CeltFest Cuba!

Wow, I'm going to Cuba for the first CeltFest Cuba.

It's funny how things snowball.  I first wanted to go to Cuba because it was a place I wasn't suppose to go.  And when Ward MacDonald told me about the Canadian-Cuban Celtic Society, I was intrigued.  Apparently, several years ago, bagpipers from Cuba had been invited to Celtic Colours.  They made friends with many Cape Breton fiddlers and bought some Cape Breton Fiddle albums, which they brought back to Cuba with them.  Then, they invited some of their new friends down to Cuba.  Several Cape Bretoners went down to Cuba and found that fiddlers there had learned some of their tunes.



Now, the CCCS, headed by Cape Bretoner Lisa Butchart, is helping the Cubans with a festival of their own.  It will be a week long event in April with musicians from Cuba forming the base of the events, but will also include many Celtic musicians, including their new Cape Breton friends, from across the Globe.

But the snowball got bigger.  I decided I'd try to raise money for a camera for the trip on Kickstarter.  I thought it'd be a huge service to the greater piping community to see the great stuff happening down in Cuba.  Not to mention how good it would be to help promote future CeltFest Cubas.

Well, I had originally thought I'd just take a bunch of pictures and videos and put them on my website, but kickstarter uses "rewards" as a means of enticing people to donate.  So I needed some "rewards".  Obviously a DVD with tastefully edited together videos and stills from the festival would suit the bill perfectly.  And what to do you call such a DVD?  A documentary of course!  So now I'm making a documentary.  It was not something I had originally planned to do, but now I'm very excited about it.  Obviously it won't be as big as Buena Vista Social Club, with just one trip to Cuba, and one camera, and a separate sound recording device of course.  But I've got several friends (and a brother) who work or worked in the film industry, so I'm confident, with time and patience, I can put together something decent.

But it grows even larger!  There are no full-time Cuban bagpipe makers.  They have to import them from Spain, and that's expensive.  But it turns out that there is a piper in Cuba, Alejandro Gispert, who is trying to make pipes for Cuban pipers.   He can rent a lathe every now and then, but he needs his own lathe.  Well, now the focus of the documentary shifts!  From more of a promotional piece about the festival, now we have a human interest piece.   

And get this, Alejandro Gispert promised his pipe teacher, one of the last original Cuban pipers, soon before his death, that he would learn to make pipes.  Get this man a lathe!  CCCS is going to do their best to raise funds for a lathe, and figure out how to get it to Cuba.  And they're hoping my documentary will help.  Now I'm a man on a mission.



So check out my kickstarter page.  I promise to do my best to help the Cubans with my pipe making knowledge, and to do the best documentary I can.  And I promise my customers I'll do all that without taking any time away from my own pipe making (except for the week in Cuba of course!).  Donate a $1 or maybe a little more.  And thanks.

Graham Mulholland

Just a quick one.  One of my other customers just pointed out two photos of the fantastic Graham Mulholland playing his set of Bois De Rose Banton Smallpipes at the Gaeilic College.  Graham taught smallpipes at the College that year, using the smallpipes I made him a month before classes began.

 Graham playing with sandy MacIntyre and Kolten MacDonell

 

Not a great shot, but you can see Graham playing for Kelly MacArthur who taught me the only step dancing steps I know (or rather the only one's I have forgotten).

Back to the lathe!

Edible Wood

I'm excited to have found a small supplier of dometic fruitwoods in the US called Thorn Creek, Edible Woods.  All my pear and plum woods have previously come from Europe.  This European wood is specifically harvested and air dried to be used in the production of woodwinds.   I can't complain about it; it's beautiful wonderful stuff, but I've long wanted to find a suitable supplier of quality North American fruitwoods here in the US.

Here are some pictures of domestic pear (on the left) and peach (on the right).  He carries the three woods that I have used to make pipes from: Plum, pear and apple, but he also carries other fruitwoods I have not tried, such as peach, apricot and quince.  I've ordered some plum to test, and also some apricot, which I know is traditionally used for the Armenian Duduk, so it certainly has a history of being used for woodwind production.  Whether the apricot from this source will be suitable for woodwinds, I'll find out when I receive it.  If it is, I plan to make a set of Border pipes for my own use from it. 

One of the biggest, and happiest, surprises I've had since working full time as a pipe maker, is how warm and rich the sound of a fruitwood set of smallpipes is.  I knew fruitwoods would work for border pipes, and they have not let me down.  But the very warm, but still bright tones of the Plum and Pear smallpipes I've made are marvelously eye-opening.  This wood may all be completely unsuitable for quality woodwinds.  I won't know until I get it.  But I'm hopeful, after exchanging a few emails with him, that I may soon have a domestic source for well treated and well cured domestic fruitwoods.

 "Pond cured" Apricot.

Eleven Pipers Piping

Well, this event was originally scheduled to occur much closer to the eleventh day of Christmas, but was postponed due to a snow storm.  Lucky for me, I couldn't make the original date, but was able to attend the concert this past Sunday in Vermont.

