JOHN McKENNA/HIS ORIGINAL RECORDINGS
The John McKenna Traditional Society, no date
John McKenna (1880-1947) is considered as the first Irish traditional flute player to have established the concert flute in the 20th century. He was as famous as Michael Coleman and he came from a flute-fiddle area ie Co. Leitrim and he emigrated to the USA in 1911.
Here we have 18 sides of 78rpm recorded between 1921 and 1937 made for different labels such as Columbia, Decca or Gennett. These sides were remastered by Harry Bradshaw a man of great importance in the preservation of old recordings. The notes are made up partly of interviews with several people who knew McKenna and partly of biographical information by Jackie Small.
Other musicians played along with him : Michael Gaffney on banjo, James Morrison on fiddle, Barney Conlon on fiddle and Eddie Meehan on flute, all hailing from Co. Sligo, Leitrim or Roscommon. All the sets are backed by a piano as it was the custom at the time.
Needless to say that the repertoire is entirely ''local'' so if you are a fan of that part of Ireland you must know about this tape. Great music by a great player.
Many many thanks for the incredible music you've been posting on your blog lately. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your encouraging reply
ReplyDeleteNo worries! I was looking for this tape for quite a while now until you showed up as a light in the tunnel :)! This was apparently released in 1991, according to this site: https://search.library.brown.edu/catalog/b2159740
DeleteTape dating is sometimes a hard job. I found the year 1980 on the Comhaltas site but the notes of the tape specify that the interviews of people who knew McKenna were conducted in 1982 ! I don't remember when I bought this tape but it was long before 1991. Let's keep investigating ...
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