|
|
 |
Artist Feature
|
| Click Here to go back. |
Irish Examiner USA, Artist Feature >>
Tuesday November 23, 2010
Playing In The Season: Eileen Ivers In Winter's Eve At Lincoln Center
By Gwen Orel
Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul perform - free! as part of the Winter's Eve celebration in Lincoln Center Monday the 29th. They'll be playing Irish music, naturally, as well as some old-timey American riffs and some African sounds.
She's one of the premier Irish fiddlers in the world, winner of nine All-Ireland fiddle championships and a tenth on tenor banjo, as well as a Grammy-Award winner. But, she says happily, "I always look at myself as Irish-American. So much of the city, and America, is based on immigrants."
It's the 11th year Lincoln Center Business Improvement District (BID) has ushered in the holiday with its "Winter's Eve" celebration - including music, performance, dance and food. Proceeds benefit City Harvest. Local shops get the spirit with discounts and freebies too.
It's the first time Eileen, who describes herself as a "very proud Bronxite," has performed on the night. She and the band will perform at the Winter's Eve Dance Tent, 62nd between Broadway and Columbus, from 6:15pm to 7:30pm.
"I love the holidays!" Eileen enthuses. The native New Yorker, who lives in Rockland County now, says "It's such a wonderful time of year." Her tightknit family "takes celebrations as a time to be together pretty seriously. There are some Irish traditions involved, and some very American ones. I love this time of year very much. Being in the faith, it's a very joyous time. I feel that first and foremost." But of course, many of the people who love the Irish Christmas sounds aren't in the faith - or Irish. And it seems that these days, every Irish musician puts out a Christmas album.
"It's people music," says Eileen. "Irish music is truly from the heart. It's very emotional. It has such beautiful melodies; you can go away and hum them even if you've never heard them. They will get in your head; they are very easy to latch on to, and full of depth."
Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Eid and Diwali are all present in the Lincoln Center district event; there are several entertainment venues, as well as live ice sculpture demonstrations and performances from NYC high school student groups.
Eileen put out her Christmas album An Nollaig three years ago. It includes Irish melodies, some dating back to the 12th century, and a lot of guest singing. "I wanted to bring that joy up. Being American, I wanted to think outside of the Irish tradition - I looked to a few pieces like one from Bach, 'Jesu, joy of man's desiring.' He wrote it in a feel of three - I thought it would be nice to inject a little bit of joy with a jig in there."
When she first performed it with a symphony, she thought, "will this work, or will people say I disgraced Bach?" There was an overwhelmingly positive reaction. "Bach was a pop guy of his time! He wrote for dance!"
She breaks out into humming, to make her point. It's irresistible, like her happy laugh.
For Winter's Eve, you'll hear Irish tunes, but also, music that brings out similarities with Appalachian, bluegrass, country music and even pop. "I love the parallels with what Celtic music has done in the diaspora, and the roots of American music."
And if that isn't American enough, she'll also be performing one of the songs from A Charlie Brown Christmas. "Christmas Time Is Here," she says, "is perfect for winter's eve. Nothing is more American than that!" Not only is it a great childhood memory, but, to a musician like Eileen, the beautiful harmony and structure of Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelsohn's work stands out.
Such eclecticism comes naturally to Eileen. She met African percussionist Kimati Dinizulu in the 90s: "He was fronting his 10-piece African drum ensemble at the old site of the World's Fair, it was a world music festival, and we were the Irish part of that. It was an eye opener! It just sparked my interest and love of the similarities in the traditions! I didn't know too much about amazing African rhythms, but it became a big part of our band."
These days, her bass player Leo Traversa (who is Italian-American) works with an African underpinning groove. "you can hear that Soweto and South African melodi bassline running through," she says.
Eileen encourages the band to use jazz, Brazilian, Latin and Afro-Cuban sensibilities.
Tommy McDonnell, former blues brother, plays congas and bodhrán, among others; Greg Anderson, who has played with Pete Seeger and Itzhak Perlman, plays acoustic guitar, and New Jersey-born All-Ireland accordion winner Buddy Connolly rounds out the band. Between them, they've worked with legends of blues, jazz, folk, rock and Irish music.
"I would never want to dilute the Irish tradition, but I have built a lot of recordings on the belief of parallels. Working with different traditions never dilutes the emotion."
Her parents both came from Mayo, and met in New York - a typical New York story, and an American one. "They gave myself and my sister the great gifts of being here, going to college, stuff they never could dream of. Her mother, she said, cried the first year she was here-now her parents are "totally Yanks, who love America, and love New York." When they left, their families held "American Wakes" for them, complete with parties and sad Irish songs, not knowing if they'd ever return.
