![]() ![]() Then, aged nine and a half, Natalie picked up the fiddle which a grand uncle had passed on to 'whichever MacMaster learns to play it'. Natalie's mother, who played fiddle music constantly around the family home in Inverness County, taught Natalie to step dance from the age of five. Learning to dance and play fiddle (although not necessarily at the same time) was almost inevitable in a family steeped in the musical heritage of their Scottish ancestors which has been preserved in the original raw, exciting state in which it crossed the Atlantic at the time of Highland Clearances. It's a sight and sound that has left audiences and critics spellbound from Canada and the USA to New Zealand and the Far East and has earned MacMaster invitations to guest with the Chieftains, Phil Cunningham and a whole host of other artists. The brilliant young fiddler from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia not only plays with the prodigious verve synonymous with the Cape Breton fiddle style, she performs some remarkably intricate step dances as she plays, a kind of one-person Riverdance which can expand into a full-on kickathon when her accompanists join in. Natalie MacMaster has to be seen as well as heard. Saturday, August 25, 7 PM, Pavilion, Ravinia Festival, Green Bay and Lake Cook Rds., Highland Park 84.Īrt accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Andrew MacNaughton.PLUS Biography (Courtesy the Artist's site, 2003). MacMaster’s current tour is technically in support of In My Hands, but she tends to cover a lot of ground in her performances though the show will doubtless emphasize her recent crossover-friendly material, there should also be a fair amount of traditional music, and even a bit of step dancing. On the goosebump-inducing title tune, based on the traditional Irish reel “The Drunken Landlady,” she coos breathily over a double-tracked recording of her own narration, while her fiddle weaves a bright filigree above a panoramic programmed soundscape. ![]() “Blue Bonnets Over the Border” features throbbing electric bass and swirling strings–and a pounding drum program that, ironically enough, suggests a bodhran. It intersperses pristine folk recitals with dense, contemporary-sounding pieces that juxtapose her ageless fiddle with rock percussion, electric guitar, or undulating layers of synthesizer. Her discography (on Rounder in the States) includes traditional material like 1997’s Fit as a Fiddle and My Roots Are Showing–recorded in ’98 but unreleased here until last year–but she’s also pushed the envelope with albums like In My Hands, recorded in ’99 and still her most recent work. Natalie MacMaster, niece of legendary Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster, took up her instrument at age nine, and by her teens she was a leading practitioner of the style. Performances are traditionally given solo or in a small group, with the fiddler’s own feet providing percussion. The Cape Breton style evolved at community functions like parties and weddings, and the island’s fiddlers still prefer a driving, danceable, strongly rhythmic approach–stuttering grace notes, punchy double-stops, and piercing, unorthodox tunings–over the showstopping high-velocity displays currently popular among Celtic folk revivalists. The fiddle music of Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island gets its character from the Scottish immigrants who settled the area in the late 18th and early 19th centuries–in fact, many traditions that have all but disappeared in Scotland are still vital there. Best of Chicago 2022: Sports & Recreation.Best of Chicago 2022: Music & Nightlife. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |