Michael McGoldrick – Waterman’s Live EP
Vertical Records – Out Now
During the national lockdown, many musicians found a variety of ways to make and to share music online. Irish-Mancunian flute, whistle and uilleann pipes player Michael McGoldrick, having posted several collaborations on his Facebook page, has also, luckily for us, delved into old live recordings. He has come up with an EP’s worth of spectacular tunes – titled Waterman’s Live – from a 2008 Celtic Connections performance with his big band in their usual Old Fruit Market venue. The whole is a sheer delight, but there are in the midst of four sets of tunes, two that are co-joined as a single track that is as stunning 14 minutes of music as you’ll come across in a long time.
Waterman’s is the first of two familiar McGoldrick compositions that bookend the EP. What is at first an almost hushed introduction on cymbals (James Mackintosh), and electric piano (Donald Shaw), soon has drums, tabla (Parvinder Bharat) and bodhran (John Joe Kelly) uniting in playing the rhythm pattern, with the sound of each instrument still clearly distinguishable. The introduction extends for long enough to allow space for the bass (Ewen Vernal) to stretch out with some playful, jazzy, Pastorius-like noodling, and to create a sense of anticipation for the tune itself. Michael’s flute and Dezi Donnelly’s fiddle playing are so in sync that much of the time you can’t separate one from the other. A swirling, busy – as Michael says in introducing it, Eastern European influenced tune, Waterman’s commands attention because it’s not obvious where it’s going next, momentarily slowing and quietening, and then building again in pace and intensity to a quite sudden, unexpected ending. It’s enough to leave the listener a little breathless, never mind the musicians.
Farewell to Whalley Range, a slip-jig, is a staple in the Doyle, McCusker, McGoldrick setlist, as well as Michael’s own gigs, large or small, and that familiarity brought a shout from the Glasgow audience. Delivered punchily, with its own ensnaring light and shade, not least from the bodhran and tabla, it fairly skips along until the pace shifts for Roddy MacDonald’s Fancy. A reel played at first just on flute, it quickly becomes a full ensemble, full-pace endeavour, delightfully enhanced by a myriad of subtle flourishes, notably for a few bars where just flute and bodhran play the tune. Plenty of whoops ensue from the audience, who we can safely assume are dancing along as well as lapping up the music.
The exceptional centrepiece of this release is a slow air and a set of reels that exemplify the contrasting sweep of tune types that traditional music encompasses, and the ability of the musicians who play that music to do something special. Michael introduces Amran An Bha, as a ‘really old, traditional slow air’ which he learnt from box player Peter Carberry (there is a version on Angelina Carberry, Peter Carberry & John Blake’s 2001 album Memories from the Holla; Michael recorded it on his 2005 album Wired). When the tune starts, the thing that is immediately striking is the depth of tone on the flute, an elemental, tender and at the same time powerful sound which is redolent of the long, continuous tradition the tune comes from. You are immediately immersed and transported; real ‘shiver down the spine’ stuff. If that wasn’t enough, Tommy Smith picks up the tune on saxophone, closely emulating the mood that has been created, and then Michael and Tommy trade elements of the tune. Their playing is poised, restrained and outstandingly expressive (behind which Donald Shaw provides an almost imperceptible drone on keys).
Reid’s Reels is announced as a quiet ending to the slow air – as flute and sax rest on the same final note – segues straight away into, again, a tight bodhran and tabla combination, with Ed Boyd nippily joining the rhythm on guitar. The band hold the cadence until Michael starts up the first tune of the set on uilleann pipes. There’s an extra level of energy – a measured drive rather than speed – and a perceptible joyfulness in the playing. It is as if the rest of musicians have been inspired by, and are almost taking the opportunity to celebrate what they’ve just heard from Michael and Tommy. What you get certainly has similarities to Moving Hearts in full flow, but it’s a bigger sound: Irish traditional music’s very own Wall of Sound if you will.
The contrasting audience responses in the video illuminate perfectly the effect of the full set which is juxtaposed with a slow air and set of reels – during the first they are still, enraptured, faces full of concentration, then there’s a sense of release as they respond to the energy coming off the stage, and it’s all movement and smiles.
Performances by McGoldrick with a big band are infrequent. Whilst the logistics of getting a group of such busy musicians together in the same place at the same time is obviously challenging, Celtic Connections provides not only a large audience but also an opportunity that is close to being a home gig for that group of musicians. It’s one of those shows there is always a buzz about, with tickets in short supply (you can read our review of their show at this year’s festival here). Judging by the glimpse of pure quality we get on this EP, it may just be that the magic that happens is at least in part precisely a consequence of these outstanding players relishing the rare opportunity to play this music together. Waterman’s Live is Michael McGoldrick’s first live release under his own name; we can only hope there is more where this came from.
You can buy the Waterman’s Live E.P. from Michael’s Bandcamp page here.