Tim Cummings, the concert organizer, owner and operator of Beithe Publishing, and piper of great awesomeness, graciously hosted me in his lovely home.  And Tim even managed to convince me to come up on Friday afternoon, so I could attend a concert by the very talented Tim Eriksen.  Tim E is a singer of old-timey ballads (and related and not so related material) and plays a number of instruments to accompany himself, including fiddle, banjo, and guitar.  The video below was the first place I saw Tim, when I was trying to find someone playing a different tune so I could learn it on the fiddle.



I'm a sucker for anyone who sings while accompanying themselves on the fiddle, so it I couldn't help myself.

Tim E gave a pre-concert talk on Shape Note singing.  I was aware of this tradition, but I didn't know much about it.  It's a system of music notation from the 1800's that uses shaped note heads to facilitate the learning of music for congregational singing.  Tim had us up and singing four part harmony in no time.  Very interesting, and something I may pursue in the future.

The Eleven Pipers Concert on Sunday was a great success.  Each piper played one or two sets of tunes, with some intermingling, and a full raucous every-piper-on-deck finale.

Richard Shuttleworth on Northumbrian Pipes accompanying Elias Alexander singing "Derwentwater's Farewell"

Here's a copy of the program:

 Program

Highland pipe ensemble
The Battle of Waterloo - Lord Lovat’s Lament - Cabar Feidh
(trad. Scotland/Appalachia - J.G.Slattery - trad. Scotland) 

Scottish shuttle- and smallpipe ensemble
Campbell's Farewell to Red Gap - Jenny Nettles
(traditional Scotland/Appalachia -  trad. Lowland/Border)

Dan Houghton: Border pipes
The Clarinet Reel - An Drochaid Càsadh - An Drochaid Chliùiteach
Cronan na Cailleiche ‘sa Bheinn Bhric - Sheatadh Cailleach Ruidhle Cailleach
(trad. Scotland) 

 

Richard Shuttleworth: Northumbrian smallpipes
Redesdale Hornpipe/The Navvie on the Line - Miss Hannah Ormston - Katie
Elliott’s Jig - Bonny Pit Laddie - Small Coals and Little Money
(trad. Northumbria)

Elias Alexander: American lung-pipes
Derwentwater's Farewell
(trad. Scotland)

Matt Buckley: Scottish smallpipes
The Atom of Delight - MacGregor of Ruara - The King’s House
(Derek Hoy - trad. Scotland)

Iain MacHarg:  Flemish/French pipes, practice chanter, and Scottish smallpipes
[French t.b.a.] - I hae wife o’ my ain - Paddy’s Leather Breeches - Haggis the Cat
(trad. France - trad. Gaelic - trad. Scotland - Iain MacHarg)

Jackie Lewis: Highland pipes and Scottish smallpipes
Samantha’s Lullaby - Wee Highland Laddie - Gardens of Skye - Flett from Flotta -
Scotland the Brave - pìobaireachd: MacIntosh’s Banner
(Arthur Ghillies - Donald MacLeod - A.Harper - D.MacLeod - trad. Scotland -
William MacKenzie)

Tim Cummings: Scottish smallpipes
All You Shining Stars - Lucy Cassidy - Moving Clouds
(Tim Cummings -  George MacIntyre - Neillie O’Boyle)

Anthony Santoro: Irish uilleann pipes

Peter Kent: Highland pipes
Capt. Archibald Leslie - Mamore - Hey Johnny - Lads of Mull - Och is Duine
Truagh Mi - The Sleeping Tune - Jimmy MacGregor - pìobaireachd: The Lament of the Children
(D.Campbell - trad. Cape Breton/Scotland - Patrick Mor MacCrimmon)

Ben Miller: Border pipes
The Wild Hills O’ Wannies - Elsie Marley - Holy Ha’penny
Sunderland Lasses - The Lads of Alnwick - Jack’s Gone A Shearing
(trad. Lowland/Borders)

Rik Palieri: Polish Podhalanskie, Fujarka, Piszczalki, & Gajdy
Trad. Folk Songs & Tunes - The Robbers Dance -
Groniczki, Gorniczki, How I long For my Small Mountains - Dolina - Istebna gajdy medley
(The Polish Mountaineers - trad. Tatra Highlands - trad. Poland)

Eleven Pipers
The Dark Island
(Iain MacLaughlin, 1963)

 

Ben Miller playing Border pipes (Banton Chanter)

The concert was a bit like a piping reunion.  I knew nine of the pipers, and it was great to see friends away from the usual venues where I may see them only once or twice a year.  And making new piping acquaintances is always a bonus.  Plus, hearing a lot of great bellows piping is a treat.  And I was even thrilled to hear a bit of very good highland piping, including a Pìobaireachd duet, with some super harmonies.  Then there was the uni-cycling bagpiper . . .

 

Tim Cummings on Banton Smallpipes and Dan Houghton accompanying.

All in all a trip well worth the drive.  I feel rejuvinated and recharged.  And ready to crank out more pipes.  A huge thanks to Tim Cummings for putting together a super show, and putting me up in five star luxury.

 

Anthony Santoro on Uilleann pipes leading the pipers in "The Dark Island."