Category Archives: COMMENTARY

Symphony of the Kootenays: “in the pit” with cellist Liz Tremblay

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Liz TrembleyIt’s a jungle out there. Or, at least a forest of wood. The over whelming view of a symphony orchestra is the string sections at the front. Sure there are other instruments in the orchestra but, like electrical wiring and plumbing, they are mostly out of sight. The prevailing color scheme is amber and brown so that the grey of Liz Tremblay’s carbon fibre cello is a not an unpleasant disruption in the traditional mosaic of a symphony orchestra. For centuries string instruments have been constructed out of wood by highly skilled artisans and high quality instruments are expected to last “for ever”. Having said that, a vintage instrument of today is not the same instrument that left the artisan’s shop hundreds of years ago. They change, mature, have accidents,  are repaired  and modified to preserve the sound and to stay in top condition. Wood is a renewable resource and, except for the voracious appetite for high quality “Tone Woods” for quality musical instruments, should be sustainable. Some of these woods are going into short supply and governments have been forced to enact legislation to protect endangered species. Of particular note is the threatened Brazilian Rosewood, Indian and African Ebony. The exploitation of these woods is protected by legislation and luthiers are required to only use wood from certified sources. To offset the dwindling supply of traditional tone woods builders are turning to others from lesser known species and, more recently, to the use of Carbon Fibre. The later has been used in a number of products, including guitars, for years. A musician, Luis Leguia of the Boston Symphony, who has a passion for sailing noted the strength and resonant qualities of carbon fibre boats and started experimenting with the use of that material in musical instruments. Over the years, with the help of Steve Clark, he developed a line of instruments using carbon fibre  that is lighter, stronger and cheaper than the best of traditional instruments. And, against the conservative tide, they are gradually becoming accepted as instruments of choice  (Luis and Clark Instruments). These are not “plastic toy” instruments; their construction and finishing still requires a high level of craftsmanship and dedication to produce an instrument that will satisfy very discerning customers.   Carbon Fibre cello – part 1  Carbon Fibre cello – part 2

Apart from the environmental issues these instruments address a number of other significant concerns. There is the cost of course. High quality vintage instruments can be priced up into the stratosphere and are simply out of the reach of the average student and professional musician. The Luis and Clark instruments, compared to your average quality guitar (around $2,000) may seem expensive, but compared to their wooden counterparts they are at least attainable. The carbon fibre Violins and Violas are around $5,000 / $6,000, Cellos around $7,000 and the Bass is around $12,000. Wooden instruments are very susceptible to climatic conditions. Carbon fibre instruments are generally immune to dramatic variations in temperature and humidity. A touring Ontario musician reports that even in sub-zero Canadian conditions these instruments can be left over night in transport vehicles  without coming to harm. When taken indoors and allowed to warm to room temperature they respond without any ill effects. This is an attribute that must have had some appeal to Symphony of the Kootenay cellist Liz Trembley. She has lived and performed in Bermuda, Ontario and Calgary so she understands the impact and dangers of climate on fine instruments. The carbon fibre cello instruments are very strong and light and the flexibility of the construction techniques allows for design modifications that improve the comfort and playability of the instruments. And, on top of all that they are stunningly beautiful with a great sound.

Here are some more images of Carbon Fibre instruments.

Liz Tremblay  Liz Tremblay  Liz Tremblay Carbon Fibre Instruments  AppleMark LuisandClarkCELLO.backcarbon@@@@@@@@@@@

Read any good books lately? (#1)

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I divide the populace up into two groups – readers and non readers. And, of course, as I am biased, readers are the more significant group. They are the ones whose imagination is fired by the written word. And among the readers there are the ones who are into ” molecules”. They like to have a book in their hand; they like the feel of paper, the physical act of turning the pages and being surrounded by walls lined with books. Then there are the “bits and bites” advocates who have no particular attachment to the physical presence of a traditional book. They are just as happy to get their fix via an e-reader, tablet  or computer screen. They consider themselves more eco-friendly and point to the waste of paper, storage space and the difficulty of finding that particular volume in their crowded living spaces. Regardless of their differing points of view they still all love to read. There was a time back in the dawn of the modern computer age that the notion of books becoming obsolete was considered a real possibility. Any casual stroll, on any given day, through any books store will demonstrate that the promise of the demise of books has be greatly exaggerated. My son, a child of the computer age, a confessed computer geek, is an obsessive reader. I guess all those trips to the Cranbrook Public Library when he was growing up sowed the seeds of a life long passion.

