Those who are entrenched on either side in the long-established, ongoing and rancorous debate within Irish Traditional Music circles as to the "relevance", "importance" or "appropriateness" of original compositions might just find common ground in Chris Corbett's (flutes, whistles, mandolin, mandola) debut CD - "Out Of Thin Air". Of the 29 tunes on the CD (30 if we count the two different settings of "Out For A Dander" which Corbett plays first as a hornpipe and then as a jig), only one ("The Green Fields Of Canada") is a traditional tune. The rest are original compositions, informed by Corbett's absolute mastery of and immersion in the music and inspired by characters, places and events in his musical and personal life.

It is striking that very few traditional musicians engage in crafting their own tunes. Occasionally, one or two musicians will leave us with one or two tunes. Less often a musician will leave behind a large (or largeish!) number of tunes. The names Ed Reavey, Josephine Keegan, Paddy Fahey, Paddy O'Brien, Junior Crehan (and, from the mists of time, the piper Jackson) spring immediately to mind. If Corbett's name doesn't spring to mind quite so readily as those singled out above, I reckon it's merely a matter of time - and exposure - before at least some of these tunes make it into the Irish traditional musicians' standard repertoire.

For the fact is that, unlike a number of recent compositions supposedly in a traditional vein, these tunes are so true to their own form, so tasteful and organic, that they sound as though they have been around for hundreds of years. When you hear, for example, the elegant and joyful melody of "The Sperrins March", the sheer naturalness of "The Light Fingered Girl" which emerges like a spring bubbling out of a mountainside and the exuberance of the mazurka set "May I Have This Dance?/Malcolm's Mazurka", then there is no doubt that Corbett's compositions achieve their impact not through cleverness or conceit but through consistency with, and continuation of, a very particular and demanding musical sensibility which has come down to us through the generations.

The musicianship is as delightful as the tunes. Corbett really does the tunes justice, with fluid playing, beautifully graced and ornamented. The supporting cast (Nigel Stevens on guitar, Christan Vaughan on piano, Jamie Smith on fiddle, Brendan McAuley on pipes and his daughter Dilara Aydin-Corbett on whistle and piano) are top-class musicians. Dilara's playing is a particular revelation. Those of us who know the other musicians from gigs and sessions throughout London expect nothing less than graceful and powerful perfection. However Dilara has had much less exposure than the others; a result merely of her tender years - I gather that she's champing at the bit to become a session regular (and the London session scene will greatly benefit when she reaches an age where she can grace its sessions!). And yet her whistle playing on "The Light-Fingered Girl/Fairy Hill" threatens to overshadow her dad's playing and her contribution on piano on the set "The Green Fields Of Canada/Killary Harbour" is personal and unique, with a lightness of touch and a sense of musical intelligence which provides the perfect counterbalance to Corbett's playing.

For me, the true test of any recording is the extent to which the tunes lodge in the memory. And I'm pleased to report that many of Corbett's tunes swirl around in my mind's ear, surfacing from time to time when my thoughts wander from the mundane to the more pleasurable. I find myself, for example, whistling "The Sperrin March" or "The Cookstown 100" in lifts, on trains, when absent-mindedly wandering the streets of South East London. These are tunes with which it's very easy to become familiar, tunes which cry out to gain a wide audience, tunes which can only enrich the body of Irish music.

 

Aidan Crossey, www.paythereckoning.com Nov 2008