Jim Besser

Early onset Alzheimer's. Kathy Fink and Marcy Marxer arranged a benefit concert to help pay the bills; we participated. My wife used to dance with Charm City, and this week goes back for more bodily abuse. Several BLuemont members were with Baltimorris. That was before my time, tho.

Isn't that the style in the UK? I've seen that in several other CDs from over the pond

No, I wasn't complaining; I thought these cases were BETTER than the average 3-CD contraption. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get it open, first try, without it falling apart. I wasn't so lucky with a 3 CD blues collection I bought last year. When I pulled the center section out, the entire thing flew apart. Now it's just a heap of plastic on top of my stereo.

Ah yes, the Morris/hip-hop nexus. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Don't knock it, you have to change with the times!

Sorry, missed this message. As the musician for Bluemont, I am sad to report there will be no Bluemont Ale this year. Too many injuries, a decline in our ranks. It was always a great event. Bluemont had a very nice day Oct 1 in Baltimore with the Rock Creek Morris Women from DC, the Albermarle Morris Men from Charlottesville and Baltimore's Charm City Rapper, dancing on Federal Hill and at a benefit concert for caller kate Charles. Bluemont has a possible event for mid-November, hopefully with a few other sides, probably in Alexandria, Va. That's it for the year. The Foggy Bottom Morris Men are also active in Washington; they currently have an excess of great musicians. You should also check in wth the Shepherdstown (W.Va) Northwest women and the related Hicks with Sticks. They generally do a Christmas parade and dance-out in mid-December. I did it once when it was 18 degrees; cold, but great fun. Their Mayday celebration is an amazing and unique event. Seneca Creek Sword is still active in the far North burbs of Washington. That's pretty much it around here. Oh yeah, there's a new troupe of young rappers, but I think you have to be under 25 to hang with these guys.

These 3-CD cases are diabolical. This one seems sturdier than most. I've broken several, trying to get to the buried 3rd disc. Note to Alan: I listened carefully to the Gigue as played by Kirkpatrick. I shouldn't have any trouble mastering it, when i grow about 5 extra fingers and when my concertina evolves into a 96 key Anglo. Man, that guy can play. And I didn't listen carefully to the Bertram Levy segment until yesterday. His two original tunes are great. His klezmer tune is fun -- easier to play than it sounds!

I can play modes, I just can't identify them! The chords are interesting; it gives a very different sound than the way I play. I'm going to fool with it. I should record my version and see what you think.

One step at a time, lad. It's gorgerous, and it's on my list to try. I can't believe that's only a 30 key

Be warned: buy this CD and you may find yourself spending huge amounts of time learning amazing tunes you never imagined could be played on an Anglo. It took me two nights to figure out March from Scipio and get all the chords and bass notes right. St. James Infirmary is a gas to play; it just never occurred to me to try. I already learned Jody Kruskal's amazing Krazy for Kasha and have played it at sessions around here; people just love it. This CD is a treasure trove. And no, I'm not on the payroll, if indeed there is a payroll.

Duh...I keep getting confused by the idea of modes. I play a very similar version, same key. I also hear musos playing it with the first Cs in the B part sharped.

Update: so I tried some octave passages at a Morris event yesterday. Did the first two bars of the B part of Cuckoo's Nest, which I play in Dm. That section has resisted my best efforts to add chords . It seemed to add some punch in a very noisy environment where all the musicians were having a hard time being heard. The dancers seemed happy. I count the experiment a success. I was set to open another tune, Orange in Bloom, by playing the extra A all in octaves, but we didn't get to it when we were playing in the park for other dancers, and I didn't want to risk it in a performance..

My copy came today. Absolutely outstanding. Nice, informative booklet, great graphics, professionally produced CDs, an amazing assortment of music... everything we could have asked for, and more. Thank you, Alan and the rest of the crew.

Altogether a helpful and interesting discussion.

Yes, that's one of the recordings that got me thinking about this; he really uses the little section of octave playing to punch up the opening.