So back to the original question “read any good books lately” can be answered in the affirmative. Now retired, one of the joys of this new found condition is having the time to read and reread as many books that I can get my hands on. One of my criteria for identifying a good book is the desire to re-read the just finished volume. So the top of my list at the moment is  REAMDE by Neil Stephenson. I have read and re-read his spectacular Cryptonomicon and will probably re-read it again. Not everything of his has been to my liking, his Baroque Trilogy I couldn’t finish. His material always seems to have a “teckie” edge with plots that involve technology to some extent. The title Reamde is a corruption of the name of a file, Readme, that is nearly always appended to new software. Part of the attraction of this novel is the opening and closing locations in the Kootenays. The particular geography isn’t exactly as we see it in this area but there are recognizable locations that will definitely resonate with local residents (is that Fernie or Nelson he is talking about?). Geographically the novel ranges far afield from the Kootenays to  Seattle, China, The Philipines, Northern British Columbia, and back to the Kootenays and finally to Idaho. The plot revolves around international terrorism and on-line role playing games. I have never played computer games so that part of the plot is somewhat outside my experience and the whole genre of role playing is beyond me. And the concepts of financial profit from playing these games seemed a little far fetched. However, my geeky son came to the rescue and cleared away some of the fog and misconceptions. In answer to my question ” Is there really a virtual economy in these games that can be transferred back to the real world and real money?”. Here are his comments:   “Ah Reamde – yes, that was a good read, and along with Anathem has redeemed Stephenson after his Baroque Cycle trilogy (which I failed to finish even the first novel). And yes, there are virtual economies in these games – so much so, that many of these games companies actually have economists on staff to manage the economy, just like a Chief Economist would do for a country (printing money = “how many magical swords should we make?”). The practice of “gold farming” – using cheap labor in countries such as China to “farm” virtual goods in the game and then sell them to westerners who don’t have enough time to dedicate to the games to build their characters, is a lucrative business. In fact, many of the Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORG – think Dungeons and Dragons / Tolkien-esque stuff, or military strategy games) have had to struggle with the question of how to limit this black market without killing the interest in their games.  It’s a delicate question – how do you make the game hard enough to be interesting and challenging, without making it so hard that casual gamers can’t enter the game without immediately getting their asses handed to them? How do you, as a game company, make money from the obvious market for shortcuts (i.e. “buy the magical sword that would otherwise take 900 hours of gameplay to earn!”) without pissing off the hardcore gamers, who will perceive this as a “only the rich can win” game. In truth, these games are less like games, and more like entire worlds. They have their own economies, rules, mythologies – Tolkien would be envious. While there are guided epics/quests in the games, the worlds are effectively an open field with only a few “hooks” for whatever quest you might be on… It’s a hell of a long way from Pacman’s “eat all the dots, don’t touch the ghosts, and once you’ve eaten all the dots, start over, but faster and with more ghosts”. The games are immersive and complex, and they can be all-consuming. There’s a reason that the MMORG “EverQuest” is known colloquially as “EverCrack”. Even outside of the Dungeons & Dragons type stuff, there’s whole leagues of other online games. If you have a computer or a console, you can log in to things like XBox Live and play head-to-head against an opponent that’s halfway around the world, any time of the day. Talk about breaking down global barriers. It’s one thing to get schooled by your buddy when he’s sitting beside you on the couch – entirely another thing when a bunch of Chinese kids living on a couple bucks a month are schooling you from an Internet cafe, and you’re hearing the audio channel in your ears as they taunt you in a language you don’t even understand.” So there you have it, an education in an email.

