Help: Cello in Traditional Music

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 08:10 AM

fellow residents at Leyton Folk club .
Ticklers Jam used to have a cello in their group,Rob Neal was the player .

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Andy James
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 11:52 PM

The Weems String Band featured a cello and it's a very powerful sound. If you haven't heard their two-count-'em-two recorded songs ("Greenback Dollar" and "Davy") you should find them now.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 04:59 PM

Another one: the Scottish cellist Ron Shaw. He has a CD out - "Whirligig" (2004), serial number RONCELLO001, barcode 880992133425, all his own compositions, some with Rod Paterson on vocals and guitar. I went to a workshop of his once. Rather like Ugur Isik in his approach - take-no-prisoners macho aggression. Great stuff.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:55 AM

No one's mentioned Chopper from the Oyster Band yet. From their website:

Scottish mum, English dad, Irish ancestral connections. Grew up in Surrey, Hampshire, Lancashire... Early influences: blues, English folk-rock, American psychedelia and country rock, Velvets, Iggy Pop, then we were suddenly playing punk without knowing it.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 07:08 PM

Hi Bassic
I,m a cello player. I also make them and enhance them via art and physics.
I do many songs from the 30's and 40's.

The cello can do any line ; bass tenor alto and soprano so its up to you how to orchestrate. Look up a 'church bass' and you will get more insights to cello lines.

In the 70's ELO and Boston used cello but today almost all music from the Dixie Chicks to James Taylor has cello.
Google Apocolypto/cello quartet.

Since the cello is tuned just like a mandolin I have found that gaining expertise in pizzicato technique adds lots of flavor.

Right now I am playing a Nicola Amati cello which is golden mellow.
The repaired damage of the last several centuries (perhaps in the Napoleanic Wars) required 20% of the Spruce to be replaced but we all get injured by time.

You can ask me specific questions via PM.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 02:35 PM

I don't know why the cello would not be a wonderful accompaniment to folk music, especially the ballad form. Don Shirley, a wonderful jazz and classical pianist and composer, first made his reputation with an early jazz version of the classic folk tune, "Water Boy." The cello was an integral part of the sound of that piece. The darker and deeper quality of the instrument was a perfect "voice" for it. A double bass would have been too heavy-handed. My son, who has a rock-oriented band, has used the cello on both amplified and acoustic songs to good effect. I think perceived limitations on its use are mainly due to a lack of imagination. I wonder what Pablo Casals might have said - or Yo Yo Ma might say?

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: TenorTwo
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 02:02 PM

And can I jsut recommend the Ipswich based band "Kiss the Mistress" - http://www.myspace.com/kissthemistressuk

T2

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 11:33 PM

I just ran through this thread to see if Abby Newton's name had been mentioned (it was - way up above - also on several other threads - and on the last post before this one, thanks, Jack!). I found her CD "Crossing to Scotland" a few years ago in Edinburgh and loved it. She has a website here:-
Abby Newton - Scottish and folk cello
Many collaborations over the years - I'd forgotten about the Putnam County String Band (1973!) whose LP is still somewhere in my record stacks. Reminds me that around that time, when I used to haunt London's Portobello Road antique markets looking for concertinas, I came across an old-time string band playing in the street who featured cello alongside fiddle, banjo and guitar - a great sound - anybody know who they were?

Ross

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 11:59 AM

Unnamed cellist playing with David Greenberg (he's played with Alison McGillivray and Abby Newton before):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y_ZWWlGxRM

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 11:56 AM

Thanks Anna - interesting sound...

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 08:41 AM

Wooops - and Guest Jane Bird. But sometimes you miss things the first time around...

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 08:40 AM

Neat. Thanks for the heads-up, Trayton -

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: trayton
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 08:31 AM

I don't think this has been posted yet.

The Boscastle Breakdown - THE BOSCASTLE & TINTAGEL PLAYERS concertinas, cello & stepping

This can be found on the Topic CD Hidden English and the same track is on Volume 9 of The Voice Of The People "RIG-A-JIG-JIG: DANCE MUSIC OF THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND" and before that on the Topic LP Boscastle Breakdown

Well worth a listen to.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Anna
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 06:50 AM

Also, a cello used for accompaniment for singing by Laura Hewison in some more traditional songs and some of her own which are are bit more pop!
www.myspace.com/laurahewison

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 14 Dec 08 - 02:34 PM

Another fiddle-&-cello combination was Thomas Hardy and his father & uncle, who likewise played for the local folks in TH's youth. Near the end of his life Hardy obtained a cello, which you can still see propped in the corner of his study (originally at Max Gate, now reconstructed in the Dorset County Museum). Photo here (scroll down):

http://neal.oxborrow.net/Thomas_Hardy/MaxGate.htm

And I think this is interesting:

A rare 18th century 'cello recently rediscovered in an ancient Warwickshire church is to undergo conservation by Chris Egerton, a stringed-instrument conservator currently studying for a Masters Degree with the Royal College of Art / Victoria and Albert Museum Conservation Programme.

