Went to a wonderful - well, mostly wonderful - concert featuring Master Scottish Fiddler Alasdair Fraser and Juilliard cellist Natalie Haas. They were a perfect duo so clearly tuned in to each other. Great energy! And Natalie has got the Darol Anger "chops" thing down to a science. Who needs a percussionist? I'm still trying to figure out how to do it on cello but no luck yet.
I say it was "mostly" a wonderful concert but there was way more Scottish dancing by some local groups than a person should have to sit through. I mean, it was all very nice but it seems that there are only 4 or 5 shapes a body can make in traditional Scottish dancing - kind of a limited repertoire. It all starts to look the same after a while. The only good thing I can say about it is that they spend at least 50 percent of the time up in the air which I find pretty amazing. The Cape Breton dancers, on the other hand, seem to improvise like jazz tappers or at least they've got a larger repertoire to pick from.
Anyway - I highly recommend hearing Natalie and Alasdair. Here's their duo CD:
Fire and Grace CD
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