Palestine concertina workshop last weekend

[Dan Worrall]

Our fifth year of concertinas at the Palestine Old Time Music Festival has come and gone; we all seem to have had a good time. This wonderful small town festival attracts musicians from all over the south, and is held in a turn-of-the-last century schoolhouse now turned into a local history museum. The auditorium, where the nightly concerts are held, is a real period piece, with old ceiling fans and a creaky old wood floor. We listened to old time string bands, fiddlers, banjos, dulcimers and the like in concerts, jam sessions, and workshops...and made a little noise ourselves. There were 22 of us concertina players this year, our largest turnout yet, on Anglos mostly but with a fair and growing representation of duets and English concertinas.

 

This year it was Bertram Levy's turn to take us through our paces....a real pleasure for us, as he is as nice a fellow as he is a great musician. Bertram led six separate workshops, and also played nightly at the concerts, on Levitina (a box that crosses an Anglo fingering system with a bandoneon's octave reeds), banjo, and bandoneon. Bertram started out years ago on banjo, playing in the Hollow Rock String Band in the late 1960s with Alan Jabbour and Tommy Thompson. They played lots of tunes from old fiddle players like Henry Reed. Bertram went to Ireland in the early 1970s and picked up the concertina there (a bit of trivia: he used to be the opener for Planxty back in that time). Most of us know him through his tutor for the Anglo, still a favorite. Eighteen years ago he chanced upon bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla, and that was the end of the concertina for Bertram. For the last decade nearly he has been studying in a conservatory with one of the masters of that instrument, in Buenos Aires; he now does more classical music than tango, and practices "four to six hours a day." Wow.

 

I'd been trying for years to coax Bertram out of Anglo retirement, thinking that all that intense bandoneon schooling must suggest some side lessons for Anglo players which go beyond those in his 1980s tutor. We worked out an appearance this year; he was on his way to Argentina from his home in Washington state, and Dallas is a good air hub.

 

What we learned is that Bertram has changed his Anglo playing considerably in the last 20 years; his playing is now unrecognizably different from the style in his tutor. Much of his workshops were about fingering and bellows control. Gone are the old push-and-pull along the row scales; he taught us his new scales for G D and A which strongly emphasize a unidirectional flow of notes on the pull, then another scale on the push (G is perfectly unidirectional in both push and pull on my Jeffires style Anglo 30 button, the rest a bit less so). He emphasizes bellows direction shifts that are focused at ends of phrases or parts of phrases...clearly a bandoneon influence, and something that is akin to the playing of a Fred Kilgore, or some of the South African players. An accompaniment may be added in once the phrases are worked out; he favors a sort of walking harmony rather than the classic Anglo oom-pah. Another thing not emphasized in his earlier tutor is positioning the hand to play the notes before the notes come up in the music. He rotates his full hand to get ready for those hard to reach notes (minimizing pinkie use); this is another clear bandoneon influence, as his Alfred Arnold bandoneon has a whole forest of buttons that are not reachable unless you rotate your hands around in harness.

 

There were quite a lot of other things, which I'll try to describe in an article in Concertina World (ICA). What I can say about his 'new' style is that, once those scales are learned forwards and backwards, one's playing starts to get easier on long rapid flowing passages. I've always been a cross-row player (Kimber's music requires that), but when playing Irish or English tunes without accompaniment I tend to simply move back and forth from the C to the G row, usually so I can throw in lots of octave notes, a la Scan Tester or some of Chris Droney's playing. This tends to slow down things a little bit on some long push-and-pull runs; with Bertram's system you begin to automatically shift from push-and-pull parts to unidirectional passages at will, trying to make the fingering fit what the music is saying. In old time string band music, the tunes can get pretty fast, and this seems a big help. Switching scales from all push to all pull or to push-and-pull) is also good for unraveling finger 'traffic jams', as Levy puts it. Bertram is considering a revised tutor, which would be a great thing. We Anglos are still a bit lean on tutors for more complex playing styles.

 

We also had a big 'Anniversary' dinner out for concertinists at a local restaurant. To celebrate the 125th anniversary of MacCann's duet, we were entertained by very fine duet solos from Kurt Braun on the Crane, and Gary Coover on the Jeffries duet. It was also the 175th anniversary of the German system concertina (German and Anglo-German), so I stepped up with an illustrated talk on the history of the Anglo. Lucky for everyone, we had to be back for a 7pm concert at the festival site, or I might be droning on still.

 

We've gotten to a point in size that next year we will separate into more and separate workshops for beginners, for English and duets, etc. I was relieved to see that the EC and duet players also had things to learn from Bertram, which was not surprising, as the bandoneon is as similar or perhaps more similar to a duet than an Anglo....and the comments on phrasing and bellows use for adding emotion were nice lessons for all of us. I was also pleased that many of the beginners appreciated being exposed to a master player like Bertram even though their playing was not yet up to his complex fingering style; had they been shunted to a 'beginner's workshop' they might have missed that opportunity. A 'Master's Class,' where each of us played a tune for Bertram's critique was amazingly helpful for getting those little foibles in our playing out on the table for dissection and improvement. Sounds a bit strained, but everyone I spoke to thought that exercise was very helpful.