So there is enough “teckie” stuff, adventure, murder and mayhem in this book to keep one’s interest up for many late night reading sessions. Who needs sleep when some much is at stake? This is a good read and one that will definitely go into my re-read list. The book is available from the Cranbrook Public Library.

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Can it get any better than this?

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IT IS TUESDAY OCTOBER THE 15, 2013. IT IS BRIGHT, CLEAR AND SUNNY WITH SNOW ON THE MOUNTAINS. WHEN I TOOK THE DOG FOR HIS WALK THIS MORNING THE TEMPERATURE  WAS -4 DEGREES CENTIGRADE. THE SUN WAS SHINING ON THE FROST IN THE GRASS AND EVERYTHING WAS SPARKLY, COLOURFUL AND WONDERFUL.  BACK AT THE HOUSE, STANDING BY THE MAPLE TREES IN THE YARD FOR A QUIET MINUTE  YOU COULD ACTUALLY HEAR THE SOUND OF THE LEAVES FALLING.  A REAL MIND BLOWING MORNING.

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Marijuana reform has to happen but……..

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I am all for it. Ten years, and even five years ago I wouldn’t have been but now I think it is time to move on. Current laws and policies are not working so let’s fix them. Let’s get the stuff out of the hands of criminals and into the hands of the tax man. Let’s get the benefits of BC’s biggest cash crop to the general population. My only fear is that in the momentum that is building for reform we will throw the baby out with the bath water and the final outcome may not be what we intended. There is a general perception that “mary jane” is a harmless recreational drug (I doubt that),  that it is no worse than alcohol or tobacco. Even if that were true just take a look at the down side of those two legal recreational drugs. The difference is that over time society has put in place policies and processes to deal with the down side of their use. By opening the flood gates to marijuana use without careful implementation of supportive mechanisms it could lead to some very significant consequences. For instance “driving under the influence” (DUI) is a social no-no punishable under the law. We have breathalysers and a whole slew of legal process’ to monitor and deal with the offence.  In the reform process we need to realize that we have to build an infrastucture to deal with marketing, sale, use and abuse of a new legal drug. We need to put in place appropriate policies and restraints somewhat similar to what is already in place for the legal drugs. We did it for alcohol and tobacco and we need do it for marijuana.

Sitar Virtuoso Ravi Shankar dies at 92

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From the latest digital version of DownBeat

Sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar died on Dec. 11 at San Diego’s Scripps Hospital. The preceding week, he had undergone heart-valve replacement surgery, and although the procedure had been successful, recovery proved too difficult. He was 92. Shankar helped popularize Indian classical music, and the sitar itself, around the world through his concerts, albums and film soundtracks. Shankar won a Grammy in the category Best Chamber Music Performance for West Meets East (1967), a collaboration with violinist Yehundi Menuhin. Shankar also won a Grammy in the Best World Music Album category for Full Circle: Carnegie Hall, recorded during his 2000 world tour.

Released in April, Shankar’s The Living Room Sessions Part 1 is nominated for Best World Music Album for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. Shankar posthumously will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy in February. Shankar and George Fenton won an Academy Award for their original score to the 1982 film Gandhi. Shankar also composed the music for director Satyajit Ray’s classic trilogy of “Apu” films made in the late 1950s.

The cover story for the March 7, 1968, issue of DownBeat, titled “The Impact of Ravi Shankar,” was accompanied by this description: “India’s Master Musician has become America’s idol-in-vogue.” Shankar told DownBeat Assistant Editor Bill Quinn that he had studied “all the famous names in jazz,” including the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

Shankar said, “In Indian music, one does not have to follow prescribed rules of harmony; the music is based entirely on melodic form—it is free to invent its own course.”

