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Posted (edited)

I am starting this page for Duet players to submit their recordings, It is intended to finish up with a total page (s) of recordings only that you can listen to, or download free.

No players are receiving a fee, or any financial reward , but from the players who have kindly agreed to submit recordings the quality of playing should be fairly high.

There may be a delay in the recordings appearing as this project has only just started.

 

 http://www.concertinas.org.uk/DuetAudio.htm

Edited by Alan Day
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Posted

Alan asked me to post on this thread a recording that I made long ago for Duet International.  He writes: "I would be very grateful if you would post the recordings you sent on my personal mail to that page. That would make you the first but it would also show others what we require."

 

The recording is at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NJjKHQoTTBJgYAXJnKW-tAlnSAaCDaZf/view  .I was playing a Elise Hayden Duet from Concertina Connection.  

 

The tune (Lios na Banríona, which means Fort of the Fairy Queen) was written by Irish fiddler Nollaig Casey.  I learned it from her 1995 CD with Arty McGlynn called "Causeway."  From her liner notes: "This tune I've named after 'Lios na Banríona' a small townland near Bandon in Co. Cork where I grew up.  The word Lios means Fairy Fort, and the countryside in Ireland is dotted with them.  They are in fact, prehistoric ring forts.  They were thought to be inhabited by the fairies and people were afraid to interfere with them.  As a result a great many of them remain intact and unploughed by farmers to this day."

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Posted (edited)

A few years back, I worked with Alan to get some recordings of the late Big Nick Robertshaw on 'Duet International."  Unfortunately, Nick - my predecessor as musician for the Foggy Bottom Morris Men and the consummate player of the Jeffries duet - never got into a recording studio. What we have is an informal recording he made in his barn.  A few of these are his own compositions - 'Beer that Tastes Like Beer" has become something of an anthem among American Morris sides, for obvious reasons.

 

http://rememberbignick.pbworks.com/w/page/10496931/A Night with Big Nick

 

Nick had 3 Jeffries duets, I believe, but mostly gigged on the one he bought at a pawn shop in England decades ago for some ridiculously low price.  The way he told  it, he brought it to Colin Dipper to be fettled and told him that he wanted the loudest concertina in the world.  I believe Dipper succeeded; at Morris events, you could hear his playing blocks away.

 

Nick had a  daring,  robust playing style.  He obviously didn't believe in the minimal use of chords of many Morris squeezers, as you can see here as he plays for Foggy Bottom - one of the dancers is his son.  Here he is in an English pub, and you can see how he played the living daylights out of his concertina. I remember many times watching him perform major surgery on his concertina in the middle of a gig to fix something. He did not play gently. 

 

I believe he had his Jeffries set up in an unusual tuning; I don't know the details, but believe Gary Coover does.

 

Edited by Jim Besser
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Posted

I remember Nick so well as a young man. Joy and I took over  from him as residents at the Herga Folk Club in Harrow, North London, in the early seventies when he loved to the USA.He was in incredible Jeffries duet player. I have since long-befriended another exceptional, jazz-playing Jeffries duetter, Greg Powlesland, who lives in west Cornwall. But Nick's playing made a powerful impression on me and probably comes out in my performance, although I play a Crane and  don't visit the Morris-influenced tunes he  belted out.I sure would have loved to hear him join me in some of the jazzier stuff that I belt out.

 

Posted

Re: Duet recordings. I recorded and submitted several songs/ tunes to Alan  a few years ago.If I was to do it again I would probably choose different pieces, because my repertoire/ability etc has moved on. As many of you will know, I recorded my first solo CD, "After All These Years" a couple of years ago and I have been  amazed at  its success.To be fair,  it was designed to demonstrate my general, all-round repertoire and "entertainment " in the folk idiom, rather than displaying what a Crane duet can do to  concertina enthusiasts. There are tunes ( and songs) that I play mainly in session or in private that probably demonstrate this better. But I am not inclined to go to the trouble of recording again specifically for  a duet CD.