The 'cello, made in London in 1720, became part of the 'West Gallery' music tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries when it was purchased by St John Baptist Church in the village of Berkswell sometime in the 18th century.

The instrument is labelled:

'John Barrett at the Harp and Crown'
Pickadilly, London, 1720'

Local musicians used it along with other instruments to accompany church 'quires' and also secular festivities such as weddings, dances and other social functions for over 100 years.  In his 1872 novel 'Under the Greenwood Tree - The Mellstock Quire' Thomas Hardy evocatively describes this important musical tradition in his bittersweet tale of the musical lives and loves of such a village band.

http://www.nadfas.org.uk/default.asp?section=209&page=3877

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 14 Dec 08 - 02:08 PM

Scott Skinner and his brother played at house dances on fiddle & cello respectively, which seems not to have been an uncommon practice. More interesting info here:

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/scottskinner/biography.shtml

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: trevek
Date: 14 Dec 08 - 02:04 PM

I used to play with a Glasgow-based band, Spider in the Mandolin, and the set-up was a guitarist, bodhran, fiddle and cello.

It pretty much happened by chance. The fiddler and cellist were brother an sister but he (cellist) played classical. We didn't know there was any traditional precedent when we started and we didn't care. It made an interesting sound.

We were delighted to find there was a history in the tradition.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 08:53 PM

And another Ugur Isik track which is *really* different, leading a Sufi devotional chant:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3pOt_QeOF7E

Traditional for sure but *not* exactly folk. It ends up as something like Muslim gospel singing accompanying a situationist slideshow.

Even further off the wall, this interview with the avant-garde cellist Charlotte Moorman:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wiEJdOlgcDE

Listen for the bit about the police raid. There can't be many folk gigs that end up that way.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 08:24 PM

Something completely different. The Turkish cellist Ugur Isik, here doing Ottoman classical pieces with the kemence player Derya Turkan:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fxWD63AP044
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KW7vW_ld558

The related links will take you to folk tunes as well ("Haydar Haydar" and "Kizilirmak"), but I particularly like these.

Demonstration (by one of the great figures in Ottoman music, scratchy 78 sound) of just how microtonal you can get on a cello:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd74ZGJi3wQ

Or try this documentary about a kind of Turkish folk cello (or maybe tenor violin):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=flCUGYW4zVM

The tragically melancholy tune at about 5 minutes in is "Burasi Mustur", a lament for a village in Anatolia whose young men were almost all killed fighting in Yemen in WW1. The iklig seems specially designed to express hopeless despair.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Folkiedave
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 08:15 PM

I suspect few who have seen him with Natalie McMaster would argue that by far the best folk cellist is Nathaniel (Nate) Smith.

At a concert in Quebec after he had played brilliant music - she said "And Nate is just fourteen".

And you could hear the French audience saying "fourteen - did she just say fourteen? Not possible, not fourteen, she must have it wrong....etc etc...."

Sensing this Natalie McMaster said "Yes, fourteen...."

See here....

He was the principal cellist in the Mississippi All-State Orchestra for 2006 and currently plays cello in the Belhaven College String Quartet and is the assistant principal cellist for the Belhaven Chamber Orchestra. He enjoys playing many musical styles and adapting them to the cello. He studies with a local jazz guitarist, adapting many tunes from the jazz repertoire to cello. He is the cellist, bassist, and composer in his local band, 18 String Theory, and is a sought after soloist in the Jackson area, frequently performing and recording with local jazz, classical and traditional musicians.

Forget to mention - when this was written he was thriteen years of age.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 07:36 PM

The best I've ever heard is Kate Riaz. Google her.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 07:31 PM

They used to have cellos in West Gallery church bands two hundred years back. There's one made out of iron in Saffron Walden museum. Here is a picture of it.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 05:17 PM

There's a wonderful husband/wife duo from Buffalo, NY called Kindred - Dave and Felicia Meyers. He is a classically trained cellist who plays reels and jigs with the best; Felicia is a fine guitarist and singer who reminds me of Linda Ronstadt.

Dave is also a superb guitarist and vocalist, and their harmonies are tight!

They are going to be my guests in my Christmas concerts at the Ice House in Bethlehem, PA on December 19th and 20th.

Drop by if you want to hear some might fine cello-pickin', and a-grinnin'.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 03:14 PM

While on this subject, just to say (in the faint hope it'll reach the right person) - I'm looking for a cellist (and/or fiddler) in the Bristol/Bath UK area, to work with on the trad songs I sing (unaccompanied at the mo)...anyone out there?

Thanks
Sue

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 01:55 PM

Pablo(Pau)Casals is probably the greatest figure in cello playing history, and used to perform the Catalonian folk tune "Song of the Birds".

