kindness and
sensitiveness to give all that to young generations in different
countries in
the modern language and to let them know that every traditional music
is not a
set of inert standards and techniques, but a whole world, alive and following its
own rules. And
here it seems quite natural
that there is a place for an author to appear, not to keep within the
strict
borders, to
bring something bright and individual, and at the same time not
to destroy
the law with excess experiments, to value that inner
integrity that keeps Irish music
alive for so many generations. Each and every
generation of Irish musicians has its way. But in fact it is the
one and only
road.
One for all. Critics and listeners
often quote
Paddy O’Brien. And
we will follow the tradition choosing the most popular and clear one as
our
epigraph.
Paddy O’Brien (Offaly) on the Internet:
The official Chulrua webpage:
http://www.chulrua.com/
Paddy O’Briens tunes’ collection:
http://www.chulrua.com/tunehome.html
[i]
That is why Paddy O’Brien is known with the additional name from his
native Co.
Offaly or «Paddy
O’Brien Jr.».
All that – in order to distinguish him and legendary accordionist Paddy
O’Brien
from Co. Tipperary («Paddy
Senior»),
long passed away. But,
as it goes for the elder and younger, two Paddies’ ages vary a
lot, and they are not relatives
but only namesakes. It
is interesting that Paddy O’Brien Jr. of Offaly is more or less known
here -
both solo and in compilations of "Celtic music", and also for his
Bowhand albums,
his name is almost common and means “Irish accordionist”, while the
senior one
is not known at all, despite the fact that he was the man to develop
and
improve manner of playing Irish two-row accordion and became epochal
figure in
Ireland.
[ii]
The Irish Volunteer thanks Rick Cunningham for the pictures.
Therefore, Paddy O'Brien called
on his mother counties Offaly or "Paddy O'Brien Jr.," to distinguish
it, and another has already deceased legendary accordionist Paddy
O'Brien, originally from County Tipperary ( "Senior Paddy"). Хотя,
как и положено старшему и младшему, два Падди О'Брайена солидно
различаются возрастом, это не родственники, а два однофамильца и тёзки.
Although, as set senior and junior Paddy O'Brien firmly in two
different age, it is not the relatives, and two odnofamiltsa and
namesakes. Интересно,
что если Падди О'Брайкен-младший из Оффали более-менее известен у нас и
сольно, в сборниках "кельтской музыки", и по альбомам с Bowhand, и
именно его имя становится почти нарицательным в значении "ирландский
гармонист", то старшего практически не знают совсем, несмотря на то,
что именно он развил и усовершенствовал технику игры на двухрядной
гармонике в Ирландии и стал там фигурой почти культовой. Назад
к тексту >>>
Interestingly, if Paddy O'Brayken Jr. of Offaly more or less known to
us and sang, in the collected "Celtic music", and on the album with
Bowhand, and it is his name has become almost face in the sense of
"Irish accordionist, the senior know very little, despite the fact that
he developed and improved technique of playing the harmonica double in
Ireland and became almost a cult figure there. Back to
the text>>>
Автор статьи и администрация
сайта благодарят Рика Каннингема за любезно предоставленные фотографии.
The author and copyright administration thank Rick Cunningham
graciously granted for the photos.
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