Description
I’ve always been interested in playing different styles of music on the standard classical flute and have been playing Irish music for over 20 years. It started when I heard Matt Molloy playing wooden flute on “James Galway and The Chieftains” and after failing to find a decent wooden flute to buy (it’s much easier to get a good quality one these days, but back then it was very hard to find a good one without joining a seemingly endless waiting list) I started trying to play Irish music on my silver flute. What followed was lots of listening, experimenting, lessons with Sarah Allen & Brian Finnegan (From the band Flook!) and attending the excellent Folkworks summer school in Durham (thanks to my school friend & fiddle player Pete Lyons suggesting we go). I ended up studying for my Masters in Irish Music Performance at the Irish World Academy of Music & Dance at the University of Limerick on the west coast of Ireland.
What started out as trying to make the silver flute sound like a wooden flute, has led me to develop a style of playing traditional music on the silver flute which is very enjoyable to play. It has enabled me to write and record some music which I’m very happy with. I hope you’ll enjoy listening to the albums and playing the pieces in this series.
This piece is perhaps less obviously inspired by Irish music than the others in the series, and I’ve kept it simple by not including any special techniques – it didn’t feel like it needed anything more.
About the Piece
Jigeria is a mix of Irish and Flamenco influences. My hometown of Brighton on the south coast of England was a wonderful place to grow up playing music. A city full of musicians, live music everywhere from classical to jazz, Irish to Brazilian. A fabulous guitarist/composer Paul Aguilera started a band “Candela” and asked me to join on flute. I quickly became immersed in the playing of Jorge Pardo (flute & sax player with Paco De Lucia) and fell in love with flamenco. The Buleria is a 12/8 form, which crosses over with the 6/8 of a jig.