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Poll: Tune Of The Month For March, 2014


Jim Besser

Poll: TOTM March 2014  

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Congratulations: The C.net Tune of the Month is celebrating an anniversary. A year ago, we started with Fiery Clockface, and there have been many excellent recordings since then and good discussions. I’ve learned a lot - I hope you all have, as well.


Here are some fun tunes to start off the TOTM’s second year.


Amelia: The world of contra dance music lost one of its greats recently with the death of Bob McQuillen, who played a major role in reviving this New England tradition in the 1960s and 1970s - and wrote more than 1300 tunes. He was a regular at the Northeast Squeeze In; a lot of c.netters had the privilege of playing with him.


Amelia is arguably his most famous tune - a waltz that has spread far beyond the contra dance world.


Bob played accordion, but was probably better known as the quintessential contra dance piano player. Here he is a couple of years ago at the keyboard playing Amelia, and here is a nice example played on hammered dulcimer and fiddle


Lemmy Brazil’s Number Two. How did I overlook this one for so man years? Lemmy's is an English tune that’s positively infectious. I learned it at last year’s Marlboro Morris Ale from our own Robin Harrison and have played it at numerous sessions here in the Washington DC area since then.


Here’s a wonderful version on melodeon, played by Anahata (it’s the second tune in the set)


Kost er C'hoat . Is it the name of the tune or the name of a dance? I'm not sure, I've heard different stories; maybe someone out there in c.net land can clear it up. I first heard this in the earliest days of concertina.net from Alan Day, whose band recorded it sometime in the Dark Ages. This tune from Brittany is simple and loads of fun to play. Here’s a link to Jody Kruskal’s version, and Alan Day’s (at the end of a set of French tunes)


And the dance, in case you're interested.


St. James Infirmary: Here’s one out of left field. Recently I was listening to Anglo International, that superb collection of music from various genres played on Anglo concertinas (and assembled by our own Alan Day), and I was reminded how much I liked a version of The St. James Infirmary. I always meant to learn it but never quite got around to it.


Here’s what Wikipedia says about the song:


"St. James Infirmary Blues" is based on an 18th-century traditional English folk song called "The Unfortunate Rake" (also known as "The Unfortunate Lad" or "The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime"), about a soldier who uses his money on prostitutes, and then dies of a venereal disease."


Whew.


Here’s a clip that will give you a flavor of the tune in its early forms, and just try to imagine what you could do with it on concertina. Trust me, it works. It’s a short tune with basically just an A part; the trick will be to fill it out with interesting improvisation.


Here’s a pretty wild version with a couple of accordions


And a performance on a New York subway platform!


That's it. Pick the one you want to work on next month and vote!

Edited by Jim Besser
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Bob played accordion, but was probably better known as the quintessential contra dance piano player. Here he is a couple of years ago at the keyboard playing Amelia

 

Hey, isn't that Ken Sweeney on harmonica, the 4th person to the left behind Bob? Odd to see him playing harmonica while not also playing English Concertina at the same time.

 

Bob was at the piano (and accordion for some couples dances during the break) at the first contra dance I ever went to, in February, 1977 (Central Square, Cambridge, MA). It's too bad that of all the pictures and videos I've seen of him since he died, none are from that era or earlier, when he was in his prime.

 

[edited for typo]

Edited by David Barnert
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Bob played accordion, but was probably better known as the quintessential contra dance piano player. Here he is a couple of years ago at the keyboard playing Amelia

 

Hey, isn't that Ken Sweeney on harmonica, the 4th person to the left behind Bob? Odd to see him playing harmonica while not also playing English Concertina at the same time.

 

Bob was at the piano (and accordion for some couples dances during the break) at the first contra dance I ever went to, in February, 1977 (Central Square, Cambridge, MA). It's too bad that of all the pictures and videos I've seen of him since he died, none are from that era or earlier, when he was in his prime.

 

[edited for typo]

 

 

Could be!

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St. James Infirmary: ...

Here’s a pretty wild version with a couple of accordions

 

Yes indeed (and you didn't even mention the horn section!) - and it's really fun to watch and listen; the moment when the third lady's entering, what's gonna happen next? Surprise, she's playing am mean trombone...! :D :D

 

Glad that I'm not alone in choosing this one (yes, this time I'm not making any secret of that!), wanted to do it all along, love to play it on the piano anyway!

 

Besides, it had been smashing Eric Burdon who once introduced me to the song, had all the records from The Animals old and new... B)

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As much as I like Bretagne tunes (though mainly the minor-key ones), something bluesy-jazzy would be a great change of pace. Though I'm not opposed to doing trad British tunes, it's not my forte, so always glad to see the TOTM push boundaries. I really want to finally dive in on this one, since I missed December for holidays, January because I was trying to sort out a reed issue, and now February because I have my concertina in for warranty repair. But for March I should have my box cleaned up and ready to go...

Edited by MatthewVanitas
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