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: fretless
Date: 17 May 07 - 10:45 AM

I think the Chicken Chokers, an OT string band from Ithaca NY, used to include a cello player in their unusually frantic style of Appalachian music. They cut a few records for Rounder back in the 1980s (?), have recently reunited (but apparently without the cello to judge from their Website
), and are supposed to be coming out with a CD later this spring.

In any case, their cello player held the instrument on a shoulder strap like a guitar. And if it's not the Chicken Chokers then it was some other band that played at the Eagle Tavern in New York in the late 1970s.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 17 May 07 - 09:56 AM

As has been noted the cello has been used in stringbands in the Appalachians and Ozarks.   There are quite a few photos of Appalachian bands with the cello.   I do not recall any specific recordings offhand but there were a lot of bands that were not recorded. The cello may have been cheaper than the upright bass and would certainly be easier to move around in the old days.

Bethany and Rufus performed here in Mountain View, Arkansas with her father, Peter Yarrow, a year ago and amazed the audience with Bethany's voice and Rufus' skill on the cello. The three of them presented one of the best concerts ever held on the Folk Center stage. Though expectations were high for Peter Yarrow he exceeded all expectations as a person and performer and Bethany and Rufus added immmensely to the concert.

Bethany and Rufus

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Magrat
Date: 17 May 07 - 08:36 AM

Don't forget Miranda Sykes who plays with Show of Hands (www.longdog etc) is their website. She's fantastic adn I saw them a few weeks ago at the Albert Hall, London.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: treewind
Date: 17 May 07 - 03:50 AM

Right. How many cellos can we get into Faldingworth on June 15th?. Dee de Wit should be coming along to the gig too. With WWW's cello and Bassic that's potentially four...

Anahata

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Rockhen
Date: 16 May 07 - 07:53 PM

Mello Cello will be pleased to hear that she was mentioned, Villan!

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Rasener
Date: 16 May 07 - 09:29 AM

I know Anahata - Friday June 15th 2007 :-) Maybe Bassic should come along. Have a look at the Diary http://www.faldingworthlive.co.uk/Diary.htm

We also have a very good Cello player who is part of Wild Wolds Women who are a resident band at Faldingworth Live.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: treewind
Date: 16 May 07 - 08:54 AM

Greg: a well deserved plug! (CD recommended, really)

And while self-promotion is in the air...
Les: don't forget you've got another cello coming to Faldingworth Live in a month's time!

Anahata

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: greg stephens
Date: 16 May 07 - 05:48 AM

Chris Hill was the lovely cello player on the 70's LP the "Beggar Boy of the North". that I was involved with setting up. It was all north-western English tunes, and Chris had a great touch on the slow tunes like "The Northern Lass". Alas, I have so far failed to locate Chris recently, last heard of in Gloucestershire a few years back. If anyone runs into him, tell him to get in touch. The royalties are piling up, and should run to a half, if not a pint, by now.
(Now re-issued, and available from Harbourtown Records, or all good record shops. "Beggar Boy of the North", Greg Stephens and Crookfinger Jack, HARCD051)

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Rasener
Date: 16 May 07 - 05:20 AM

Bassic
The first concert I had at Faldingworth Live was Graham Moore & Gill Redmond. It was a brilliant evening and Gill was outstanding. Had to be seen to be beleived.

Go to this link and you can hear songs by Graham, with Gill Redmond on Cello.
http://bymoore.co.uk/cd2.html

What you hear on there is what you see live from Gill.

Here is a review of that evening on my website - have a read of it - it wasn't me writing it.

http://www.faldingworthlive.co.uk/graham_moore_&_gill_redmond.htm

Cheers
Les Worrall

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Henryp
Date: 16 May 07 - 04:46 AM

Chuck Israels played cello on Judy Collins in Concert.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Trevor Thomas
Date: 14 May 07 - 07:29 AM

Rachel McShane from Yorkshire plays cello in Crosscurrent and Bellowhead.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Gadaffi
Date: 14 May 07 - 04:20 AM

Dee deWit plays mandolin, double bass, violin and cello. Has played in various bands, inc one with Pete Coe and Johnny Adams.
Ticklers Jam used to feature a cello.
Alan Lamb, Late Night Band, plays a viola d'amore which is sort of cello-ish.
I'm sure someone in Webbs Wonders (Alan Ward??) used to play one as well.
Love the sound!

