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April 16, 2007
Traditional
music sessions are all-ages shows
Younger musicians mingle easily with older generation
Rannie Gillis, The Cape Breton Post
Perhaps
the most important aspect of the Thursday night traditional
music sessions at Rollie’s Wharf in North Sydney is the fact
that it is an opportunity for these wonderful Celtic musical
traditions to be passed on from one generation to the next.
On any
given Thursday, you can usually be assured that a good
percentage of the musicians in attendance are younger
people. They come to play, but also to listen and learn from
the fascinating mixture of older performers who are always
in attendance. This is especially true during the Christmas
and spring break periods, when young local musicians are
home from the various universities and colleges.
Two weeks
ago we had a visit by a group of very talented "younger"
musicians from the west coast of Cape Breton. They
represented an area that stretches from Port Hawkesbury,
through Judique and Mabou, and on to Inverness. Not only
were they young, they were also, for the most part,
experienced instrumentalists who had performed both on the
national and international Celtic music scene.
Take
Andrea Beaton, from Mabou/Judique, and Shelly Campbell, from
West Bay Road. Two of the best of the younger generation of
female fiddlers, they bring a driving energy and superb
musical timing to their distinctive musical styles. It is
obvious that these two young women have the music flowing
through their veins, and both are in great demand,
especially for concerts and square dances.
Mac Morin,
from Troy (near Port Hastings), is one of the best of the
younger generation of Celtic piano players. He is also an
energetic and dynamic step-dancer, who displayed his dancing
and keyboarding skills to great advantage during a two-year
international tour with Natalie MacMaster’s band.
Also with
this group was Cheryl Smith, formerly from Montreal but now
living in Port Hawkesbury. A very successful graphic
designer who has designed websites for more than 100
clients, she has won two East Coast Music Awards as “Graphic
Designer of the Year”. She is also a talented percussionist,
and had brought along her snare drum, a percussion
instrument that is usually not associated with Cape Breton
style Celtic music.
When the
above musicians sat in with our own fiddlers such as Brenda
Stubbert, Kimberly Fraser, Paul Cranford and Sarah Beck, the
result was a rousing selection of both traditional and
modern Celtic music styles. At times the syncopation and
up-tempo rhythms, accompanied discretely by the single snare
drum, seemed to create a spontaneous form of “Celtic Jazz”.
The last
few Thursday evenings at Rollie’s Wharf have provided a
textbook example of just how the Celtic music traditions
here on Cape Breton Island are being passed on. An older
generation of fiddlers, including Carl MacKenzie, Howie
MacDonald, Francis MacDonald, Joe Peter MacLean and David
“Papper” Papazian, along with such pianists as Dougie
MacPhee, Mario Colosimo, Jean MacNeil, and Janet Cameron,
can rest assured that the musical torch is being entrusted
to a new generation, that is both willing and waiting to
carry on this wonderful tradition.
Rannie Gillis is an author and
avid Celtic historian whose column appears every week in the
Cape Breton Post.
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Above photo:
Margaree (by Victor Maurice Faubert)
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