Her parents didn't play, but instilled a love of tradition and heritage in their children.
Eileen studied fiddle with the late Martin Mulvihill, a "wonderful Irish-born gentleman," who taught countless other kids in the Bronx and the tristate area, she says. Joanie Madden comes from the same neighborhood.
Giving children the music lessons they didn't have themselves was not uncommon for immigrants, "who just missed their homeland so much, and had strong ties to it." Her parents played recordings in the house. Because she learned Irish fiddle, not classical, she jokes "I had no bad habits!"
Mulvihill's teaching was "a wonderful way to feel the emotion in the history." Recently an uncle in Ireland who used to live next to her family on 237th street said he remembers 3-year old Eileen pretending to play the fiddle with a pink plastic guitar and a wooden spoon.
"I was playing air fiddle!" she laughs. She took up the fiddle with Martin at 8 - after dropping out of step-dancing classes a few weeks in and sulking at the piano.
The neighbors downstairs complained about Eileen's foot tapping to keep time - and of course it took a while to sound good. But she wanted to play like Martin: "Everybody loved him! He would say 'Jesus, would you let that cat in the door, it's scratching...' He had a way of making it fun."
When she won her first Senior All-Ireland competition it was unusual for an Irish-American to take the prize. "It helped legitimize that you don't have to be from the West of Ireland to live and breathe this music." The prize also in a way led her to push the boundaries of what she could do with Irish fiddle.
"I just really wanted to learn a lot more about this amazing instrument, that so much music is played on, from Classical to Jazz to ethnic and roots." She opened her heart and listened and listened.
And she went electric. Her first famous blue violin came from Manny's Music on 48th street. "I was walking down the street and saw the blue violin in the window and went nuts!"
The "guitar tech guy" who worked there told her how to run it through guitar effects - including the wawa pedal. "I was blown away with the power that the violin can do! I left that place, I bought everything. I blew out every penny I saved and went home the happiest kid in the world."
She named an album Wild Blue after that Barcus-Berry electric fiddle. Today she plays a blue ZETA Strados acoustic-electric fiddle, custom made for her.
The electric edge is one reason, along with the breathtaking dexterity, that the New York Times has called her the "Jimi Hendrix of the violin." But she's even recorded in Hendrix' studio, Electric Ladyland.
Patti Smith had written a heartwrenching song about her recently deceased husband Fred, and asked Eileen to play. "Nothing violin-y worked in my head when I listened to the playback. I used a little bit of violin and the wawa pedal, and put something down - I'll never forget when I came back she came over and hugged me and said 'that's exactly what it needed.'" She's breaking down barriers - but remaining in the tradition.
"You have to follow your heart and your natural inclination - and still stay true to the tradition. Opening it up a little bit, putting it in a more accessible way, can help it play to a wider audience."
She's played to many big audiences in her work with Cherish the Ladies (founding member), the Chieftains , the Greenfields of America, and Riverdance. You can also hear her in the films Gangs of New York and Some Mother's Son.
And before she became known as one of the best Irish fiddlers in the world she toured with Hall & Oates. She was right out of college - back when she still thought she might be a mathematician.
"I was on the road for a year. It was a hard year. I missed Irish music so much, and my pals and support system." But playing with different musicians gave her an opportunity to learn. "I listened to these incredible band musicians. These rock and pop icons told stories, played videos on the bus; we went to Australia, Asia, Mexico, the islands, all across America and Canada." The 9-piece band rehearsed for 6 weeks before they played their first concert.
"The harmonies and arrangements were tight, yet there was room for improvisation." That precision and freedom is what she aspires to now with her band.
Her project Beyond the Bog Road, a multimedia concert including music, story dance and film looks at the journey of Irish music to North America-and back. Look for an album from this project in the next year or so - Eileen has been researching it for years, and it's about halfway done now.
And her own family's story has "come full circle." Her family has built a new house on her father's land - and her parents often visit. "To know your ancestry as an American is something you don't take lightly," she says. It's a privilege to play there - and to perform Irish music for other cultures.
Being thankful at this time of year - what could be more American.
Winter's Eve holiday festival begins at 5:30pm with a Neighborhood Tree Lighting Ceremony at Dante Park, Broadway and 63rd Street, and continues until 9pm, with events held all along Broadway up to 68th Street.
More information on the Festival can be found at www.winterseve.org.
Eileen Ivers performs An Nollaig throughout December; see www.eileenivers.com for dates and times. 11/23/10 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