She has periodically exprssed interest in learning Morris. Her mother is a Cotswold and rapper dancer, I play 2 sides. she might be interested in a mixed side of youngish folks, willing to work with newcomers.

Thanks for the lucid explanation. I think I've been doing a lot of that, but it would be good to back and study him in more detail, now that I'm pretty comfortable with the tunes and the dances.

Foggy Bottom is mostly melodeons, plus Big Nick on Jeffries Duet. Rock Creek is the old lineup; melodeon, sometimes piano accordion, fiddle. The guy with the cool Dipper -- Carl?-- comes only sometimes. But we'll see them on Saturday when we dance at a Kate Charles benefit concert and on the streets in Balto!

That's true; it makes for a loud and very penetrating sound, which is one reason I've been fooling aorund with it. No EC players doing Morris around here these days. Actually, very few concertinas of any variety to be seen.

The two are not mutually exclusive. Good Morris music is a delight to listen to, even when the dancers aren't visible. Or do we all actually think the Kimber and Kirkpatrick recordings of Morris music are either boring or undanceable? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That's a point that seems to elude a lot of people. One musician I know argues that the best Morris music is music stripped down to a very basic rhythm track. THe dancers say he's easy to dance to, but his music sounds, well, very unmusical. OTOH, there are musicians like Big Nick whose music would be a delight to hear even if there wasn't a dancer within miles. It's interesting, he varies it a lot and it sounds great.

The reason I started doing it was for passages where I can't do a regular bass/chord arrangement or a good harmony. I am averse to ever playing single notes, and this seemed like a good way to avoid that for such passages. In Cuckoo's Nest, I maintain a real steady bass/chord accompaniment that the dancers like -- but at the start of the B part, it doesn't work. My choice is to use bass/chords that don't really work well, or do octave playing for that passage, or single notes. You're right about supporting the dancing; that's the object of the whole exercise..

It is a little discouraging when the dancers seem so completely oblivious to the music -- except, of course, when we make mistakes. BTW, are you anywhere near Cambridge University? My wayward child is arriving there today for grad school.

I've been fooling around with doing short passages in Morris tunes in octave format -- playing the same note an octave apart, instead of harmonies and chords. To me, this adds some variety to the music and seems to help accentuate certain passages to go with the dance (the beetle crushers in Orange in Bloom /Sherborne , if you know what I mean, or the first few measures of the B part in Cuckoo's nest, which I play in Dm). I asked the dancers if they liked it, and their collective response can be paraphrased this way: "Huh?" Since I play in blissful ignorance (there aren't a lot of Anglo players with Morris sides around here), I'm wondering how common this is, how people regard this kind of playing and whether it is a grotesque violation of Morris tradition for which I will be damned to eternal hellfire. .

What I've noticed is that all of the accordion reeded instruments are much better than they were a few years ago. I have a 6 year old Herrington and a 3 month old Morse; they both play great, but the Morse sounds much better, much more like a traditional concertina. At last year's NESI I tried Edgleys, Tedrows and Geun Wakkers, and they all were very credible instruments; in purchasing a G/D this summer, I had a hard time making up my mind (utlimately, it was its light weight that decided me; a Morse for Morris. so to speak). All that said, I stlll prefer the sound of my restored vintage box. My Morse sounds very good, but to me it sounds different in different settings, sometimes more like a concertina, sometimes distinctly accordionish. The vintage instrument has a consistent, traditional concertina sound with a real bite to it that none of the accordion reeded instruments really duplicates. But for playability, the Morse is great, and people who hear it say they like the sound. .

It was a bummer. I had a Morris commitment, and since I play solo, if I don't play, they don't dance! But it was a nice festival, the ladies did great and the music went well. But I sorely missed being at the Squeeze In.

Cool tune. It's in the first Portland collection of contra dance tunes. It's a copyrighted tune, so probably shouldn't be posted without permission. Written by Marcel Messervier, an accordionist.