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Alan Day
Date: 14 May 07 - 03:30 AM

The Band Rosbif in their last album "Bouree a Six" included a Cello player.The record consists of mainly French Traditional music from Central France and a few English tunes.It is all instrumental.There are still a few records available from Roots Records Coventry (England)There are plans to re release both Rosbif Albums on CD in the future.
Al

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Wendy Weatherby
Date: 13 May 07 - 05:23 PM

Just stumbled across this thread - thanks for the mention - will also plug another 2 albums since 2002 - ' Two Loves' and ' Sunset Song ' cheeky, eh?
One thing that I find makes playing fast tunes a bit easier is to change the keys from the fiddle ones, so that we don't end up in the stratosphere or away down in the pits, and they sit better on the instrument. This wouldn't be much good in a session, but if the cello's taking the lead, or you play with a regular band, then I think it's perfectly valid and very sensible !!
Cheers for now!

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 02:18 PM

Oh, yeah, Bonnie, I forgot about her guest appearance on Legacy, Vol. I. Since then, they've formed a musical partnership that promises to feature her cello much more prominently in recordings to come. They've been pouring through some near-forgotten collections and re-discovering alot of great tunes. it's an exciting time for folk cello. Another to listen to is Rushad Eggleston on the CD "Fiddlers Four." He's known around Boston as "cello dude."

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 09:13 AM

One fella attending an oldtime music houseparty last year had brought an assortment of large instruments ranging from cello to various sizes of bass fiddles, and he had refitted some of them in various interesting ways too. But the sweetest one was the viola da gamba, the cello's ancestor. He also was swapping bows around,using bass bows on the v.d.g, and so forth. The oldtime music police were present but he was lauded, not chastised. You just could not deny the contribution his playing was making, trad for the genre or not.

A little cello under a Carolan melody is also a very good thing.

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bassic
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 12:25 AM

Just thought I would sling this back into the melting pot now that holidays/vacations are just about over. Any more ideas?

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: smallpiper
Date: 25 Aug 02 - 06:22 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bassic
Date: 21 Aug 02 - 09:59 AM

Thanks once again for everyones suggestions. Will follow up as many as I can. Met up with a young cellist in Whitby (mid teens) and am passing the info on to her also.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 20 Aug 02 - 05:16 AM

Years ago I saw Lyle Lovett on TV, singing If I Had A Boat. It was just him playing guitar & singing, plus a guy doing a lovely cello line - sustained bowing - which blended beautifully with Lyle's picking. Any idea who he was? It sure worked!

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 20 Aug 02 - 01:35 AM

While Gordon Bok does a great deal of recently composed music, he also plays traditional music. Not only on the cello but also on the cellamba, which I think he may have inventer: a cello body with the fingerboard of a viola da gamba. Not that I pretend to know the difference, except that I know the gamba fingerboard is fretted. Janet Peterson of the Washington State-based group Motherlode also plays cello. She's occasionally been known to turn it sideways and use one of those huge Gibson display picks... Speaking of Washington State, if you want to hear a very untraditional use of the cello, listen to Seth Blair from Seattle.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Peg
Date: 20 Aug 02 - 01:23 AM

I agree that Magpie Lane and Crann are both well worth a listen! A Mudcatter sent me Magpie Lane's Christmas album on tape, and I have Crann's Lover's Ghost CD. Excellent stuff.

I sing harmony vocals with the band Green Crown and we have an excellent cello player. She plays slow, pensive stylings and also rock and roll or jazz style accompaniment to our eclectic mix of trance/gypsy/folk/psychedelic music...

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Aug 02 - 09:15 AM

In fact Natalie Haas IS on an Alasdair Fraser album, his magnificent Legacy Of The Scottish Fiddle (Volume 1).

Also listen out for Barry Dransfield's solo CDs, Be Your Own Man, and Wings Of The Sphinx, which feature some very imaginative cello playing. His new album (not completed yet) will have least one stunning song with cello accompaniment (playing counter-melodies rather than chords) and very likely some instrumental tracks too. Great stuff.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Paul Ostrovich
Date: 19 Aug 02 - 08:57 AM

Once I was passing thru Ireland and in Belfast I heard a group called Cran or Crann. A trio. One them played both pipes and cello (no, not simultaneously). The celloist was named, I think, Neil Martin. The sound of this group was amazing. For me and my partner, an important memory of Ireland.

Subject: RE: Help: Cello in Traditional Music
From: Bassic
Date: 19 Aug 02 - 08:09 AM

Hey, this is so interesting! Sounds from what everyone has been saying that cellos were quite a common feature of traditional music in the "english speaking" world appart from Ireland. What about Canada/Nova Scotia? I have two close friends who are pipers (scottish small pipes by Hamish Moore) I wonder if that combination has been explored much. The Hamish Moore Recording Stepping on the Bridge (refered to at the begining of the thread) which I believe was recorded there certainly shows the potential.

I hope to be returning to Whitby tonight.(Mother in Hospital but stable!)Plan to spend a little time on the Bridge Music stand exploring the possibilities of electronic pipes played with Electric Cello with the addition of a few well chosen effects pedals. Should turn a few heads!!!!!

Once again, thanks for all the suggestions, keep em comming.