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about

Set 9: The rambles of grappa.
Each of these tunes is a pole of my music experience. ‘Valentia Regatta’ was heard from Dublin flute player Mick Gavin in the seventies. Once, a decade later, after I played it at a Willie Clancy recital, ex-Ceoltóirí Chualann’s John Kelly told me that Seán Ó Riada had composed the first part for a curragh regatta in Co. Kerry, but had got stuck, and asked John if he would finish it. John obliged, appropriately, in a fashion reminiscent of the air ‘Amhrán na leabhair’, which was played by Ó Riada as ‘Cuan Bhéil Innse’ (‘Valentia Harbour’), hence the title used here. The following barndance, ‘Garvey in the Sea’ came out of a noodling I had been doing at a time when music promoter Tom Sherlock was telling me of how the remarkable Kerry singer Sean Garvey who, having had multiple bones broken in a car crash, was practically mummified in plaster of Paris from head to toe. He had been hydrated back to health by a friend, a vet, who used water immersion as a treatment for the animals in his care: he took Sean to the beach each morning, wrapped him in latex, floated him on the waves, and so therapeutically restored him to full physical and sonorous functionality. The feel of the tune is of a bobbing in the water. ‘The Verona reel’ commemorates a 1990 tour with the Armagh Piper’s Club that began in the Italian city of that name which has a fabulous amphitheatre built 2000 years ago to seat 8000 people and is still in use for opera. The series of gigs with the Armagh Pipers’ Club, including Niall and Caoimhín, and Liz Doherty, was organised by geologist Ezio Vaccari and musicologist Allesandro Nobis. Our musical progress through Northern Italy saw us play in numerous village and city piazzas and venues around Lago di Garda, up as far as the dramatic Renaissance, star- fort commune of Palmanova, opening up a whole new potential in all of our lives.

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from Merrijig Creek, track released January 1, 2021
Fintan, Caoimhín and Liz.

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Fintan Vallely image

Fintan Vallely Dublin, Ireland

Performer on flute, Ireland and world-wide since 1967
Workshop teacher on flute - Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy since 1986, Cruinniú na Bhfliúit Ballyvourney, and Tocane, France; and Friday Harbor, Minneapolis and Catskills, USA.
• Five CD albums of solo and group music
• Written /edited 16 books
• Hundreds of reviews
• Three major conferences organised
• Scores of conference papers and articles ... more

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