By CHRIS MacKENZIE
It seems appropriate that a night that brings Irish, Breton, Galician and Scottish pipe music together should take its name from Peter R. MacLeod Snr’s brilliant, if idiosyncratic, 2/4 march The Conundrum. Now in its third year at Celtic Connections the format has taken hold and here’s hoping there are many more in the years to come.
This year’s concert, on Saturday, January 24th, kicked off with a simply outstanding twenty minutes of music on the Scottish smallpipe from Brìghde Chaimbeul. Brìghde has a beautiful fluency to her playing, that is very reminiscent of the late Martyn Bennett and is captivating to listen to. Those yet to hear Brìghde play live should sell body parts, relatives or even their pipes to hear her play.
Brittany had the major role tonight and first up was Jean-Michel Vellion on flute accompanied by Nicolas Quémener on Guitar to take us through a lament, a dispute song, and some dance tunes from Brittany. The first half was skilfully rounded of by the twin uilleann pipes of John McSherry and Mike McGoldrick the symmetry of their playing styles, they play with opposite hands on top, was matched by the unison of their playing, as the Irish tunes were belted out, they even got a hand from messers Vellion and Quémener on the final set.
Highland pipes and whistle and flute started the second half as Finlay MacDonald and Ailis Sutherland brought us back to Scotland, with a energetic set that had them alternating between the Great Highland Bagpipe and flute and whistle. They were followed by Galician piper Nadia Vázquez playing in both an ‘open style’ then switching to an older set of pipes to play in a more ‘closed’ style. Both styles had that energetic rhythm that you associate with Galician music.
It was back to Brittany for the finale with a some of the pipers and bombard players from Bagad Cap Caval they were augmented by a couple of well-known faces from the Scottish band scene, Iain Crawford of FMM and Steven Gray of Inveraray. The band were joined by what was billed as the Celtic Connections Drum Core led by Gus Sicard. Bouncing Breton dance music was the order of the night with the pipes and bombards playing both with and without each other for that marvellous Bagad sound. A finale with nearly everybody back on stage to run through some Breton, Irish and Scottish tunes proved a very musical and fitting end to a terrific night’s entertainment. Special mention to Ali Hutton, Steven Blake and Paul Jennings for sterling support throughout the concert on guitar, keyboard and drums. Bring on next year’s Conundrum.