Shankar’s collaborations with jazz artists included Improvisations with saxophonist Bud Shank and Portrait Of A Genius with flutist Paul Horn. Among Shankar’s other famous collaborators were classical composer Philip Glass and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. Shankar and Harrison organized one of the first large-scale benefit concert events, the Concert for Bangladesh. The benefit consisted of two concerts held on the afternoon and evening of Aug. 1, 1971, at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and featured performances by Shankar, Harrison, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Billy Preston. The resulting album won the Grammy for album of the year in 1972.

Shankar was largely responsible for introducing Indian music to massive rock festivals through his participation in the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969.

Titles in his extensive discography include Sound Of The Sitar, Inside The Kremlin and Concert For Peace: Royal Albert Hall. Shankar composed concertos for sitar and orchestra, and he also wrote music for ballets. He founded the Ravi Shankar Foundation in 1997 for students of music, dance and art.

He was born Robindro Shankar on April 7, 1920, in Varanasi, India. His last public performance was on Nov. 4 with his daughter, sitarist Anoushka Shankar. In the 1970s, Shankar taught music at City College of New York, UCLA and California Institute of the Arts. He received 14 honorary doctorates, including one from Harvard University. In 1985, when Shankar received his doctorate from Cal Arts, the citation praised him as an artist “whose rare genius has opened the ears and minds of millions to the wondrous aesthetic of India’s ancient musical tradition.”

Saxophonist John Coltrane (who took lessons from Shankar) named his son, Blue Note recording artist Ravi Coltrane, after the sitarist.

Shankar’s books included My Music, My Life (1968), Learning Indian Music: A Systematic Approach (1979) and Raga Mala: The Autobiography of Ravi Shankar (1997).

Shankar is survived by his second wife, Sukanya Rajan, and their daughter, Anoushka Shankar. He also had a relationship with New York concert producer Sue Jones, with whom he fathered singer Norah Jones. His son, the musician Shubhendra “Shubho” Shankar, died in 1992.

For more information, visit the Ravi Shankar website.

—Bobby Reed

Ravi Shankar’s association with George Harrison and the Beetles is the singular event that would stand out in most peoples mind. However Ravi was a major musical personality long before the famous rock festival encounters of the 1960’s. He was a musical prodigy long before his sitar music became well known. His initial claim to fame was as a dancer of Indian Classical music.

PS: If you visit the Ravi Shankar website take the time to view the videos of his less famous daughter Anoushka Shankar.

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Dave Brubeck dies at 91

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Reported in the most recent electronic version of Down Beat

“Dave Brubeck, pianist, composer and bandleader, died Wednesday morning, Dec. 5, at Norwalk Hospital, in Norwalk, Conn., one day before his 92nd birthday. Brubeck died on his way to “a regular treatment with his cardiologist,” said long time manager-producer-conductor Russell Gloyd.

Brubeck’s career spanned more than 60 years, comprising nearly the entire existence of American jazz since World War II. He was revered for recordings with his legendary Dave Brubeck Quartet, including “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo à la Turk.” The album on which they appeared, Time Out, became one of the best-selling jazz recordings of all time. He was revered for his daring use of rhythm and unusual time signatures, both of which transcended previous conceptions of swing rhythm.

Brubeck was born on Dec. 6, 1920, in Concord, Calif. His mother was a classically trained pianist who introduced him to the instrument at a young age, and he was performing professionally by the age of 13. Brubeck enrolled as a zoology major at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., but became highly involved in the school’s music department. From 1942–1943, he led the school’s 12-piece big band.

Around the same time, Brubeck began to study classical composition at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., under French composer Darius Milhaud. Brubeck’s studies under Milhaud subsided during World War II, when in 1944 he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He led a service band in Europe, was discharged in 1946 and then resumed his musical training. Brubeck’s studies with Milhaud influenced his experimentation with odd time signatures and classically inspired counterpoint.

A pioneer who did not accept the idea of “pigeonholing,” Brubeck was an integral force in venturing outside of the accepted boundaries of jazz. He was a lifelong advocate of the genre’s racial integration, performing in African American clubs throughout the South in the 1950s.

