Celtic Connections Suite is divided into 3 sections each with a uniquely Scottish connotation. The first, Celtic Connections Club depicts the wonderful ambience of this late night club which runs for the entire 3 weeks of the festival and is a magnet for musicians both home grown and visiting. The music carries the listener through the buzz of conversation and laughter to the impromtu sessions going all around. The music is folk, jazz, rock in a general air of everyone having a great time.
Section 2. Fiesta in the Highlands is a journey undertaken in a Ford Fiesta 1.1 through the lovely Scottish highlands. The music captures the sensation of driving up and down steep and windy roads, unexpected sharp corners and the delights in just as suddenly being confronted with glorius vistas of breath-taking beauty which so typify this wonderful country.
The third and final section is The World Bagpipe Championships formed after a visit to Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. The first thing a visitor becomes aware of on approaching the park is the wall of noise – pipers and drummers to be found everywhere – in groups, circles, behind trees, tuning up. Wandering through the park, the sounds come and go – pipe marches intersperse with reels and strathspeys but always in the background, the incessant sound of drums. A magical and exciting occasion.
Musicians: Simon Thoumire (concertina, lowland pipes & whistle): John McCusker (fiddle & whistle), Mike Katz (lowland pipes & whistle), Dick Lee (clarinet & bass clarinet), Phil Bancroft (alto & tenor saxophones), Kevin MacKenzie (guitar), Simon Thorpe (double bass), Iain Copeland (percussion & drums), Tom Bancroft (percussion & drums).
Media Reviews
great themes, great interplay, great performances all round...
Commissioned by the Glasgow Festival this is by far the best example of Celtic-Jazz togetherness that has come my way. With this exhilirating, adventurous, witty and at times very moving work, Thoumire can walk tall in the premier league of contempory Scottish composers. He deploys his squad of top notch musicians – including jazzers Dick Lee and Phil Bancroft and folkies Mike Katz and John McCusker – with inspired skill, ringing the changes from the moderately anarchic to the hauntingly eloquent. Great themes, great interplay, great performances all round. ***** Alastair Clark
tranquility, passion with playfulness...
Written for a nine piece ensemble of top fusion-minded talent, [The Celtic Connections Suite] its rich welter of sound included concertina, fddle, pipes, clarinet and sax over a meaty rhythm section, its tapestry of moods boldly and brilliantly juxtaposing brashness with tranquility, passion with playfulness.
the result is a work that screams genius...
Simon Thoumire, concertina player, composer, record label organiser and former “Young Tradition Award” recipient from the BBC is a force in Scottish music. “Celtic Connections Suite” was commissioned for the opening of the late night club of the Celtic Connections Festival. The suite is divided into three movements. “The Celtic Connections Club”, “Fiesta in the Highlands” and “The World Bagpipe Championships”. Thoumire’s grasp of compositional dynamics and assimilation of varied musical forms into the realms of extended works is astonishing. Coupled with a crack team of Scots roots musicians the result is a work that screams genius. RTE
Celtic Connections Suite is a fascinating and enjoyable fusion of music and styles sometimes peaceful, sometimes raucous, always interesting. Bob Walton
Stirring stuff...
Behind the names on this CD lurks some of Scotland’s finest musicians. There are some wonderdful clarinet breaks from Dick Lee and particularly nice slow fiddle from John McCusker……percussion, jazzy latin sounds overlaid on a small-pipe melody..Stirring stuff
evocative...
The all-encompassing title Celtic Connections Suite by the Simon Thoumire Orchestra is a prodigious musical triptych lasting over three quarters of an hour, with a section depicting the Festival club itself and its fusion of different musical styles: then the evocative Fiesta in the Highlands and a rumbustious and exultant third chapter recording impressions of the World Bagpipe Championships. This album overflows with musical expertise and a great affection for a Scottish musical phenomenom.
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