I do, however, applaud the idea, of bringing on board the new /young players- some of whom I know- like Matt Quinn and Jack Rutter,- who have made astonishing progress on the instrument in such a short span of years.(They both play McCanns, but , hey,  it doesn't; make them bad people !) I still play self-written West Country songs, English and Irish folk, Americana and 1920/30's jazz.I am appearing regularly at folk clubs and arts centres/ theatre all over the UK and beyond. This year I am at eight different folk festivals ( Bude in Cornwall this weekend). One of the most exciting developments for me recently has been  being part of Mick Ryan's folk opera "Here at the Fair - which we are performing at Bude, Shrewsbury, Warwick and Cornwall Folk festivals. In the show's " band" I sit alongside young Cohen Braithwaite-KIlcoyne ... probably the most talented young concertina player ( anglo)  and melodeons since  John Kirkpatrick still had spots.I have learned so much from him- and I am old enough to be his grandad.These are exciting times for  folk music - and I have never known concertinas be so popular. keep squeezing folks.....post-778-0-79242600-1455093069_thumb.jpgpost-778-0-59877100-1479375759_thumb.jpg

Posted (edited)

Thank you for your reply and I would certainly like your current recordings on this page .If you could recommend any other duet players that impress you, to join you here, that would be wonderful.

I am dedicating this page for Duet players only to submit their recordings, when we have a CDs worth issue it for down load. We have Maurice Harvey,s recordings coming that is a CD on it's own

Al.

Edited by Alan Day
Posted

Mr. Lakeman -  I'm new to the duet concertina. Having seen your message above, I immediately bought your CD, which arrived this AM.  It's wonderful. Thanks so much!

Posted

Thank you for taking the time to start this project! I'm very excited to listen to the final page and to learn about new players--what a great resource. For what it's worth, here's a link to a Soundcloud track of myself playing an original composition on my Concertina Connection Peacock Hayden. I had this professionally recorded, but of course the proof is in the pudding. I know my material is a little off the beaten path, so I perfectly understand if it isn't suitable. Thanks again for doing this work.

 

https://soundcloud.com/stevenarntson/evergreen?in=stevenarntson/sets/without-haste-without-rest

 

Steven Arntson

seattle wa, usa

Posted

Thank you for your kind words Steven and for your recording. This could be a very comprehensive collection (possibly on going if you all wish).

I will be (with help from my friends) put all these recordings into a collection at the top of the page and any comments will be underneath.

Al

Posted
1 hour ago, steven r. arntson said:

Thank you for taking the time to start this project! I'm very excited to listen to the final page and to learn about new players--what a great resource. For what it's worth, here's a link to a Soundcloud track of myself playing an original composition on my Concertina Connection Peacock Hayden. I had this professionally recorded, but of course the proof is in the pudding. I know my material is a little off the beaten path, so I perfectly understand if it isn't suitable. Thanks again for doing this work.

 

https://soundcloud.com/stevenarntson/evergreen?in=stevenarntson/sets/without-haste-without-rest

 

Steven Arntson

seattle wa, usa

 

Steve - This is a beautiful song.  Thanks for sharing!

Posted
17 minutes ago, Alan Day said:

This could be a very comprehensive collection (possibly on going if you all wish).

I will be (with help from my friends) put all these recordings into a collection at the top of the page and any comments will be underneath.

Al

 

Al - This sounds wonderful. And I vote yes, for on going if it's possible to do so.  Thanks for keeping us posted re plans for the  Duet Recording Page!

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

On the Whatever Happened To Duet International ? thread I offered to dig out some recordings of Nick Robertshaw. I've put a first batch of them into a zip file at mellish.eu/Audio/Nick Robertshaw.zip . This is what I've extracted this afternoon from my Herga Folk Club recordings, some with concertina, but also some unaccompanied songs and one with guitar. More may follow, but no promises.

Posted

Thanks Richard I assume that these are in addition to those posted by Jim Besser above. Your link does not appear to be working.

Al

Posted
2 hours ago, Alan Day said:

Thanks Richard I assume that these are in addition to those posted by Jim Besser above. Your link does not appear to be working.

Al

 

This one appears to work:

 

http://www.mellish.eu/Audio/Nick%20Robertshaw.zip

 

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