He was also an important figure who brought jazz to the forefront of academia, and his groups became wildly popular at colleges throughout the 1950s and ’60s. In 1949, Brubeck and a group of fellow students at Mills College formed the Jazz Workshop Ensemble, which would later record as The Dave Brubeck Octet. Brubeck’s octet often performed standards by other composers, but this was the pianist’s segue as a leader into 5/4, 9/8 and 11/4 time signatures, as opposed to traditional two and four counts. That same year, Brubeck formed his namesake trio alongside percussionist Cal Tjader and bassist Norman Bates. He was joined by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond in 1951, resulting in the creation of the legendary Dave Brubeck Quartet. With the newly formed quartet, Brubeck continued his advocacy of jazz on college campuses by recording Jazz At Oberlin in 1953. He also solidified his position as a public figure when he became the first modern jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine on Nov. 8, 1954.

The “classic” Dave Brubeck Quartet would not form until the late 1950s, with the additions of drummer Joe Morello in 1956 and bassist Gene Wright in 1958 alongside Brubeck and Desmond. The quartet’s 1959 album Time Out was the first jazz LP in history to sell a million copies, and many of the tunes on the album have become standards. The album opens with the Mozart-inspired “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” which Brubeck composed in 9/8 time. The album also features “Take Five,” a tune composed in 5/4 time, which made the Billboard singles chart in 1961 and remains one of the most recognizable jazz recordings of all time. The quartet performed together until 1967, when Brubeck, a self-proclaimed “composer who plays the piano,” left to focus more on composition and arrangement. Brubeck, Morello and Wright would later reunite in 1976 to perform and record in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the classic quartet’s initial formation.

Throughout the 1970s, Brubeck assembled a number of other quartets that included one or more of his sons: keyboardist Darius Brubeck, trombonist and bassist Chris Brubeck, and drummer and percussionist Daniel Brubeck. He also composed numerous large-scale works throughout the 1960s and ’70s, including two ballets, a musical, an oratorio, four cantatas, a mass and solo piano works. Brubeck’s music was also used on one episode of the eight-part TV series This Is America, Charlie Brown.

Brubeck performed at the White House in 1964 and 1981, and at a dinner for Mikhail Gorbachev hosted in Moscow by then-President Ronald Reagan.

Brubeck was a frequent winner of DownBeat polls throughout his entire career. In 1994, he was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame, and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy in 1996. He was named a Kennedy Center honoree in 2009.

Brubeck was named a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master in 1999. On Wednesday, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman issued a statement, saying, in part, “On behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts, it is with great sadness that I acknowledge the passing of National Medal of Arts recipient and NEA Jazz Master Dave Brubeck. One of our nation’s greatest and most popular jazz pianists, Brubeck’s experiment with odd time signatures, improvised counterpoint, and a distinctive harmonic approach resulted in a unique style of music. Brubeck became a leader in cultural diplomacy, taking part in the first Jazz Ambassadors program during the Cold War. In a 2006 interview with Dana Gioia about his cultural diplomacy efforts, Brubeck said, ‘One of the reasons I believe in jazz is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It’s the same anyplace in the world, that heartbeat. It’s the first thing you hear when you’re born—or before you’re born—and it’s the last thing you hear.’”

In 2008 Brubeck was among the inaugural recipients of the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy from the U.S. State Department.

Brubeck is survived by his wife, Iola; four sons and a daughter; grandsons and a great granddaughter. His son, Michael, died in 2009.”       DB

Classic DownBeat Dave Brubeck Interviews:
“Dave Brubeck: They Said I Was Too Far Out”
(Aug. 8, 1957)

“Brubeck Charms at Litchfield”
(Sept. 1, 2010)

For those of us who predate the 1960’s world of Rock and Roll Dave Brubeck was a towering musical figure. As a testament to to his musical stature, his land mark recordings are still selling consistently well in a world dominated by less substantial music. Dave Brubeck did not live in the past . He was still actively composing and performing right up to his death.

