The Review - CLASSICAL & JAZZ Published: 23 April 2009
Irish set fiddles on fire
REVIEW - FIDDLES ON FIRE Kings Place
CONSTRASTING performances of Irish fiddle playing closed the four-day Fiddles on Fire festival at Kings Place on Saturday.
Classic Irish fiddling was represented by Frankie Gavin’s virtuoso playing, strongly supported by Mike Galvin’s driving guitar.
Born into a musical family in Corrandulla, Co Galway, in 1956, Frankie Gavin mainly learnt his violin playing by ear. For many years, his fiddle playing was the core of the Da Dannan band.
A quite different approach was displayed by the formidable fiddling of Martin Hayes, barely supported by guitarist Dennis Cahill, just strumming at the bar line, so that soaring fiddle sounds filled the hall unmolested.
Although a native of County Clare, Martin Hayes has created a unique sound through drawing inspiration from the likes of Spanish viola de gamba playing to the music of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.
So when the two duos came together as a quartet for the final numbers of the evening, the fiddling was truly on fire.
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