 

Here are some photos:

Group shot:

Standing, left to right: Ron Wilson, Gary Coover, James Barham, Gary Mayo, Mary McIvor, Kurt Braun, Jerry Barton, Larry Magnuson, Don Ford, Larry Wilson, Bertram Levy, Troy Young.

Seated: Dan Worrall, Fritz Lang, Jim Bayliss, Nancy Bessent, Paulette Magnuson.

Not in picture: Jim Durdin, Mark Gilston, Earl Richards, Jack Mullen, Jerry Wright.

Bertram in concert, with his Levitina. That is a nifty little instrument, as it has Anglo fingering and an accordion sound.

Bertram dancing his fingering system with Larry Wilson. He is a big believer in acting out the finger movement, to aid in memory.

Bertram with the festival head organizer, Jerry Wright. Jerry is head of a whole family of East Texas musicians...all string players of various sorts...and last year surprised me by asking to learn more about the concertina. I loaned him an old Lachenal Anglo for a year, and this year he bought a Rochelle and played a hymn (Amazing Grace) on stage with Bertram. The look on his face, having just finished his first prime time concertina solo, tells it all!

A quiet moment outside. Note to Yankees: that greenery is called 'leaves,' and you might have some in a few weeks. The bluebonnets, dogwoods, and azaleas were in full bloom all around.

Gary Coover on Jeffries duet at our Anniversary dinner.

Edited April 1, 2009 by Dan Worrall

[Stephen Mills]

Sorry to miss Palestine for the first time. Can you remember what tunes Kurt and Gary played at the dinner? I'm always curious about the repertoire of other duet players.

[Kurt Braun]

Sorry to miss Palestine for the first time. Can you remember what tunes Kurt and Gary played at the dinner? I'm always curious about the repertoire of other duet players.

 

You were missed! I wanted to do Autumn Leaves with you again.

 

I played

 

1. "No One Like You" (a lullaby from the Muppets my kids like) to highlight the duet's ability to play a counter melody.

2. Bach's setting of "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" to show off the duet's handling of 4-part polyphony

3. "My Creole Belle" just for fun and because it passes for Old Time.

 

But the mainstays of my repertoire are still folk songs, standards from the 30s and 40, and more recently hymns -- especially of the American South.

 

Speaking of Hymns -- there were some great impromptu sings in the hall out of Heavenly Highway hymnals.

 

Meeting Bertram Levy was one of those lifetime experiences -- a great musician and a kind and gentle man.

 

There were lots of other good things about the festival and again it was very frustrating not to be able to be in two or three places at the same time and not to have the endurance for it all.

 

Kurt

[Dan Worrall]

Sorry to miss Palestine for the first time. Can you remember what tunes Kurt and Gary played at the dinner? I'm always curious about the repertoire of other duet players.

 

Ditto Kurt's comment.

 

I cannot remember all Gary played, but one was 'Icicle Joe' nipped from Michael Hebbert's repertoire on the Jeffries duet. Another was a medley that included the American Patrol. Maybe Gary will chime in and set the record straight.

 

Those two duettists were great. Almost enough to make me want to set down my Anglo for some sort of two-handed beast. Almost!

Edited April 1, 2009 by Dan Worrall

[Rhomylly]

Did y'all get hit with the bad thunderstorms? We were watching the Weather Channel last Saturday and saw the dark red spots on the radar pretty close to Palestine and I said, "Hmm. Isn't the Palestine Festival this weekend?"

[Chris Timson]

sigh

 

We had hoped to come this year but had to back off when it became clear that Anne was going to university and term dates wouldn't allow it. Probably just as well since my knee has now given up on me and I'm just a couple of weeks off getting a new one.

 

Glad everyone had a good time.

 

sigh

 

Chris

[Dan Worrall]

sigh

 

We had hoped to come this year but had to back off when it became clear that Anne was going to university and term dates wouldn't allow it. Probably just as well since my knee has now given up on me and I'm just a couple of weeks off getting a new one.

 

Glad everyone had a good time.

 

sigh

 

Chris

Not to worry, Chris. The dogwoods bloom every spring, and there's always barbecue waiting for you. Maybe next year! That would be as much a treat for us as perhaps it would be for you....so get the old pegs fixed and try again next year. And bring some of that English ale.

Best wishes for the surgery next week.

 

Rhomylly,

We had only some mild thunderstorm action on the Thursday morning. The days were cooler than normal, but thankfully the flowers were already out, just as you'd remember them.

 

Cheers,

Dan

ps. Bertram has confirmed in a note that he is indeed planning on writing a new Anglo tutor.

[Rhomylly]

That picture of Jerry is priceless, by the way.

[Leo]

These should fit in here.

 

Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival 2009

 

Thanks

Leo