How about that American election eh?

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Once again the circus they call the American Presidential Election is over, and as Canadians we can poke fun at the stupendous cost, the endless hoop-la that, in the end arrived at ….. you got it, the status quo. Obama is back in the White House, the Democrats control the Senate and the Republicans control the Congress. Nothing has changed. Yet, it fact everything has changed. The demographic mathematics have kicked in and it may be the beginning of paradigm change in American politics.

In previous presidential elections the party who garnered 60% of white male vote usually took the election. Once again, in this election, the Republicans took 60% of the white male vote BUT THEY LOST. It is just simple mathematics. There are less white male voters and there are many, many more Black, Hispanic, Female and younger voters. These are voters  who  do not share political sympathies with white males or the Republican party. And why should they? Republican hopeful Mitt Romney sloughed off the 47% of  voters who he considered were so unimportant that there was no point trying to win their vote. The Republican anti-immigrant stance and their position on women’ issues certainly didn’t encourage support for the party. His position wasn’t helped by the incredible number of right-wing nuts (Donald Trump please stand up)  in his party that had surfaced in the years running up to the election. The election results cemented the notion that the party is out of touch and living in a fantasy land that no longer existed (if it ever did exist). The right wing seems to have a strangle hold on Republican thinking and the  situation isn’t likely to change. The number of minorities will continue to increase as a percentage of the population and this will continue to favor  the Democrats.

Here is a little interesting blow back from the election. Within days of the Obama win 30 US states launched citizen petitions to secede from the union. It’s not going to happen of course, but the possibility does raise some interesting scenarios. What if the USA union did disintegrate? Would that necessarily be a bad thing? Hmmm, one wonders, doesn’t one?

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Citterns and Irish Bouzoukis

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I am often asked “what are the instruments you are playing”. The short answer is an Irish Bouzouki, on the left, and on the right, an Irish Cittern. They are two mandolin like  instruments that you are unlikely to find on the rack in your average music store. Generally speaking these are custom built instruments hand made on an individual basis. There may be production models out there (I think Fender may have one) but that would be unusual. The instruments are generally used in Celtic or similar music. There is a slow creep of the instrument into other musical styles. For instance Steve Earle played an Irish Bouzouki at recent Key City Concert in Cranbrook. Both instruments are recent inventions, or re-inventions, that only go back to around the 1960s. Both have interesting histories.

The Cittern described as “a mandolin on steroids” is a perfect example of what goes round comes around or “there is nothing new under the sun”. In the 1960s the English folk performer and Luthier Stephan Sobell acquired a Portuguese Guittara that he started using to accompany traditional British songs. This instrument, with its convoluted history, is a 12-string instrument very much like the Cittern pictured above but with a very odd “porcupine nest” of tuning mechanisms at the top of the neck. Originally it was derived from the Elizabethan Lute during some English political incursions into Portugal way back before men wore trousers. To this day the playing style, using finger and thumb picks are more akin to archaic Lute styles than modern guitar styles. It is a finger picking technique that found its way to the Portuguese African colonies and into modern Afro/pop guitar music. The Portuguese Guitarra is very much alive today and is the predominant instrument for the accompaniment of traditional Portuguese Fado Singers. It goes without saying that it adds a distinctive voice to this Portuguese music (check the Youtube videos of the singer Mariza or better yet get your hands on the DVD “Mariza: Live in London”).  But I digress from Stephan Sobell’s adventures back in the 60s. Although enamoured with the instrument he found it was not quite suitable for British Folk music. To solve the problem he started building similar instruments of his own design. He ended up with a 5-course (10 strings) instrument with a tuning system more suitable for Celtic music. In the end, because it basically was a re-invention of an earlier English instrument called a Cittern that’s the name that stuck. To this day Stephan is the premier builder of Citterns and if you have to ask the price of one of his instruments it is a pretty sure bet you can’t afford one. He only builds two instruments a month. Check his website \stephan Sobell to view some truly beautiful instruments. Another exceptional builder is the English Luthier Roger Bucknall at Fylde Guitars.  I play two Citterns. The first was built in 2001  by Jamie Wiens here in Cranbrook. It is a beautiful, if slightly flawed, instrument that was a one off experiment for both Jamie and myself. It is a very long scaled instrument (26 inch neck) with Koa back and sides and a carved Spruce top. It is equipped with a Highlander dual pickup system that, unfortunately, has the battery installed inside the instrument. It has a huge sound and unbelievable sustain. It is the only Cittern that Jamie has built and when originally completed neither of us really knew how to tune or play it. There are a myriad of tuning options and after some research and experimentation we chose FCFCF  (alternating fifth and fourth intervals). I tend to capo it at the second fret to allow me to use Irish Bouzouki fingerings. Alas, the instrument has developed a crack in the top and is currently in Kevin Turner’s Crow’s Nest Pass work shop (Chinook Guitars)  being repaired.

