Whatever Happened To Duet International ?

[Ken_Coles]

I can certainly reset his old password if needed. Paul generally takes care of authorizing new accounts, but if he is too busy I can check on it later.

 

Ken

(currently at a professional conference)

[Alan Day]

Well done Ken.

Thanks

Al

[maccannic]

Four more years have gone past.  My hair is now white, my beard is salt-and -pepper grey, my fingers increasingly arthritic.  But still no Duet International.  Will it ever happen?

[Dee746]

Having just purchased a Lachenal Maccann duet concertina (my first duet) from Chris Algar (Barleycorn), I started reading the early 2011 posts re the duet and the forthcoming Duet International CD with great anticipation...as I  moved on to the 2014 posts, my thoughts went to "oh darn, it's never going to be issued..." Then with sadness, I just read this 2018 post... 

 

Things happen.  Life gets in the way.  I get it.   So...If it isn't likely to come out in the next few years, is there a way to make all the wonderful Duet recordings various duet players contributed available that doesn't require the production of the CD?

 

Alan and Graham, could you at least  give us a list of the musicians, type of duet concertina played and songs that would have been included on the CD?

 

And to those of you who contributed duet recordings for this project, if you see this, could you let us know if about any CDs, spotify, or youtube videos you've made?

 

Going through the postings has helped me identify names of folks who have recorded duet concertina music, and I've found some nice things on Youtube.

 

But it sure would be nice to have info on different Duet players who've recorded in one place...It's a wonderful thing for us newbies!

 

Thanks all. 

Edited May 12, 2019 by Dee746

[wes williams]

My website has recently had another 23 sides of concertina recordings (and one of Alf Edwards playing ocarina!) from 78rpm records added to the 'Various Players' page (ie all except Alexander Prince)  including two from Professor Maccann himself recorded in 1900 thanks to Peter Adamson. Norman Field has also contributed three early sides from Steve Bartle, the English system player. I have many more Alexander Prince (Maccann) recordings to add. Feel free to download and create your own 'pick and mix' CDs!

[Daniel Hersh]

I submitted three recordings back in 2009 and 2010 (on Hayden, which I hardly play anymore) and had them tentatively accepted.   Last I heard from Graham was in 2011.   I haven't put them or any other duet recordings online but might someday.

 

On 5/12/2019 at 11:40 AM, Dee746 said:

Having just purchased a Lachenal Maccann duet concertina (my first duet) from Chris Algar (Barleycorn), I started reading the early 2011 posts re the duet and the forthcoming Duet International CD with great anticipation...as I  moved on to the 2014 posts, my thoughts went to "oh darn, it's never going to be issued..." Then with sadness, I just read this 2018 post... 

 

Things happen.  Life gets in the way.  I get it.   So...If it isn't likely to come out in the next few years, is there a way to make all the wonderful Duet recordings various duet players contributed available that doesn't require the production of the CD?

 

Alan and Graham, could you at least  give us a list of the musicians, type of duet concertina played and songs that would have been included on the CD?

 

And to those of you who contributed duet recordings for this project, if you see this, could you let us know if about any CDs, spotify, or youtube videos you've made?

 

Going through the postings has helped me identify names of folks who have recorded duet concertina music, and I've found some nice things on Youtube.

 

But it sure would be nice to have info on different Duet players who've recorded in one place...It's a wonderful thing for us newbies!

 

Thanks all. 

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by Daniel Hersh

[Dee746]

Thanks Wes! What a great resource you've shared.  I will make full use of it.

 

And how funny is this.  I actually play the pendant ocarina - have a number in different keys, mostly alto and baritone since my poor dog tolerates the pitch better than the sopranos...I have asthma, and after a bad bout it's my favorite way of rehabbing my lungs!  Beats the heck out of blowing into a tube to make the little ball go up and down...

 

 

[Dee746]

3 minutes ago, Daniel Hersh said:

I submitted three recordings back in 2007 (on Hayden, which I hardly play anymore) and had them tentatively accepted.   Last I heard from Graham was in 2011.   I haven't put them or any other duet recordings online but might someday.

