Is it a good choice pick a Neapolitan mandolin for Irish Music?

[mikeyes]

An historical note: the (most likely) first recording of an ITM tune with a mandolin was by Mick Moloney on one of the Johnston albums. Mick said that he saw a bowl back mandolin on the wall and decided to play a tune to fill the list. It went off well but the instrument fell apart right afterwards!

You use what you have, the music is not in the instrument.

[Beanzy]

An historical note: the (most likely) first recording of an ITM tune with a mandolin was by Mick Moloney on one of the Johnston albums.

He may well have been as the Johnstons album came out in 1968.
But there's a chance he was pipped to the post by Fr.O'Keefe on 24 March 1968 when Bill Leader caught him on mandolin and Tommy Maguire on accordion playing Condon's Frolics / James McMahon's Favourite. That was also released in '68 on "Paddy In The Smoke" (Topic)
What do you reckon? Could we find out the recording date for that track anywhere? - Just as an exercise in total mandolin geekishness.

[Mike Anderson]

I know it's a little different than a neapolitan mando but Andy Irvine played a bowl back zouk sometimes.

As did Donal Lunny and Paul Brady during that period, and as Alec Finn, Mick Conneely, and Jonas Fromseier do now!

[Nevin]

I have played in a few Irish bands and sat in on a few sessions. I have a problem with the "authentic" crowd. To me most Irish music was poor peoples' music. Peasants, fisherman, laborers and some craftsmen. Ireland has been a poor country for most of its history. People played music on what they had available.

One of the great things about music is how it bridges cultural divides. My Spanish isn't very good but I have played with musicians from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain, Agentina, Mexico, The Dominican Republic, Peru, and Argentina. I don't speak French but have played with people from France, The Ivory Coast and Hati. I know about 50 words in Russian but have had a great time (and a horrible hangover) playing with some Russians who didn't speak English. Its all music. Play it on what you can and enjoy.

[Ky Slim]

At the 2:22 mark in that video of Andy Irvine (post #17 this thread) you can see another mandolin leaning against a chair. That looks like a Portuguese mandolin with those neat roller fine tuners. I assume Andy plays Irish music on that one as well. Although he may know some Portuguese tunes too. How would I know?


Recently, since reading the Elisa Meyer interview here on the cafe and youtube -ing her band, I have had a bit of MAS for a bandolim (BAS I suppose). They are so loud and seem to sustain more like a guitar than a mandolin. If I got one I might try to learn some choro but I wouldn't feel obligated. I might just enjoy playing fiddle tunes, irish, bg or just any kind of music I can pull off on it.

[Mike Anderson]

Yup, that's a Portuguese guitarra, iconic instrument of fado. Andy used it to play Planxty songs for a time; was hoping he could tell me if he played it on any of their albums and he responded and said he'd try to figure it out, but the man really is incredibly busy all the time so I won't feel let down if he never is able to tell me.

He was/is not into Portuguese music AFAIK, but he certainly is and was into the music of the Balkan region of Eastern Europe - many recordings of trad and reworked (and original) tunes from Bulgaria etc in his catalog. When he was young and wild he spent a lot of time traveling there; he has a song on the new Ushers Island album that reminisces about the girls he met in Ljubljana, Slovenia on these trips, absolutely classic Andy!

As for choro, it's wonderful, go for it! Brazilian music was literally my first love, since I used to be enthralled by my parents' bossa records as a little kid in the early 60s.

Happy Friday,
Mike.

EDIT: I hadn't actually watched the video - it's a waldzither leaning against the chair, a German instrument many members of this forum have and know loads about. He did also play guitarra as well as the waldzither, but that ain't one.

At the 2:22 mark in that video of Andy Irvine (post #17 this thread) you can see another mandolin leaning against a chair. That looks like a Portuguese mandolin with those neat roller fine tuners. I assume Andy plays Irish music on that one as well. Although he may know some Portuguese tunes too. How would I know?


Recently, since reading the Elisa Meyer interview here on the cafe and youtube -ing her band, I have had a bit of MAS for a bandolim (BAS I suppose). They are so loud and seem to sustain more like a guitar than a mandolin. If I got one I might try to learn some choro but I wouldn't feel obligated. I might just enjoy playing fiddle tunes, irish, bg or just any kind of music I can pull off on it.

[foldedpath]

An historical note: the (most likely) first recording of an ITM tune with a mandolin was by Mick Moloney on one of the Johnston albums. Mick said that he saw a bowl back mandolin on the wall and decided to play a tune to fill the list. It went off well but the instrument fell apart right afterwards!

I think I've posted this before here, but for historical context it appears the mandolin was not unknown in the first half of the 20th Century in Ireland. Here's a quote from the "The Chieftains: Authorized Biography," concerning their original fiddler Martin Fay:

"As a young boy Martin remembers hearing his uncle Andy Kelly, who was a famous mandolin player in traditional circles. But the music didn't impress the young boy any more than the other kinds of music he was hearing at the time."

So apparently, there was a famous trad mandolin player running around Ireland in the time when Martin was a boy, call it the mid 1940's (Martin was born in 1936). What kind of mandolin was that? Probably a bowl back, but the timing might have been right for a few Gibsons to sneak across the waters, since the mandolin orchestra fad was over and they were probably not that expensive. I've looked for more references, but this is still the only clue I've found to early Irish mandolins. And no clues to this Andy Kelly mentioned in the text.

You use what you have, the music is not in the instrument.

Amen to that!

I play a redwood-topped F-style mandolin made in the Czech Republic in local Scottish and Irish sessions, here in the hinterlands of the Pacific Northwest. I've never been kicked out of one yet!