Iris na bPíobairí Reviews North by NorthWest
By Kynch O’Kaine
published in Iris na bPíobairí 26, no. 1 (Winter 2007): 25.
I have been familiar with the name Eliot Grasso for years now. I saw a video of himself as a 14-year-old with virtuosic technique and superb time. At age 22, this Masters student of Ethnomusicology in Co. Limerick has become a very fine musician. Eliot’s playing is as strong as ever and his pulse comes through loud and clear on this record, which is titled North-by-NorthWest. This album is a duo project and features Dave Cory who plays banjo, guitar, and octave mandolin
The 12 tracks cover a mixture of reels, jigs, a set dance, hornpipes etc. Eliot plays his Kirk Lynch concert set and Eb Eamonn Cotter flute. Eliot is a serious composer of over 60 tunes, of which a few can be heard here as well.
With the exception of one tune where Dave and Eliot recorded in separate rooms (at the same time), all of the duo playing was recorded live with very little distance between the two of them. Eliot told me that he was trying to create music that was powerful and flowing, akin to the atmosphere in a sessiún where the listeners are closely focused on the music.
For those who have a need for knowing the history of tunes, Eliot packs in a healthy amount of background which, due to the font size, is sometimes difficult to read.
In contrast to the tightly articulated playing of Brian McNamara, Eliot would be on the other end of the spectrum. He is a modern open-stylist with immaculate command of the chanter. The hallmarks of Eliot’s playing are the startling crispness of his fingering and an incisively clean straight rhythmic flow (as opposed to swinging). Eliot’s playing includes a healthy dose of grace note doublings (double-pats, or whatever you please, sir), which are undoubtedly Robbie Hannan’s influence. His variations also have a modern flare to them. Eliot has a unique and powerful machine gun-fire-like cran that he said took him two years to refine. The “how-to” regarding his cran is detailed at length in one of the recent back issues of Iris na bPiobairi.
The duo playing is very tight with an almost metronomic sense of time. In addition, Eliot let me know in no uncertain terms that he is not one to be listening to, enthralled by, or an advocate in any way of traditional music played by bands. His long associations with Robbie Hannan, Sean Og Potts, and Gay McKeon have helped to shape him into the stellar young musician he is now, not to mention the one he will become.
One track that I particularly enjoy is the air & set dance that he plays on flute. He recorded this in a hallway of the studio and it has a very nice vibe to it. Capturing a good take is a difficult thing to do in itself. Capturing an ambience is quite a different animal. Personally, I enjoy recordings that sound as if they were recorded “somewhere” or for “some reason.” This can lend the music a sense of urgency, etc. The track recorded in the hallway has a wonderful and slightly grainy quality to it due to the type of reverb either used (digitally) or created by the space itself. The flute and banjo tracks also have a very nice feel to them and initially might strike the listener with a more pronounced “pure drop” flavour than the banjo/pipe/guitar/mandolin tracks. One of the duo tracks has the banjo mixed somewhat out in front of the pipes. I found this to be incongruous with the other mixes.
Dave Cory is a wonderful banjo player. At the top of my wish list for their next duo CD would be a pipes (or flute) and banjo track sans mandolin or guitar backing. In addition, there is not one solo-piping track, so add that to the wish list as well!
With Eliot’s signature sound driven by his squeaky clean technique, there is never a difficult sounding passage, nor wrinkle in the tempo; and Dave Cory is right there with him at every twist and turn. Eliot’s prescription to the listener is to “just get into the flow of the music.” North-by-NorthWest is indeed a very flowing CD.
Maith thú a Eliot!
