Seamus Tansey plays the Irish flute
May 25th, 2007 by Shardul
In celebration of completing KiwiCelt, I’ve prepared a little treat! Seamus Tansey is one of Ireland’s all-time most respected flute players who hails from Gorteen in County Sligo. In her interview on A Guide to the Irish Flute, Catherine McEvoy, another Irish flute playing legend, comments that Seamus Tansey was among the flute players that she listened to alot for inspiration.
“I listened a lot also to Seamus Tansey and Roger Sherlock. I loved Tansey’s vibrant music and Roger’s subtle variations in the tunes. Also older players like Tom Morris (Morrison), John McKenna, and Packie Duignan from Leitrim.” Read more: Bio & Interview with Catherine McEvoy
And that’s about all I could find out about the man! Well I’d like to let his flute playing do the talking anyway and he certainly is a lively player! Enjoy the stuff below as well — especially the samples of Seamus reading and playing flute. Cheers…
CD’s by Seamus Tansey:
Seamus Tansey: The Best Of Seamus Tansey
CD re-issue of the master Sligo-style flute player’s 1971 album, with Josephine Keegan providing the piano accompaniments. A classic. More here: Seamus Tansey: ‘The Best Of Seamus Tansey’
Seamus Tansey & Jim McKillop: To Hell With The Begrudgers
Tansey’s masterful Sligo-style flute playing is paired up with McKillop’s powerful northern-style fiddling for some intense duet music making. With piano accompaniments. More here: Seamus Tansey & Jim McKillop: ‘To Hell With The Begrudgers’
Seamus Tansey — ‘Easter Snow’
“Seamus Tansey, from Gurteen, County Sligo, has been playing flute all his life - I don’t know how old he is, but he must have practised a lot to come up with a standard of this quality! Backed here by Tony McManus on guitar, John McCusker on keyboards and cittern, Alison Kinnaird on wire-strung harp and Robin Morton on bodhran, seamus gives us a selection of tunes which fully exploits the range of feeling possible from his chosen instrument, from driving energy in the jigs and reels to a weaving sensitivity in slower numbers such as “Lament for the Death of Staker Wallace” or the title track.” More here: Seamus Tansey — ‘Easter Snow’
Seamus Tansey — ‘Phantom Shadows of a Connaught Fire Light’
“‘Phantom Shadows’ is one of the most unique recordings to be released into the trad market in recent history.This three CD set features Irish flute legend Seamus Tansey playing, singing, and giving dramatic narration on traditional Irish music, how he grew up with it, and how it evolved around him.
Throughout his reminiscences, Tansey plays a wide selection of tunes, in sets and in singles, and it’s the finest playing to be heard from Tansey in ages. Once you hear Tansey performing, playing, and slipping in and out of characters from his past, it should surprise no one to find out that his first love as a child was acting.” More here: Seamus Tansey — ‘Phantom Shadows of a Connaught Fire Light’
Samples from ‘Phantom Shadows of a Connaught Fire Light’:
(5 MP3 files - 4.02 MB total)
Fireside Reading:
Phantom’s Shadows of the Wren — Sean Laffey compiles some of Seamus Tansey’s teenage memories.
“Yes this music and the sound of the bodhran, that pagan sound of the drums on this west of Ireland street, the first sounds of the full sized flute coming in and then that would break off and the three quarter flute would come in as the rhythms would change to that of the jig, here the sound of the Eb tin whistle playing a jig such as The Battering Ram or Tatter Jack Walsh.” Read more: Phantom’s Shadows of the Wren
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