REVIEW

Reviewed: Session at the Pipers: Kieran O'Hare, Tara Diamond and Gary Hastings

Session at the Pipers: Kieran O'Hare, Tara Diamond and Gary Hastings

Cobblestone

Na Píobairí Uilleann's monthly Session at the Pipers has become a linchpin of Dublin's traditional music calendar, acting as a magnet for some of the finest musicians who enter and exit one another's orbit with the ease of players hungry for the challenge of new company.

This month's first Tuesday session was a particularly eclectic one. The northern flute tradition was celebrated in the playing of Gary Hastings and Tara Diamond, a pair whose distinctive repertoires breathed fresh life into their instruments.

Hastings is a particularly affable host, his encyclopaedic knowledge and circuitous tales of a tune's provenance adding immeasurably to the delight of the rapt audience.

His plosive, energised style was particularly suited to a pair of marching tunes, which he borrowed from the drum tradition of his home place of Belfast.

As he explained, "neither jig nor reel nor hornpipe", the tunes traced an odd but engaging rhythmic course, propelled by Hastings' own colourful personality.

Tara Diamond's fluent, unforced style and rich tone was the perfect counterpoint to Hastings' ebullience. Their choice of The Drumshanbo jig as a bookend for the first half of their performance was inspired, its filigree melody line revelling in the space they afforded it.

Diamond's solo contributions were characterised by a lightness of touch and a fluidity: never forcing, always gently cajoling a tune into existence.

Boston piper Kieran O'Hare brought his highly-disciplined style to the evening, and augmented it with some fascinating tales of the music. His command of his byzantine instrument is absolute, yet he readily mines the emotional depths of the music, never hiding behind his technical prowess.

His choice of the epic The Gold Ring, followed by the slow air, Valentia Harbour, revealed the breadth of O'Hare's musicianship: his focus impenetrable and absolute throughout. His compatriot, Jesse Smith, joined O'Hare on fiddle for a pair of sets as the evening wound down, Smith's throaty fiddle lines countering the pipes with magnificent ease.

A musical concentrate that defied bottling, but lolled easily in the memory long after the final note was sounded.