 

 

Thanks for responding Daniel.  What types of music do you play on your duet?  And as a new duet learner hungrily searching for arrangements to listen too, I heartily encourage you post some of your recordings...

 

[Irene S.]

Oh dear - poor Al has been tearing his hair out about this project for several years now, having put in a lot of legwork and wheedled out a large number of (to me) exciting recordings which were submitted to Graham. To the best of my knowledge when I last spoke to him about it he had had no postive contact from Graham at all. Ralphie Jordan submitted four recordings, but in the end released his own solo CD rather than wait. Those four were in fact on his CD "Eloise", but are not the recordings that he submitted as he worked further on them afterwards. I think I've given up hope of hearing them all .. would be particularly interested in hearing people like Maurice Harvey etc. Dee, if you check out the International Concertina Association website you will find that there are some duet recordings on the Sound pages ... Jean Megly is well worth a listen ... link is at http://www.concertina.org/sound-archive/son-of-readers-tapes/

Do check out some of the other recordings on there, as you will find other duet players amongst the various performers listed.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Irene S.

[Irene S.]

For brilliant duet playing on a Jeffries ... try Michael Hebbert

 

[Dee746]

1 hour ago, Irene S. said:

Oh dear - poor Al has been tearing his hair out about this project for several years now, having put in a lot of legwork and wheedled out a large number of (to me) exciting recordings which were submitted to Graham. To the best of my knowledge when I last spoke to him about it he had had no postive contact from Graham at all. Ralphie Jordan submitted four recordings, but in the end released his own solo CD rather than wait. Those four were in fact on his CD "Eloise", but are not the recordings that he submitted as he worked further on them afterwards. I think I've given up hope of hearing them all .. would be particularly interested in hearing people like Maurice Harvey etc. Dee, if you check out the International Concertina Association website you will find that there are some duet recordings on the Sound pages ... Jean Megly is well worth a listen ... link is at http://www.concertina.org/sound-archive/son-of-readers-tapes/

Do check out some of the other recordings on there, as you will find other duet players amongst the various performers listed.

 

[Dee746]

Thanks for these resources Irene!

 

And to Alan Day - We've never met, but please know that none of what I said was meant as a criticism of you or anyone else.  As a relative newbie to the Anglo concertina and a complete newbie to the Duet, I am in awe, not only of your musicianship, but your generosity in posting your Anglo tutoring files online for the rest of us to learn from, as well as the work you've done on other concertina collections.  Thank-you for everything you've done to help the concertina community!  I am truly grateful.

[David Barnert]

I submitted a handful of recordings on my Hayden. I have a YouTube collection here and SoundCloud here.

[Dee746]

I love French style musette, and I've been listening to your posting of Sous le Ciel de Paris for the last few weeks!  Today, I'll listen to the rest of your wonderful music.  Thanks so much!

[maccannic]

I sent in a few first-pass recordings for Duet International.  The response from Alan was not altogether positive, but he suggested I re-do a couple of them.  I must admit, at this point I rather lost heart and didn't take it any further.

 

There are a couple of recordings of myself playing on this forum somewhere, in case you (or anybody) is interested.  I'll have to see if I can find them.  But I've got a bigger concertina now, and my playing is not the same.

[Dee746]

I'd love to hear anything you recorded-

 

Thanks!

[Irene S.]

Have spoken to Al, who has lost his password on Cnet apparently. To precis what he said, he had spent two years "putting Duet International together, sent all the recordings to Graham, and that is where they stayed." ... Any requests to re record were not his decision but Graham's on the whole. The actual matter of recording would involve a heavy outlay, and Amazon would take a cut of sales. I get the impression from what he has said that the opinion may have been that the Duet International recording costs would not be covered by sales, which was the main reason for things not going ahead. I personally am still very disappointed by this, as I know there were some interesting recordings in there ... I suppose we can still hope but after all this time ......

Al has said that when he retrieves access to the members' part of the site he will respond,

 

[Daniel Hersh]

I doubt that a CD set will ever be published at this point, but I have wondered if the recordings could be placed online somewhere instead.  The Concertina & Squeezebox Readers Tapes now on the ICA site that Irene mentioned earlier (http://www.concertina.org/sound-archive/ ) are an example of the sort of thing that I mean.