Lawrence Nyberg is an especially fine Canadian Luthier working on Hornby Island (Lawrence Nyberg ) . He builds, guitars, Mandolins, Mandolas, Irish Bouzoukis and Citterns. He has a number of models including a 24 inch scale length model with a carved Spruce top, Rosewood back and sides and is equipped with a Headway pickup. The battery pack is conveniently recessed in the side of the instrument. The instrument is not as deep through the body as the Wiens instrument and, while not as loud, it has a “punchier”, darker sound. Surprisingly, the instrument sounds much better when plugged-in and amplified. Tuned DADAD this is closer to the traditional Irish Bouzouki tuning of GDAD and the Mandolin tuning of GDAE so that switching between the three instruments only requires minor mental adjustments.

The Traditional Irish Bouzouki – that’s playing loose with the language. It is neither an Irish instrument nor Irish traditional. Originally it is a Greek instrument. Irish musicians visiting the Balkans in the 1960s adopted the Greek Bouzouki. It is a bowl backed instrument that Irish Luthiers were unable or unwilling to duplicate. They ended up building a flat back instrument with a tuning system more suitable to Celtic music. It is looks very similar to a Cittern with only 4 courses (8 strings). At its most characteristic configuration the bottom strings are tuned in octaves (somewhat like a 12-string guitar) and is tuned GDAD. Although it has distinctive melodic possibilities its strength is in its use as a rhythm instrument.  The chords tend to be simple modal chords that often are neither major or minor – the third note of the triad is often missing. Having such a long neck it is possible to play the same chords through three octaves without getting involved in gymnastic and difficult fingerings. In the bench mark bands of the 1970s (The Bothy Band, Altan, DeDannan) and in the hands of such performers as Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine the instrument quickly became well established.  In this day and age there are not too many traditional Irish bands that do not include a Bouzouki. On the Key City Stage in Cranbrook the Irish Bouzouki has had a prominent presence in the bands of Danu, Dervish and Great Big Sea. The Studio / Stage Door has also seen its share of Bouzouki performers including the legendary Andy Irvine (one of the first performers on the instrument) and, in a different concert, Ron Kavanagh with his absolutely powerhouse trio of fiddle, bouzouki and button accordion. That particular concert at the Studio / Stage Door is one I will never forget.

Last but not least – The distant, smaller, and possibly older cousin of Citterns and Bouzoukis is the Celtic Mandolin. It is somewhat different from the florid Bluegrass Mandolin. It is tuned the same way (GDAE) but tends to have a rounder, mellower sound. Bluegrass players like the hard “bark” of an instrument that enables them to lay down the distinctive chop on the “two and four beat” of BlueGrass music. The Lloyd Loar Florentine BlueGrass design is thoroughly entrenched in North America and the round-hole models favored by Jazz, Classical, Brazilian and Celtic players are relatively hard to find.

 

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